Opponents Showing you the Would-be Winner

[banditbdl]

So I was playing live yesterday and there were two hands in about a one hour period where my opponents showed me what would have been a winning hand as they were mucking/deciding their action and it got me thinking.

In the first hand I had openraised with KQ preflop in late position and had one caller from the blinds. I continued to bet the raggedy board against my opponent and went it got to the river and I made a final bet in hopes of buying the pot my opponent showed me his Ace Queen and said something along the lines of "I know you don't have anything..." and kind of waited for a response from me (I didn't give him one) before mucking what would have been the winner.

In the second hand my opponent (a bit of a stereotypical weak-tight grandpa) folded 44 to me on the turn against my unimproved AJ and made some comment about how he knew his fours were good as he showed them to me on the way to the muck.

These two hands just got me to thinking about how you guys handle situations like this. I didn't really respond to either opponent in regards to the hands, but there was definitely some indecision on my part I didn't feel comfortable with and was just wondering how everybody else feels during these kinds of situations.

[Francis]

If it were me,

I'd tell them they need to grow a sack, the name of the game is poker!

Then they'll call you all the way to the river next time when you've got a strong hand... [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Reef]

keep betting into him until eternity

[Brom]

When an opponent is making a mistake towards one side of the "fold too much/call too much" spectrum, you want to push him closer to that end. If your opponent is folding the winning hand you should be pushing him to do it more often. Assure him that he made the right move and that you did indeed have him beat so that he continues on down the wrong path. I usually make up some sort of plausible hand that had him beat (based on the way I played it) and tell him I had that hand. If you tell them "they need to grow a sack, the name of the game is poker!" then you are helping your opponents down the path to more correct play.