Is it worth paying to see hole cards after the hand?

WPT Global allows you to pay a big blind to see the hole cards of the last hand - what strategic changes would that lead to?

Our new partner WPT Global has a curious feature in its cash games that I think would fundamentally change how the game is played, despite being very subtle. The feature is simply that you can pay to see all the hole cards of your tablemates immediately after the hand.

It usually costs the price of a big blind (the fee goes direct to the operator) and you get flashed all the hole cards that were dealt on the previous hand. So if you are in a $1/$2 game with a $4 straddle, for example, at the end of the hand you might pay $2 to see not only the hand your immediate opponent had, but all the hands that were folded preflop.

We have all been in that situation where we have ended up calling almost out of curiosity. We know in our gut we cannot be good, but we haven’t been able to logically put our opponent on the hands that beat us so we call anyway. This is a very costly leak and one which would be eradicated at these tables.

Adjustment, counter adjustment

Now instead of calling a $50 river bet we can instead fold and pay $2 to see what our opponent had. When we were beat we lose $2, but save $50 and get to feel good about ourselves. When we were actually ahead we don’t win the pot and instead lose $2 as an additional tax on being bluffed off our hand.

The broadest change to the games this feature would lead to is making them tighter. We will see less bad calls in close situations when the player can instead just pay a small fee to see what they were up against.

All big adjustments lead to counter adjustments, however, and after a while we might see savvy players bluffing more, knowing bluffs will get through more often and their opponent will be less motivated to hero. This in itself could foster a counter counter adjustment of hero calling more because the player pool will be overbluffing. And so it goes on like that.

It will probably be just as useful and worth the occasional big blind to see what the players not in the hand didn’t play. It’s one thing to see your opponent had the nuts all along when they make that river shove, it’s another to see that the UTG player didn’t even open AJs preflop.

The cash game tables at WPT Global are, also curiously, one table max. You currently cannot mass multi table. It stands to reason, therefore, that the players at these tables will be focussing more, remembering more and making notes more than at other sites. So this feature from WPT Global might prove popular and lead to some very interesting levelling wars.

PokerStrategy & WPT Global

WPT Global is giving players the chance to win a trip to Las Vegas for the WPT World Championship, with a free $55 step satellite ticket to the WPT World Championship Seat Qualifiers that are currently running.

Simply sign-up at WPT Global, our latest partner with massive ambitions, and then proceed and make your first deposit until November 13 to receive the $55 satellite ticket in your account—of course on top of the already generous first deposit bonus of 100% up to $1,200.

Qualifiers you can use your $55 ticket on are being hosted every single day and will give you the chance to get into a weekly $550 WPT World Championship Satellite where at least one package to the WPT World Championship in Las Vegas with a huge $15,000,000 GTD prize pool is guaranteed. On top of that, there will also be a big 10-package-GTD qualifier at the end of September!

How to take part:

• Sign-up to WPT Global through our dedicated partner page.
  
• Make your first deposit between September 1 and November 13.
• Receive the $55 satellite ticket in your account.

Check out the table below for an overview on the WPT World Championship satellite route on offer at WPT Global and good luck on the road to Las Vegas!

2x StrategyPoints until September 30

Still, if that's not reason enough to have a look at the up and coming new operator, PokerStrategists signing up will also profit from 2x StrategyPoints until the rest of September. That means, instead of the usual rate of 3 SP for every $1 raked, you'll get 6 SP per $1 rake these next three weeks.

And while the VIP scheme at WPT Global is still in development, with further incentives for players to join down the line, you can already take advantage of a very generous first deposit bonus of 100% up to $1,200 as well!

Join WPT Global and get 2xSP in September

Do you like the sound of this feature? Let us know in the comments: