When to Look at Your Hold Cards
Poker is about information. The more information you have, the better you play. Some information is only available for an instant and if you aren’t looking you will miss it. This brings us to the seemingly simple question of: “When should you look at your hole cards?”
The answer is: “When you are least likely to miss other information at the table.”
If there is one piece of advice that beginning poker players should take and use without fail, it is this: “You should not look at your hole cards until it is your turn to act.” The obvious reason is the one just given, you want to be looking at other players when they see their hole cards. Do they smile? Do they look at their chips? Do they hesitate before betting? There are literally dozens of tips and tells a player might give in the moment immediately after they look at their cards.
The flip side of that advice is that if you don’t look at your cards until it is your turn to act, then no one ahead of you in the hand can get any read on you. Even if you are giving off subtle clues to your hand, if you don’t look, they can’t see.
Many beginning players want to see their cards fast because they want time to think about their decision. This problem is easily solved by taking the same amount of time to make every decision. Always pause for a moment after seeing your cards whether you are folding, calling or raising, that way no one gets a “time” read on you.
The bottomline for a good poker player is simply that you must be gaining information and not giving away information; one way to do that is to watch other players as they peek at their hole cards and not look at your cards until it is time for you to act. Cardinal rule, easy to do but watch at the tables how many players ignore this simply concept. Don’t you be one of them.
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #72
