Do you prefer playing against regulars or unknown players?

I’ve noticed that I sometimes find unknown players harder to play against than regulars. With regulars, you can usually have some idea of their playing style based on previous hands, while with a new player you have to figure everything out from scratch.

At the same time, playing against the same players can also become difficult because they start adjusting to your strategy.

Which do you guys prefer — playing against players you already know, or sitting at a table full of unknown players? And why?

If you play regular you may know how they played, but unknown player are harder to read.

I would rather play against unknowns than competent regulars. Unknowns can be assumed for fishy population until they prove otherwise, although I might be careful getting into a large pot with thin value or draw against an unknown.

Give me well known bums first tho. : P

Players I don't know pose a much greater threat to me than players I've played with. If I find myself at a table where I don't know anyone, I play more carefully, more tightly, and try to take risks only when I understand that there are reasons for doing so.

Players I already have a lot of history with, will mostly be solid grinders/regulars, because they are the ones, who tend to play the most. So I would much rather play against unknowns, since these have a higher chance of being weak/fishy players, who make substantial mistakes. In most situations we can just take default lines. We dont need to adjust to each individual opponent in every single hand.

Any pro will tell you that they will always assume an unknown player for population (a weak player) until the player does something to demonstrate some skill. It makes more money by exploiting right away than it does to wait to see if he's a fish or not Jungle Man has a video where he readily admits this and he doesn't play microstakes, so even at medium and high stakes the majority of the players are exploitable. I've never played that high but I'll take his word for it.

A familiar player can also be a mystery, you expect something known from him, and he makes a surprise 🎁)))
Good luck to everyone at the tables)))