Tomorrow night I'm going to a local casino and playing a £50 freezeout, it's a decent tourney, gets around 100 entries, mainly not great players but a couple of decent regs.

I've heard of people playing for extended times not looking at their cards, and of course that famous Obrestad sit and go online, and being at the point where my results have been improving the last 12 months I fancied giving it a little go myself, just as a test of general live reads/stack size plays/positional plays etc.

So my question is basically, have any of you tried this? (I'm sure you have), experiences? What can I expect?

Thanks guys.

Well thanks for all the tips guys hahaha, I built a stack fairly quickly but lost it just as quickly playing blind. I did notice several things that I haven't before a couple of times and did feel as though I had a better handle on what everyone else was doing. I bust out in the first hour, re entered and finished 3rd.

I'd say it is a teaching tool not to be employed during actual play. By doing it in practice you are emphasizing other factors in the hands and situations. But by doing it, you are obv giving up such massive information that it flies in the face of reason way too much.

That said, I've done it. In small games playing every hand, why look? Done it for short stretches many times. One night did it all night in a limit game in AC, never looked all night until the river. It was a limit game. I won $612. So the idea was looking after the turn to see if I was totally dead or had potential outs ... if anybody stayed. Never had to call stack or anything obviously. Limit poker.

#1 tip: even if you play w/o looking at your cards, make sure to peel them a bit before acting. you dont want your villains to know you haven't looked.

Ha ha. Yes, let's hope OP figured that part out. I just imagine him playing without looking, thinking: "Why does everyone keep raising me out when I'm in? They're very aggressive..."

I think playing position is an essential tool in poker. And in playing position and not your cards you can think of it as playing your cards blind. So, yeah it's a good skill to learn to improve your game.

I will do this sometimes when playing at a table full of weak tight nits that need to be punished (or I have an insanely nitty image), but I've been getting nothing but utter trash and folding. Sometimes you know you need to be opening ATC, but look down at a bad hand and puss out. Just make sure to be in position and, as AALegend said, make it look like you checked your hole cards.

I've practiced this way as well - without looking at my hold cards. I think it's a great practice tool, but probably shouldn't be done in big stake events of course. I've learned a lot about position play this way, and also it makes you focus in on getting better player reads as well.

I think Annette O played a tourney this way & won (?) - great practice in reads.

People generally do this when they are card dead or just lost a cooler and want to 'vent'.

I will do this in late position against certain opponents/tables that I see as passive.

Sometimes you play better when you just act like you have a hand. GL

+1

I think that is some kind mystical-psychological phenomenon or something and it's true. Something like the self-fulfilling prophecy or 'positive thinking' mind set.

I think if there is truth to this, it would be less about the mind-set itself and you making good decisions, but more about the fact that your unconscious body language is being projected by you and picked up on by your opponents. (even if your opponents don't know they're doing it).

Although it is a great story, the fact she won that particular tournament doesn't matter.

Let's say with 200 people she wins the tournament 1 out of a 100 times. Now if she doesn't look at her cards she has the same hand reading abilities except for the showdown value so she loses value. Even if she somehow got super good and wins that tourney 1 in 40 times (which is ridiculous), she still got extremely lucky to do so.

i do it in cheap tournaments otb at all levels if i have like 15bbs+
is cool u feel like a boss (when they fold or when u have to look only to find out a that u have a monster)

glgl