When to show a bluff

[adsman]

This hand got me wondering about showing your cards when you bluff successfully. Is it positive or minus EV? As in, if you show your bluff they'll call you down more frequently in the future, (no getting away with similar bluffs), but they'll pay you off more on your legitimate hands? I've always just kept the muck your cards button checked.

I was running really well on this table, (up 40BB after 60 hands) and my opponent was a thinking player.

Party Poker 0.5/1 Hold'em (8 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with K/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, Q/images/graemlins/club.gif.
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>, <font color="#666666">5 folds</font>, BB calls.

Flop: (4.50 SB) 7/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 2/images/graemlins/club.gif, 5/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">BB bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>, <font color="#CC3333">BB 3-bets</font>, Hero calls.

Turn: (5.25 BB) A/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">BB bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>, BB folds.

Final Pot: 8.25 BB

[VTDuffman]

I don't think showing your cards is really ever +EV. I prefer to let them think that I had them beat. On Party micro, few people are on the table long enough to take note or care.

It's party micro, you don't need people to think you're bluffing for them to call you down -- they'll call you down anyway.

[KingOtter]

Some people show their bluffs so they get a lot of action. So if you show your bluff, you need to be prepared the next time you play to actually have something, because you'r eprobably going to make it to showdown, if you're playing people that pay attention.

Many pros say it is never +EV to show your cards because it gives out too much information on your play.

I don't ever show my bluffs. Sometimes I show my cards when somebody folds on the turn and I really had what I was betting (AA, KK, nut flush), but it's pretty rare.

KO

[Stuey]

I never show when I am playing seriously. It drives some players crazy, this makes it +EV. I won a hand in a live game without going to the showdown one day. The guy who folded last began to question me as to what I had. I was polite but refused to tell him anything. I thought that was the end of it. A few weeks later we run into each other again at another game. And he asks about the same hand. He says it is driving him nuts and he will pay me for the information. Certian types of people go crazy if they think they got bluffed out of a pot. Never show, let them dream up their own reality it will be much more interesting than the truth.

[Yobz]

Is it just me or does anyone else think this guy is a complete maniac...your play looks terrible to me

[Stuey]

He is playing the player and the situation. A player smart enough to remember past hands and the fact that hero is running good. I don't do this, at .50/1 I have trouble trusting the players. But I have a bad feeling this has been done to me!

[Dead]

I think the turn raise is bad. He got 3bet on the flop.

Call the turn Adsman, and fold the river improved.

[DeathDonkey]

Um, this would be alot worse than what he actually did.

Nice hand, don't show.

-DeathDonkey

[Shillx]

Any thinking player knows that you are bluffing the A on the turn. If you actually had an ace, the line you should be taking is calling the turn and raising the river.

Brad

[toss]

And even then it would be bad since the thinking player wuold have to be capable of folding to a river raise in a sizeable pot.

[yellowjack]

I'd show it, then never make a play like that again. You're running good, but that type of play is -EV.