Do You Look At Your Cards Or Wait?

[Fade2241 0]

In Limit I usually look right away. In NL, I wait until it's on me to look and watch people while they act.

[BDPoolie 0]

I usually wait until it's my turn....but when I've had a long streak of no good hands, I will look at the first one as soon as it comes out, and then the second one as soon as it comes out.....And in all cases, they are both 9s. When I look at my cards separately, I ALWAYS get pocket 9s.sw.

[StuNami 0]

Like the Carro quote indicates - it's all about repetition. I do the same thing. Receive both cards, drop a high value chip on them and when it is my turn to act, I look at both for a consistent length of time. I used to look and cover real fast if it was an obvious hand like AA, KK, AK - this was a mistake. I look at both cards like I am blind and need to really analyze what is on the cards. They all get the same look whether it is KK or 2,8.Put the big chip back on them and then make my move. I tries the Chris Ferguson move of folding my hands in front of my mouth and "thinking" for a set count of like 9 or 10 but this just frustrated me.Until it is my turn, I watch every player in turn make their move. I still have a LONG way to go to pick up on most of the subtlties but I am working on it.

[uncooper 1]

I also wait until it is my turn to act, even online, using a little piece of paper taped to my monitor. I like this, because I find that it helps me pay more attention to the preflop action. It's sort of a crutch, since a good player should be paying 100% attention at ALL times. But when you don't know if you have pocket fours, trash, or AK in the hole, you are forced to carefully pay attention to the action in front of you, when you otherwise might just be a passive onlooker.Maybe this is a bad way to look at it, because it sort of seems to excuse letting your attention drift after you fold. Ultimately, correcting my discipline to always pay 100% active attention would be great. For now, I look at my cards when it's my turn to act, and this makes me comfortable doing the same thing live, to all the previously mentioned advantages throughout the thread.

[NoSup4U 0]

This is always hotly debated.Most pros wait for the reasons stated.Joe Navarro, the FBI guy Hellmuth uses, recommends looking at them immediately. That is what I have always done because i like to know my cards and formulate a plan kind of as the action unfolds. Also, if you look at your cards when it is your turn, what are all the other players doing? They are looking at you. If you look at your cards immediately, they are looking at the other guys. And at most Im missing one person's reactions to their cards when I look at mine so i think that argument is faultly.Mark

[wakeforest22 0]

This is always hotly debated.Most pros wait for the reasons stated.Joe Navarro, the FBI guy Hellmuth uses, recommends looking at them immediately. That is what I have always done because i like to know my cards and formulate a plan kind of as the action unfolds. Also, if you look at your cards when it is your turn, what are all the other players doing? They are looking at you. If you look at your cards immediately, they are looking at the other guys. And at most Im missing one person's reactions to their cards when I look at mine so i think that argument is faultly.Mark

Beat me to it...I think that you may give a little more away during the one-second glance when you wait and everyone else is looking at you waiting to act. I always glance when I will be third in line to act...and it doesn't affect me so much as that I lose sight of what everyone else is doing. I tend to believe that I can be disciplined enough to stay on the tracks after I looked at my cards. I'm not really missing a ton of information....I believe tells really come into play post-flop anyway. Prior betting and position usually dictate my pre-flop play,

[Tiltinagain 973]

This is a good topic and it's great to see all the information and advice being given.I used to look as soon as I got both cards. Then I read, probably on FCP somewhere, that it's best not to look until it's your turn.My problem is that I tend to get bored/antsy doing the same thing over and over so I mix it up. Sometimes I look at each card as it comes, sometimes I look once I have both cards and sometimes I wait for my turn.This is kind of table dependant though. If I notice that noone seems to be paying attention to anything other than their own cards (mostly low limit games) I don't worry about what I do so much. In tournaments and NL games I try and be more "robotic" and am more careful about not giving off any information.Especially in cash games though, when I wait until it's my turn to act before I look, I sometimes feel pressure to act relatively quickly in order to not hold up the game. I don't know if it's my lack of patience or what. By looking at my cards as I receive them, and training myself to remember the value and suit of each so I don't have to look again the rest of the hand, I can get a game plan together depending on the action ahead of me and my reads of other players. While I used to fall in love with hands as soon as I saw them, I've learned to throw away just about any two depending on the circumstances...at least most of the time! :)Now if someone could tell me how to make my hands quit shaking, though they do it if I'm bluffing or have the nuts, that would be great!

[aucu 3]

Often I look at the first card right away, then watch the table for tells.

[Andr4w 0]

I also wait until it is my turn to act, even online, using a little piece of paper taped to my monitor. I like this, because I find that it helps me pay more attention to the preflop action. It's sort of a crutch, since a good player should be paying 100% attention at ALL times. But when you don't know if you have pocket fours, trash, or AK in the hole, you are forced to carefully pay attention to the action in front of you, when you otherwise might just be a passive onlooker.Maybe this is a bad way to look at it, because it sort of seems to excuse letting your attention drift after you fold. Ultimately, correcting my discipline to always pay 100% active attention would be great. For now, I look at my cards when it's my turn to act, and this makes me comfortable doing the same thing live, to all the previously mentioned advantages throughout the thread.

This is interesting...Off the subject but i sometimes play SNGs with my hole cards taped over the whole way through. IMO you learn more from betting patterns than physical tells and this is a great way of practising this and playing position.Try it, its fun. I've also won plenty without seeing a single hole card!!!

[theresa113 0]

I don't look until it is my turn because I like to look at everyone's reactions and bets before it is my turn to act. I don't want to fall in love with my AT soooted and have my mind made up what I am doing before it gets to me. I found out that when I used to look at my cards first, my decision about what I was doing was almost made already. AQ doesn't look so strong when you haven't looked and there has been a raise and re-raise in front of you. Just my 2 cents.

Totally agree. I always wait now because of all of the mistakes I made by looking first.

[blakheart 3]

One reason I wait is to remain interested in the hand. I want to gain info from the table on every hand. If I check my cards early, I may become disinterested in the hand and miss critical information I may need later. I try to use a version of the Raymer technique stated earlier. I decide before looking at my cards what type of hand I need to raise, and what type of hand I need to call based on the action coming to me. So if I decide I am going to raise with AJ sooted or better, I don't give off any unusual reactions when I see AK off since I already know what my play is with that hand.

[opie 0]

It depends on who I am playing against. If I am playing against good players, I will wait. If I am playing against weaker players who mostly all look at their cards as soon as they get them, I also look (although very quickly so I can get back to watching my opponents) - for 2 reasons. One, the game goes faster, and I want to play more hands against these weak players. Two, I don't want them getting the idea that they should wait and not be giving things away when they look at their cards.Peace,Opie

[pokergoat 0]

I look at my cards right away as they are dealt to me. Then I can watch everyone. I've never missed being able to watch anyone else's reaction as long as I look at each card right away. Believe it or not, there are quite a few pros that do the same thing.

[kingcon31 0]

I look at my cards both ways. I don't find it a big disadvantage either way. Either way I do I still catch the other players looking at their cards. And yeah their are a lot of pros that look at their cards immediately. Phil Ivey just about always looks at his cards immediately, at least when I watch him. Of course you could argue that if Ivey looks at his cards before anyone else at the table, there still won't be anybody who can get a read on him.

[Balloon guy 158]

So it's pretty clear that looking right away is the right play.Thanks for backing me up everyone!

[Scanner313 0]

I think you may inadvertently give away a lot of info by looking at your cards immediately. If you look down and have 7-2 off, you probably couldn't care less about the action ahead of you, and therefore you pay no attention. But if you look at Aces, you're focused intently on what's happening ahead of you. If you have discipline where you do the same exact thing every time then obviously it makes no difference.The reason I don't look before it's my turn is because I don't want to be thinking about what I'm holding when I'm watching the rest of the table act. I want to watch their actions without any distractions. If I'm holding aces (and know it) I'm going to get real excited when someone raises and then gets re-raised ahead of me. If I don't know I've got the Aces then I'm unaffected and can calmly take it in. I can't tell you how many times I've folded decent starting hands because the guy 3 seats down is holding his cards with 2 hands and staring like a laser at the guy who just re-raised. Then when he pops it it's an easy laydown.Anyway, the bottom line is that you can do whatever you want, but if you don't know what you're holding until it's your turn to act, it's impossible to inadvertantly give away any info about your hand.

[Scanner313 0]

I always look at my cards as soon as I get them. Most people on table will be looking at the person UTG or whoevers turn it is to get a read so they will not be looking at me. Surely if you wait until it is your turn to act its a disadvantage as everyone on the table will be focusing on you as you look at your cards and possibly getting a read?

I completely diagree (respectfully). Don't people always get caught in situations when they think nobody is looking? For the exact opposite reason you just gave, I believe it's much better to look at your cards when everyone is watching you. Knowing your being watched, you will make sure not to crack a smile, widen your eyes, etc (unless you have absolutely no control over your reactions, in which case you shouldn't be playing poker). It's when you think nobody is watching that those little subtleties will bite you in the ***.

[myenemy 0]

AQ doesn't look so strong when you haven't looked and there has been a raise and re-raise in front of you. Just my 2 cents.

Absolutely

I look at both cards like I am blind and need to really analyze what is on the cards. They all get the same look whether it is KK or 2,8.

Me too. VERY GOOD ADVICE! I love doing this. As a matter of fact, the first time I started doing this, I won my first live tourney, $500 buy-in Mandalay Bay. Never stopped since.To all the lookers, if I know someone behind me is a looker, I usually watch them look before its my turn to act. I do look directly at the F,T, and R though.