Theoretical: you know opponents hole cards on flop

[WhoIam]

Suppose one day you log onto your favorite site and discover that you can see all of your opponents' hole cards when the flop is dealt. How would you maximize EV?

It seems like in the short term you could play the top 50% of hands (limit) or almost every hand (no limit) and just destroy everyone after the flop. This would work for a while but even poor players would learn to stay the hell away from you if you never lost. You would have to deliberately lose a lot of the time both to avoid suspicion and to lure people into hands with you. The best strategy would probably be to appear like a lucky fish, beating people with your QTs and 46s. It would obviously raise all kinds of red flags to be winning every tournament you entered, but cracking the top 30 2/3 of the time seems ok.

Anyone else have any thoughts on how they would maximize profits?

[AaronBrown]

I'd play passively. I'd see most flops. I'd fold if I were drawing almost dead, like holding A4 against AK, or if I were a huge underdog, like 72o against AA. I'd fold a few more hands after the flop, a few more after the turn, but I'd probably see 30% of the river cards.

Assuming this game is 10 handed, I figure to have the best hand 10% of the time if everyone stays in. I will fold very few of my winning hands, while other people will fold a lot, so I expect to win about 20% of the hands. A lot of these will be big pots, because I'll know that I have it won, while the other player will think there's no way I could know that. I'll put in a fair amount of money in the 80% I lose, but I should still be well ahead.

To the other players, I will look like a calling station. I'll almost never raise, and I'll call far too often. I'll seem lucky in that I often start with terrible hands that hit the flop, or weak hands that suck it out on the river, or win with marginal hands against players representing very strong hands. It will take a long time for good players to start staying away from me, a lot of calling stations get runs of luck, and no one will be scared when I call because I so often fold.

Id go to full tilt and deposit as much money as i had to my name and play heads up with like some pro for thousands and take all his money. I'd then proceed to go to Pokerstars and win the 500k guaranteed once and then lose a few grand to look like it was just some lucky rush then do it once more. And while I was raking in all this amazing cash i'd be at church thanking God and praying it stays that way for a very long time

[sweetjazz]

I'd just report the flaw to the site and wait for things to be fixed. The games are too easy now for me to bother risking the possibility of having my account frozen due to irregular activity, and it would be more work trying to hide my knowledge than it is to just crush the games without seeing other players' hole cards.

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd play passively. I'd see most flops. I'd fold if I were drawing almost dead, like holding A4 against AK, or if I were a huge underdog, like 72o against AA. I'd fold a few more hands after the flop, a few more after the turn, but I'd probably see 30% of the river cards.

Assuming this game is 10 handed, I figure to have the best hand 10% of the time if everyone stays in. I will fold very few of my winning hands, while other people will fold a lot, so I expect to win about 20% of the hands. A lot of these will be big pots, because I'll know that I have it won, while the other player will think there's no way I could know that. I'll put in a fair amount of money in the 80% I lose, but I should still be well ahead.

To the other players, I will look like a calling station. I'll almost never raise, and I'll call far too often. I'll seem lucky in that I often start with terrible hands that hit the flop, or weak hands that suck it out on the river, or win with marginal hands against players representing very strong hands. It will take a long time for good players to start staying away from me, a lot of calling stations get runs of luck, and no one will be scared when I call because I so often fold.

[/ QUOTE ]

Almost never raise? c'mon you'd be raising for value and you'd be raising to protect hands a fair amount of the time.

I also think you'd be folding more than you say. You don't see the cards PF so on the flop, turn, and river you can see a lot of board cards that would cause you to throw away your hand.

[djoyce003]

the correct answer is to limp in at every opportunity, play good hands with raises, i'd probably raise with a lot wider range of hands if limped to me, and if nobody had top pair i'd bet aggressively. I played a poker tourney with software where you could see cards and it was like taking candy from a baby, believe me.

[ohnonotthat]

agree, however you might want to be more careful choosing your words.

"go full tilt" ? ? ? [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]