To peek or not to peek, that is the question.

When your hole cards arrive, that is. Do you look right away, as some top players recommend, or do you wait until it is your turn to act, which seems to be the overwhelmingly preferred tactic among pros?

On the surface, this might appear to be an inconsequential detail in your poker game. But it might be more important than you think, and arriving at your strategy through sound logic will no doubt improve your results.

Following the advice of Texas hold’em grand master T.J Cloutier, when I first started playing poker I always gave my cards a quick glance as soon as they arrived. He reasons that if you venture a sneak peek, you’ll still have time to witness the action around the table in time to get a feel for whether other players like their hands.

He also argues that doing so gives you a bit of a head start in determining your course of action. If you look down at 10-10 in middle position, for instance, will you re-raise an early position raiser or just call? If you’re short stacked and look down at A-J, will you move all-in if it gets folded around to you? Looking quickly gives you a chance to start evaluating the options, and it might stave off any tells you might give off regarding the strength of your hand when all eyes are on you.

Sounds like solid advice, and I used this method for a couple of years. Aside from Cloutier, I have noticed other pros who look at their hand immediately, including Barry Greenstein. However, inevitably I ran into a counter argument, and it came from top pro whose advice I give immense respect, Phil Gordon. In fact, in a sound byte he gave during last year’s WSOP Main Event for ESPN, he said that players who look at their cards right away are almost always fish who are ripe for the hook.

Ouch. But if you’ve ever heard his argument for waiting, there’s no denying that he has a point. For starters, if you look at your hand right away, you will indeed miss some action, no matter how miniscule. You are bound to miss the under-the-gun player’s action, and you might miss the next player trying to raise or fold out of turn.

For improvement on reading your opponents, this technique really helps. When a player announces a raise, take a good look at his body language and actions. If he fumbles his chips and can’t seem to get them in the pot fast enough, he probably has a strong hand. However, if a relatively loose player announces raise rather abruptly and drops his chips in the pot from about eye level, you can discern that he likely doesn’t have much.

So which method is optimal? For most players, I would recommend waiting until it is your turn before you look at your cards. Too high a percentage of players miss too much action while figuring out the strength of their hand and, despite their attempts otherwise, they will to some degree give off some information about its strength. If you discover 7-2 off-suit, it’s simply human nature to go into auto-fold mode, maybe subtly moving your hand and your cards toward the muck prematurely. Conversely, if you look down at A-A, you’ll feel like a kid who just saw a brand new bicycle in the garage on Christmas Eve. You can’t wait to ride it, and that feeling will show through.

If you’re looking for a compromise, at the very least you should wait on your cards while in the blinds. I had a friend who recently went deep in a no-limit tournament and, as I cheered from the rail, I noticed he had a glaring tell.

Not wanting to put too much pressure on him, I quickly parted some advice during a break before the final table. His mistake was that he looked at his cards while in the blinds, and it was abundantly clear whether he liked them. If he peeked at garbage, he would slump his arms over the table and restlessly wait for the action to get to him so he could fold. If he liked what he saw, he would tuck his cards firmly into the rail and his body language assumed a fighting disposition, as if to say, “Bring it on.”

I could see other players eyeing him intently when he had the big blind and they were in late position. If he slumped over, they attacked him relentlessly. If he perked up alertly, they were careful.

An advanced glance in the big blind might also cost you when your opponent bluffs or raises from the small blind. If you already know you have A-K suited and you announce raise in a millisecond after your opponent drops chips in the pot, your rapid response is going to let him know you’ve got a monster.

When it comes to looking at your hole cards, the waiting might be the hardest part. But have a little patience, and you’ll be glad you did.