Cards intentionally exposed during play

[DrewOnTilt]

What is the general rule of thumb regarding cards intentionally exposed during play? I know that in many tournaments, the hand will be declared dead, but what about in cash games?

Not long ago I played with a hilarious curmudgeonly guy (Imagine you are playing poker with Walter Matthau from Grumpy Old Men). He would say things to me like, "Son, your game is ugly as hell, but at least you have your youth and looks."

Then he intentionally exposed his pocket nines before calling my river bet, which kind of irritated me. He took a good 30 seconds to judge my reaction to his hand before deciding to call. I had him beat with pocket Q [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]Q [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], but I did not think it was fair for him to be able to turn over his cards and judge my reaction before deciding to call.

If I had held something like 8 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], what recourse would I have had? Could the dealer have declared his hand dead?