Showed my cards during a hand

[BWillie]

I was wondering if any of you have tried this before. I was in 4th place out of 9 left in a 89 person No Limit Tournament. The chip leader and I were heads up after the flop. He had probably a 3-1 chip advantage over me.

It was folded to me on the button with A/images/graemlins/spade.gif 7/images/graemlins/spade.gif, and I put in a moderate raise in attempt to steal the blinds. The chip leader in the SB called and the BB folded. The flop came A /images/graemlins/club.gif 7/images/graemlins/diamond.gif J/images/graemlins/club.gif. Being the chip leader, he was playing extremely tight. He checks, I bet out about a fifth of my chips, and he re-raises and puts me all in. I didn't know what to think, I actually put him on AJ right there, or maybe even AA even though he didn't preflop raise me because he didn't want to invest alot of chips without seeing a flop. I was hoping to take down the pot right there instead of getting called ,and I almost was assured that it was going to happen because he was playing extremely tight because of his large chip lead. I spontaneously told the dealer and player I was going to show him my cards, but I wasn't folding. I held up my two pair to let him look at it and asked him "Can you beat that?" and I just sensed a huge amount of tension, all of a sudden his breathing kind of changed as well as other nervous ticks. Basically by showing my cards I decided right there that he must have AK based on almost a sheer gut feeling, and called. To my pleasure he turned over A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif K/images/graemlins/diamond.gif and I ended up winning the hand and it helped me win the tournament.

My question is is this a bad idea, and do most casinos allow this. I wasn't even sure the casino would not declare my cards a dead hand before I did such an act, so I consulted with the dealer to make sure it was OK in a heads up scenario. Has anybody tried this trick on a readable opponent before with success?

[whiskeytown]

the vast majority of casinos won't allow you to show your cards unless it's an all-in - any decent casino would have declared your hand dead -

I wouldn't make a habit out of it -

RB

[CardSharpCook]

It is considered unethical and in most casinos, your hand would be killed the second you flashed it. I bet that had the player called the floor, you would have lost the hand. Don't do it again.

More important - Were you really considering folding this hand??? His actions scream "big ace". Sure, maybe he is just poorly playing a monster, but I'll take that risk 8 days a week.

CSC

[roxtar]

I never even thought of doing that, but I must tip my hat to you for your cajones in pulling such a thing off.

I wouldn't try it again though if I were you.

[plaid]

WSOP rules say your hand will *not* be killed if you expose...although a penalty may be incurred if action is still pending (see rules #6 and #34).

http://www.pokerpages.com/pokerinfo/tournamentgallery/wsop/2005wsop-rules.htm

Since the action ends with you and your decision to call the all-in, I don't see why you would be penalized. In this situation, exposing your cards will not affect another player's decisions on the hand. I think what you did is fine. That said, it could come down to a TD ruling (which can be arbitrary or biased or flawed), so I'd probably not pull this stunt very often.

BTW: the last B&M tourney I played in, I had an all-in calling decision heads up on the flop...the all-in player jokingly offered to help, so I showed him my hand (an open ended straight)...that's the only time I'd ever done that at a casino... I saw no problem in showing my cards at that point...it was in the spirit of playing, and lessened the impact of getting busted (only had 5x BB, so I was probably going soon anyway).

Cheers,
Frank

[sekrah]

Would it be any different than stating your hand outloud?

Can you say "I have two pair, Aces and Sevens ??" Would that be the same violation of etiquette?

[plaid]

You're not supposed to talk about your hand (although you can lie about it) or show your cards or act out of turn. I've see all three happen, and I've rarely seen a penalty handed down because of these violations. That said, there is the very real risk that if you get the floor called on you, someone will make a ruling, which could go against you. At the WSOP, their rules state that they don't kill your hand. In this particular situation, I would find it hard for any TD to penalize the player who shows his cards, since it doesn't affect any of the other players' betting decisions. But that's just me. It all depends upon the floor...and personally, I'd rather not be in a situation where they can make (what I would consider) a bad call.

BTW, I once had a decision handed down that I felt was wrong (or at least questionable). I asked Jan Fisher about it, and her advice was this: know the rules of the casino you're playing in. There are all kinds of different rules for muck motions (eg: cards are dead with any forward movement vs. cards are only dead if they touch the muck), chip placement (eg: one chip rule, any chips in-front of your cards are considered a bet or raise vs. any chips over a bet line), acting out of turn, etc...

[plaid]

BTW, WSOP rule #36 mentions 'verbally disclosing' a hand, which may result in penalty, "in Harrah's discretion".

I might be out on a limb here (hey, the rule is in bold...kind of makes it more ominous than the others), but I'm guessing those discretional penalties probably involve some sort of ritualistic shaving. /images/graemlins/ooo.gif