Hypothetical question that will blow your mind.

[wtfsvi]

I would want to see what everyone had, because I think it's a fair chance that me and some dealers would be rounded up and shot if I could see the board beforehand.

Making killer reads is less suspicious than getting lucky every single time over a large samplesize. And cooler too.

[AaronBrown]

The trouble with this choice is either advantage would be so overwhelming that you wouldn't make full use of it. The amount of money you could make is limited by how much the other players are willing to lose, not the rules of the game. It's like asking if you'd rather box someone knowing that any touch would knock them out, or that none of their punches could hurt you. You'd win either way.

If you knew everyone's hands, you would be in for every flop; most turns and a lot of rivers. You would check and call your way a lot, then fold or turn superaggressive. You would almost never lose a showdown. This would lead everyone else (if they couldn't quit the game) to check or call until you folded.

Eventually this would lead to you collecting a lot of blinds, and once in a while someone going all-in preflop with a very strong hand. Most of the time you would fold to this, once in a while you would call with slightly better than a 50% chance of winning. You'd make consistent money from the blinds, but that's it.

Knowing the board means you would rarely go in, only about 1 time in N, where N is the number of players at the table. When you went in you would know you had a strong hand from the beginning. You would look very lucky to the other players. If they were good, they would not adapt to that. Eventually the only plausible explanation would be that you were cheating (as you are). The statistical evidence would be enough to get you bounced from a tournament, or beat up or shot, depending on the game.

Therefore, in both cases, you would tone down your use of the advantage. You would win more money, and live longer, by mixing up the play so it seemed more natural.

[cockpit]

FWIW, this is an old question about poker. To me the anwer depends upon the skill of the player.

A strong player would probably prefer to know his oppenents' cards. A Sklanskly or Fergusen could use their statistical skills to make oppenents make mistakes that, over the long run, would be +EV for them. The strong player would maximize his opportunities.

A weak player would do better to know what cards are coming. The weak player would avoid costly mistakes.

[FrankStallone]

jackpot jay??

[Er0si0n]

I'd like to know my oponents cards. I would always know where I stand in a hand, and could bet accordingly. I could raise when ahead, and fold when behind. This would allow me to make the maximum amount possible for each hand, and cut my losses when I got sucked out.

[chrisg]

No doubt at all. In NL I would want to see everyone else's cards. That way I could crush their bluffs, draw them out if I had slightly better cards etc. Seeing the final board is only of use if you are going to limit yourself to only playing the nuts on each hand. This would be painfully tight play and would likely not be as big a winner.

[gobboboy]

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Just because your hand is better preflop does not mean you can force some of these fish off hands that simply beat you.

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I, for one, would be playing post-flop poker as much as possible if I always knew exactly what everyone held. Not to say I would be unwilling to play PF, far from it, but you see what I'm saying (hopefully).

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I'm not saying that I wouldn't play postflop. I'm just saying that you WOULD be folding a lot more hands preflop just because someone has you dominated, etc. AQ doesn't look quite as good in LP if the BB has AK. Limit players suck out quite a lot, even if they are very good. It's part of the game. Being able to see just how much you're taking the worst of it lets you get out soon. You're just playing less hands.

You say that I talk about preflop advantage, and isn't that what being tight is all about? If you enter a hand where you are dominated, that is -EV for sure. So if you only enter hands where you are a significant leader in pot equity, you are not playing very many hands at all. Someone may suck out on you 30% of the time. If your opponent catches bottom pair heads up and you've been betting like a madman, sometimes you just can't push them off. Preflop is where the only pure decision is made simply because you don't have to predict what your opponent is going to do. Your preflop decisions will be 100% correct at all times.

Rephrase:
1) Play the cards.
2) Play the players.

In both cases, you are removing a degree, x, of imperfect information and making it perfect. In any discussion of poker hands, the "it depends" comes from not knowing what your opponents are holding, not from not knowing what the next card will be. There's more uncertainty coming from the other players' hands than from the next card. By removing the biggest x possible, you will be increasing your profits by the greatest amount.

Poker is a game of people played with cards. Knowing your opponents is more important than knowing the next card.

[bobman0330]

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I'm just saying that you WOULD be folding a lot more hands preflop just because someone has you dominated, etc. AQ doesn't look quite as good in LP if the BB has AK. Limit players suck out quite a lot, even if they are very good. It's part of the game. Being able to see just how much you're taking the worst of it lets you get out soon. You're just playing less hands.

You say that I talk about preflop advantage, and isn't that what being tight is all about? If you enter a hand where you are dominated, that is -EV for sure. So if you only enter hands where you are a significant leader in pot equity, you are not playing very many hands at all.

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This is really incorrect. All those medium aces, small PPs and suited connectors that you fold up front can now be played if you can tell that there isn't a raise coming behind...

[Klepton]

this answer becomes amazingly clear when you know what the fundamental theorem of poker is