Foxwoods, 9 left, 560 buy in. Wake up in cutoff with AA. Raise, BB moves all in. I recheck my cards and call and immediatley turn over my cards. He says "thanks for slow rolling me". I said screw you, I have misread A4 for AA too many times. Beat, he turns a K to cripple me. Weeeeeeee! Of course he had KK..

I do this now, and look at them a good long time, after misreading Q9 for QQ at the WSOP.

We all know that only checking certain kinds of hands (e.g., unsuited hands on a suited flop) is a tell. However, even the negative EV of that one tell is soon offset by wasting 80 blinds every so often thinking you have two pair!

But as long as you're consistent regardless of hand, you can check as many times as you feel you need, although once on the flop should be enough I would think. Surely if you bet top-and-bottom on a KJ3 flop and Villain calls (terrible play by Villain btw), you're not going to forget that you have K3 on the turn?

Just how old are you? This is not normal, maybe you should see a doctor.

Perhaps think about your "paranoia" level for checking your cards. You should be able to:

1. Get a decent look at your cards.
2. Avoid people seeing your cards.
3. Look long enough to remember them.

It's easy enough to accomplish all three and protect your hand. Also, don't feel bad checking your cards twice, especially when there is significant action in front of you.

I can think of a few solutions:

1) Have your eyes checked by a good doctor regularly

2) DO NOT play when you are tired

3) Maintain a healthy lifestyle to keep your mind and body sharp

Yep, I always make sure I double check that one. Not a noticeable amount thought

Maybe you need glasses.

Better to double check at the same point every time, not just for hands that could confuse you.

I am also a check my cards before every flop player. After getting it wrong very first time I played live and embarrassing myself a bit.

On rare occasions with a particularly weak hand I have raised with, I won't check before the flop in order to try to convince my savvy opponents I have a hand like AKs (that is so memorable I don't need to check twice).

wat


That said, I often remember cards by the shape the pips make, suits the same way

This sort of thing happens to everyone once in a long while, as long as you read the cards out to yourself not just "KING THREE" but "KING CLUB THREE CLUB" then you should be fine and this sort of thing will be kept to a minimum.

I do NOT agree with modifying to look at your cards every street. That's just plain annoying and very often you give away your hand when it's a flush board and you are checking cards because 9 times out of 10 you are doing that to see if you have a flush card and not having a made flush. Over time you can give away a lot more by checking cards like that.

After the preflop action is complete, I *ALWAYS* recheck my hole cards, and read them in my mind. "King of clubs, queen of diamonds" or whatever. It doesn't matter if I have aces, or A-K suited, I always look at them, that way it's not a tell.

Although one time a guy said to me, "I would have called you if you hadn't looked at your cards again before the flop was dealt." So I guess even if it's not a tell, people might still interpret nothing as something.

If my cards are small, like a 5-6 offsuit, I don't bother remembering the suits.

I did it once, just a few weeks ago in Vegas for $1100. I had been playing all week maybe 14-16 hours a day, and I was at the tail end of playing 22 hours straight (last day in town). Looked down at 3s5s on button, UTG raises 3bb, 4 callers, I call. Flop comes 246 rainbow. Short story: I and one other guy get it all in on that flop, at showdown he says "I've just got kings." I say "I flopped a straight" and turn over 2s5s.

Oops.

It happens. I check them twice pre-flop, and once when the flop comes, every time...well, now I do

yeah i did this in a 7 card stud game several years ago. I had zero doubt that my first two hole cards were hearts. none. I caught 3 hearts up, rammed and jammed 6th and 7th, and proudly announced "flush" as I flipped my cards and revealed my 4 hearts, ace high, non-winner.

After looking at my hole cards, I punch them into my blackberry and place it in the cup holder or on table next to me. It's only a problem when one of the players next to me is also in the hand. Then I have to remember all two cards, which kinda sucks.

That is illegal in most cardrooms.. you are using a device to aid your playing and it's not fair to those who don't have a phone with them. What you do is no difference IMO to someone using a calculator on the phone to work out EV or pot/implied odds and decide what to do.

What your estientially asking is "How do I not make mistakes ever?" That's not going to happen. Even when your on top of your game you will make a mistake here and there. On a side note, I do soooo much better live when I am well rested and have had a healthy meal for the last few days.

CD

I used to just write my hole cards down on a sheet of paper, but it got to be a real pain reaching into my pocket to peek after every street.

I use an electric engraver and etch the cards onto small, polished pieces of granite. Sometimes I can re-use the granite for two or three hands, but then I have problems remembering which side has my current hole cards engraved on it.

Sucks.

It's really terrible that the cardrooms aren't doing more about this scourge. Pretty soon competitive pressure will be driving everyone to invest in an engraver, driving down profit margins and making the games less juicy for all of us. Something must be done about this problem, now.

But think of the granite sales.

I did this at the final 12 of a low buyin tourney at a local casino. I didn't lose nearly as much money, but I ended up busting myself out of the tournament, which was frustrating. I had memorized the hand I had just had but folded to previous action. I went for a steal from what I thought was the BTN (I was actually the SB), and ended up checkraising all in with what I thought was an overcard and OESD, I actually had bottom pair (fortunately so I didn't look as stupid).

I actually thought for a long time why it had happened after it occurred, and I concluded that not only did I not get enough sleep the prior night, but I had been distracted during the previous hand by all the commotion of people registering for the casino freeroll.

My only tips are to be in good health and with a good amount of sleep and stay focused when your money is on the line.