When to Show

[Still the Spank E]

I figured this was as good a place as any to post some thoughts on the subject of showing hands that have not been called.

While many, if not most, players will tell you never to show a hand unless called, my experience has been that tight, but aggressive players can generate more action on their legitimate hands if they make sure people see those (for me, anyway) relatively infrequent bluffs and semi-bluffs that didn't get there. If all they ever see are your pocket paint it becomes hard to get paid off like you can and should because they quickly determine that you've always "got it" when you bet. If you show on those rare (and they should be pretty rare) occassions when you're playing junk, you can cultivate an image much looser than the reality of your game. A lot of opponents only need to see that you drove them out with an unimproved K7o that you raised pre-flop as a way of buying the button to believe that EVERY hand you play is a fraud. I play very tight and super-aggressive, and still manage to get people looking me up when they really, really have nothing and I have Aces wired, or something similiar. Try it.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

When I play at the tight Absolute tables, I show everytime I have a good hand and it is folded. The reason I do this is that my PFR there is 15 (which is +EV there, I keep it lower at other sites) and I make most of my money pushing the weak-tighties out before showdown. If I had not shown good hands I think they would have payed more attention to my aggressiveness.

[sfer]

I show like never and I rarely have a problem getting action. The games are just so good that finding donkey callers isn't that hard. And in the rare times I don't get action, I start running the table over. The callers return when your raising frequency goes up to like one third of your hands.

[Still the Spank E]

My experience, even at the notoriously loose Southern California B&M's, is that showing big hands the overwhelming majority of the time keeps the weak/tight in line, while showing the occassional dookie makes the loose even looser--they just can't help it!

[Harv72b]

I show when I have AA and it's folded to me in the big blind. /images/graemlins/mad.gif

Seriously, about the only time I'll show a hand is if I just PFR'd & won w/o showdown like 4 hands in a row. Only because I don't want to suddenly have the blinds calling every time I openraise from the button with crap. And sometimes I show after I make a crying call on the river...that's counterproductive for the most part, but I'm only human.

[crunchy1]

[ QUOTE ]
I show like never and I rarely have a problem getting action. The games are just so good that finding donkey callers isn't that hard. And in the rare times I don't get action, I start running the table over. The callers return when your raising frequency goes up to like one third of your hands.

[/ QUOTE ]
This is awesome!

Adapt to the table conditions. Do not give away your strategy in an effort to get the other players to adapt to you. You can't control how they play. You can control how you play against them.

[weevil]

[ QUOTE ]
I show like never and I rarely have a problem getting action. The games are just so good that finding donkey callers isn't that hard. And in the rare times I don't get action, I start running the table over. The callers return when your raising frequency goes up to like one third of your hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wha? You only raise less than 1/3 of your hands? Didn't quite understand that last bit.