To show or not to show...

[robug]

What is the best strategy for showing or not showing your cards when you win the pot before the showdown? Or when you lose?


Thanks

[Rook1]

when you think you will gain an edge by getting in their heads. You win with a draw raise i like to show. or a bluff i like to show.

[Zele]

I never show, unless I'm sure I have great understanding and control of the player. The problem with leaving psychological bait like this is that you may be the one who ends up exploited.

Also, this disadvantage of showing a bluff or semi-bluff is that you will be less able to pick up smaller pots in the future, which is so important in most hold 'em games. (See PE#1.)

[bernie]

dont show if you dont have to. make them wonder what you had. this has a greater affect when they catch you bluffing after buying a few pots than if you just show a bluff. it has benefits from their retroactive mental state. theyll wonder how many pots they let you buy....

b

[rkiray]

I never show bluffs and rarely show my hand if I don't have to. One exception is I'll show my hand to a really big fish if I think it will make him feel better and stay at the table longer. I also remember a game where that was really soft and lots of people were showing cards. It was a very social game where most of the players seemed more interested in having fun then winning money. I showed a few hands because I wanted to fit in, and was trying to help maintain the table mood. I also figured I could use the information shown much better than the other people.

Last night was a case where I showed a few hands. Really soft 5/5 game in Colorado. Two the 5 biggest fish at the Lodge were in the same game. In addition 4 loose passive players to my immediate left. The guy I consider the biggest fish in CO is in the 2 seat. This guy routinely drops $700-800 when he plays. Occasionally he will win big. He is extremely loose but fairly passive. If he raises preflop he has a big pair, AK, or AQs. After the flop he will sometimes put in a lot of bets, but when he does he always has something big (but it can be far from the nuts). To give you an example of how bad he plays, early in yesterday's session, a good player (the only player at the table better than me). open raises, huge fish calls, three loose passives call (two of them were the blinds). Flop 77K, good player bets, fish calls, loose passives all fold. Turn :7. Good player bets, fish raises, they put in $30 bucks apeice. River unimportant, but same betting pattern. Fish could not believe his full house with 44 lost to good players AK. It was like he didn't even think about what is opponent had.

Well after about 3.5 hours huge fish is having a bad night even by his standards. He is down over a $1000. We play a hand where he and I cap preflop with 4 other players in. Then we cap flop of T9rag, rainbow with two callers. Fish finally slows down to my raise on the turn of 6. We both lose to other almost as big fish, when he hits his oesd when 7 on river (he played J8o for six bets preflop, actually typical for him). Biggest fish asked me if I had a big pair, obviously angry about losing this huge pot. I tell him I had KK (true). He said he had QQ, but looked happier after I told him. So after this I showed him I few of my hands. In each case I had him beat and he actually folded (which he usually doesn't do, but he was having a terrible night), and I would say to him "good laydown." He was also interested in the Rockies game but was sitting under the TV. So between hands I would check it out and keep him informed. Anything to keep him happy.

Second biggest fish also dropped over $1000 in this game. He is a man in his 70s who thinks he should win every hand and plays at least 60% of them. I once saw him curse out a dealer and leave the table because she gave him 38o 3 hands in a row in middle position. I don't know why he was angry. Those cards arn't bad, no way I'll ever lose any money with those. KTo would be much worse in my opinion. He is much more aggressive then the other guy, but no maniac, he 2 and 3 bets way too much, but rarely caps, and after the flop, he is less aggresive but plays way to many hands. He was to my immediate right and its my last round for the night. I have 88 on button, flop trips, turn full house. I call on flop and raise turn, bet river. This hand really makes the old man angry. He thinks he's the best poker player in CO and occasionally tells stories of the big games he used to play in Vegas, and playing in the WSOP (don't know if true). He also says things like "You can't bluff at these limits, 60/120 you can bluff." Well his friend returns and asks him how he's doing. In an angry voice he says "I'm tired of playing against the master" points to me. "He plays very tight but very aggressive. I don't want to play against him any more." Thought it was the nicest thing anyone every said about me at a poker table, but was depressed that such a huge fish didn't want to play with me anymore. The funny thing is while I was winning the other good player was winning much bigger. I only won $214 at this table. I really thought I should have won more (even though this was over 8 BBs/hour). The guy who is better than me won over $1200 bucks. He isn't that much better. I think during the 5 hours I played almost all the rest went to the Lodge or tips. No one else won.