blonde poker forum

Given the fact that you have enough chips to do so, do you think that there are any advantages to raising 'in the dark' before the flop in a tourney, bearing in mind that you're playing a pot in which you're heads-up?

'in the dark' = without lookiing?

Why would you even want too?

Yeah, without looking. I have seen it been done a few times and have never understood the logic, was hoping someone could enlighten me..

cant see why you'd even want to tbh, its of no benefit unless you want to look really chatty when you win  ala El Blondie :D

There are two main reasons why people do this (I think)

1) To loosen up a tight table (more commonly used in cash games). Player will be more likely to call/raise you, which warms up their 'moving chips forward' arm.

2) To cultivate an aura of unpredictability/arrogance. Again, you're hoping to reap rewards later when your opponents will, maybe only subconciously, think of you as a bluffer/loose cannon.

There are times when I'd think of raising no matter what cards I held, but i'd always look for 2 reasons:

1) I might have a monster and want to slow play.

2) If the opponent knows I haven't looked at my cards yet they have a pretty easy mathematical decision whether or not to play.

early on in reuy comps this is good... big pots are made! i normally double the blind from utg!

Peter Costa does thisin the upcoming willhill gp, and he also said he did it in the wpt championships...

Do you mean anouncing you are raising blind or just doing it sneakily?

A good example of this was on my table at the blonde bash

M3boy v Simon Nowab being new to poker i thought what the hell is going on here, but fun to watch, good lighted humour.

No you make sure the table knows!

just don't let them know when you start to play properly again... it makes big pots and creates a gamblin table image for you! and its a bit of fun!

Nah i don't do that but i do raise in position without looking :D

Darn good point by Bongo.
There are times when you should raise with any two in a tournament. When I'm in this spot though, I'll always go through the charade of looking at my cards so the opponents aren't encouraged to call.

I look at them and then reach straight for my chips, clear sign of strength :D

;chieften; makes another mental note.

if I am in the sb and its folded to me and have a 10-1 or more lead against the bb I automaticallly put him allin without looking. I also generally flat call from the sb without looking with 6-1 or above. Also if I am very short stacked. at the £100 tourney at the Broardway I lost  a big pot on the river and was sb next leaving me only 400 over the bb so I went all in blind not much choice really.

I use this in cash games when UTG. It's called a live straddle. It loosens the table up massively if the right cards are dealt.

In tourneys I doubt I'd use it although I do see an advantage with checking the flop in the dark.

Just ask Simon Nowab about the perils of raising in the dark in a tourney  :D

Blonde Bash, he was raising my BB in the Dark - ran into KK ooops :)

(I must add, top bloke and always a pleasure to play on the same table as him)