Poker Forums

How often do you show your hands voluntarily? When are some good times to show? When would it be unwise to do so?

I never do. In fact, i can't even remember the last time I did show a hand. Most people I've spoken with advocate showing bluffs on occasion, but my take is...I don't to show a player I bluffed them because I want him to continue doing whatever it was that made me confident to bluff in the first place.

I know there's a time/place to show cards either for credibility sake or bluff purposes...I just need help identifying these situations.

What do you think?

I never show my cards, period.

If somebody shows a bluff, I interpret this to mean that they intend never to bluff again for the rest of the session. I believe just the opposite of what I see, when you are going out of your way to show it to me.

If I make a bluff and get called, I turn my hand up in the same way as I would when I am showing you the nuts. Every year or so, somebody will muck their hand because in their mind they were paying off with a hand that they expected to lose with and have misread my hand. It doesn't work very often, but when it does, it is just like finding money in the street. Plus, it is funny watching them trying to figure out what you have, the entire table gets a chuckle out of it and then everybody will remember it for a long time.

At least you are getting full value out of getting caught bluffing.

Basically never

Poker is a game of information. The less information opponents have about you the better. If you are playing a reasonably mixed style there is never a reason to show your hand unless called. You want to see my cards ? = Pay Me

I once folded a Royal Flush face down after nobodoy called. I know its tempting to show it as they are extremely rare, but there is really no value in showing your hand.

Something I do occasionally though is in a big pot when I bet on the end and nobody calls I will make a statement like "I'll show you my hand for $10", you'd be surprised how often someone pays. ( I usually play 30-60 limit holdem) but I was watching a 10-20 no limit game about a year ago and there was a pretty big bet on the end and a player ended up folding. After folding the guy was like "what did you have", the guy say's I'll show you for $100, and the guy promptly threw over a $100 bill and the guy showed his hand. It's really amazing sometimes how badly people want to see your hand. Obviously this doesn't' work for online, although it might be a cool feature for some room to add

Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

I never do this because I'm playing way too many tables to be bothered by tables popping up after showdown to see if I wanna show or not.

Never. No reason to. Like it was said above, why give free information. I like the idea of charging though. Maybe I can get someone to ship me a buck to my account online for this? But really, there is no need and I just have my settings to auto muck regardless. Why waste time anyway?

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"Coffee is best when shared"

I can't say if there is ever an occasion to show a hand but I don't think there is. The name of the game is to gather as much info on the other player(s) as possible and showing my cards defeats that purpose. It just gives them additional information on me. I never take my card options off of AUTO-MUCK.

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ertrauma


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As my father always said, "Son, choose your sword wisely for some day you may find you must fall on it".

I just remembered a hand I folded about 3 years ago.

I was playing on a European based Reality TV show called Vegas or Casino or some shit like that. The basic gist of the show was that contestants were given $5000 dollars to gamble in Vegas and whoever won the most was the winner. The contestants played Roulette, blackjack, craps, poker. etc.

Anyhow, on this particular hand I flopped an open ended straight flush draw with the and made a pot sized bet, I made the straight flush on the turn, checked, hoping to induce a bluff or at least get a bet out the guy. Opponent checked

On the river, I bet out for about half the pot and opponent folded.

Cameras rolling, I started to show, then said screw it and folded. I'm sure I could have got some extra face time on TV, but I really don't like to show my cards unless I get paid.

Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

no hole cam i assume?

Yeah, it was at the 4 Queens in downtown Vegas. As poker was just one of the 4-5 segments they weren't really setup for tournament style poker with hole cams.

I guess I probably should have showed the straight flush, after all it was an entertainment show, I wouldn't likely ever play these players again, and straight flushes are pretty rare.

I actually held on to my cards for awhile deciding to show or not show, during my period of indecisiveness to show or not show the dealer grabbed the flop and muck, and by then it was to late to show it in coordination with the board.

Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

Ok, I guess it is my job to take the contrarian side. In the famous "Andy Bloch Project" done during the 1997 WSOP, Andy Bloch was allowed to have a person (Mr. Sims I believe) 'sweat him' which means observe all of his cards and record his hole cards.

You can see the entire hand history of Andy Bloch's WSOP 1997 here:

This was before Andy started wearing that "hat" that looks like a dead vulture's wing . In this historical record, you will notice that Andy shows his cards on a regular basis in order to make a particular point. It is discussed.

Showing cards online has a number of benefits, but you have to use it intelligently. Cash game players are pretty unanimous: zero shown hands. In a tournament it may help in the early stages to keep the looser players off your case, but by the time you are in the last 20% of the field, every player is immune to being influenced, so showing is useless.

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flintsword

"The lucky player is usually the player that knows how much to leave to chance."

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