something im doing almost always now...

[emerson]

[ QUOTE ]
"Out of curiosity, are you making it obvious to your opponents that you have not looked at the flop"

yes. it gives the impression of being even more action than i am. put another way: im action, but not anywhere as action as i seem. bad players cant tell the difference though.

[/ QUOTE ]

The players will have to be pretty bad. Against a decent player you are simply betting without information with a hand that figures to be worse than your opponent's, on average. Any hand that can call two bets cold is generally better than the hand of the raiser, unless the caller is really weak. Put yourself in your opponent's place. What a world of opportunities you open up for him when you play this way. The player with the greater amount of information upon which to base his decision has a huge edge. If you have to bet dark, and I get to see your action AND look at three cards before I act, you simply can't win.

[elindauer]

[ QUOTE ]
"Out of curiosity, are you making it obvious to your opponents that you have not looked at the flop"

yes. it gives the impression of being even more action than i am. put another way: im action, but not anywhere as action as i seem. bad players cant tell the difference though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very smart. In this case I really like it. This seems consistent with your raising other marginal hands preflop (different thread) where the "best" play might be to limp but you give up very little while promoting a terrifying aggressive image that keeps the passives checking and calling. Cool.

-Eric