How often will you find yourself playing other players more than playing your own cards? Meaning, will you play against someone all the way to the river just because you want to see how he/she bets his/her own cards? Or will you fold if you know that person has you beat and you don't need to see the posturing? I guess the real question is whether you like to rely on your instinct of reading people or your gut instincts of your card's percentage of winning?

I play my cards more than the player, cause I usually play online and I multi table 5-6 tables so I play my cards more than the player. But, if I play live I tend to really see what cards they turn over when I am not in the pot. I will call some one down if I feel I am beat, if it is cheap enough to see what they are holding.

But sometimes online if I play like one or two tables and I am seeing someone in everypot betting loosley. Then I catch a playable hand in comparison to what he has been turning over. Then I just let him bury himself with all of his loose betting post flop.

Like if a loose player raises and I have 55 and the flop comes T4T. I check he bets, ok come on that is a hard sell the way he has been playing. I am gonna check raise his ass. So that is a little instinctual. Also I love when you incounter a fairly tight player who plays fair at best. I have AQ in middle position I raise, person calls. Flop comes like 572, I check, person bets, I call. Turn comes like 9, I check, he bets. Now just for some reason you get that feeling in your gut that your ace high is good. You just call. River a duece, I check, he either checks cause he doesnt want to invest or he bets and you feel he didnt improve. When you make that call and you see he has like KQ or something along those lines. It feels good when your read was right.

Thanks
HDYCT

Yeah, I call some down too, if it isn't going to cost me much. When playing live, I find, for myself anyways, that it is much more about the player than the cards about half the time. So it pays in the long run to lose a little bit, to see what cards the players are holding and comparing that to how they played the hand.

Online, the only option is to really play the cards. Avatars don't give much away in terms of tells or reactions.

It depends- if I am playing with friends and don't have much to lose, I will play more against the other players. If I am playing for any real amount of money, I try to play the cards.

I am actually somewhat the opposite, because I will find myself playing the cards when I am with friends because they know me fairly well and they know I will try to read them. When I'm with players I do not know about, then I will try and play them because most people will rely on their cards to do the dirty work for them rather than posture and bet against players rather than cards. I will try to be unique at the table and play the players as I learn what they play with, and keep them guessing.

I like to play my cards more than people, however I find myself playing people more as the game goes on. Early on I like to make sure I win, but I also really like to play so I'll go a bit crazy and play bad hands betting the others will back down if I apply force.

Again with most of Poker I think it's a case by player bases, if you can get away with it you do it, if not you play it safe.

Online I dont play against players unless I've been playing with them for a long while, when I'm in the casino I often try to read players.

If I don't feel like thinking hard I just play my cards. If I am in a contemplative mood I play the players. If I was smart I'd do both.