Showing your cards sometimes pays off

I was reading an article which was pasted onto this forum earlier and came across some advice that I didnt really agree with. The article said:

''NEVER SHOW YOUR HAND if you don’t have to. If you win the pot because everyone else folded you are under no obligation to show your cards. You don’t want to give away any information about yourself if you don’t have to And player who turn over their cards when they don’t have to are doing just that.''

I often come across articles and books which agree with this, but it seems really stupid to not take advantage of the situation and show cards sometimes when it will help you. For example, I was in the $20,000 freeroll today on Bet365 and caught a 2 7 offsuit on the big blind. The flop didnt help, and on the turn i sensed some serious weakness from the other 2 players in the pot based on their checks on the flop. I raised a mediocre amount and they both quickly folded, so I turned over my 2 7 offsuit which hadnt hit a thing. The next hand I caught pocket Aces. Knowing that everyone had seen my bluff the hand before, I went all in when a few players called the blinds. This worked perfectly because the guy who I had bluffed the hand before called the all-in with a K 8 suited. He obviously thought I had nothing because of the way that I played the hand before. I doubled up, and I dont think there is any way I would have won as much as I did on that hand had I not shown my cards on the hand before.

So dont think that you should never show your hand if you dont have to. It can work to your advantage in some situations.

It's nowhere near as big a deal online as it is in live games. In live games, showing gives unneccesary information to your opponents and allows them to pick up on any possible tells. Online you could dance around your room chanting "HAR HAR I'M BLUFFING" and nobody would know. As long as you know you're going to get more action because you've shown a bluff, it's fine, and if you can tilt someone by showing, even better.

Whoever called you with K8s is an idiot anyway, as even if I think you're bluffing I'm not calling preflop and staking my tournament on a less-than-marginal hand.

I must agree on this. He was stupid for going with that hand. And you had a bit of luck for getting a good hand after that 7 2 .
If it doesn't work this move can be very dangerous for you. The other players will know that you bluff from time to time and you give them a very good chance to knock you out from the tounement.

I disagree Dorkus...

I do NOT show my hands while playing live except in one circumstance...playing heads up.

If you show a bluff after you win a pot while playing a heads-up match, or going for the top money in a tournament, you can have a great deal of impact in putting your opponent on tilt.

A recent example of this in my own poker games was in a live heads-up match with a guy who I don't like very much...you could call it a grudge match. I was down chips by a 4:1 margin (he had 4 times as many chips as I did). Within the next 6 or 7 hands I went all-in twice after the river with a queen high one hand and an unpaired 87 offsuit on a dangerous board while sensing weakness and he folded both times.

I showed these hands to him and each time he got a little angrier, the second time he could not believe I put all of my chips in with absolutely nothing (8 high basically).

Two hands after the 87 bluff and show I picked up AA off the button. I checked preflop and checked on a board when an ace hit. I called his bet. On the turn I bet out and he raised...I called. On the river I pushed all-in as I had done several times in the hands before. He thought for a minute and finally called, showing bottom pair... I turned over my aces and raked in a huge pot. I busted him the very next hand.

I DO NOT recommend showing your cards...however, I believe that heads-up at the end of a torunament or after a while of sparring in a heads-up match showing your cards has 'advertising' benefit.

I may have made it unclear, but he wasn't all-in, I was. He had about double my stack so he wasnt really putting his entire tournament on the line.

Of course I had luck in getting a good hand next, but it probably would have also worked if I had gotten it 5 hands later. I disagree with the dangerous part because I am not much of a bluffer. I had been waiting for a time like that to show an absolute bluff to make them think that I play differently than I really do. It completely changed my table image from the tight player that I actually am to someone who doesnt care about the thourney and wouldnt mind giving up my chips.

The worst that could have happened would be that someone called and I lost a small part of my chip stack. I would not have mucked my hand, giving me the same table image that showing my bluff did.

Nah, it was clear, I meant to add "unless you were very short-stacked" to my last post, but it's still a terrible call for half of his stack.

Then we don't really disagree - perhaps my post wasn't clear, but by "It's nowhere near as much of a deal online as in live games" I too was discouraging the showing of hands live, and like I said one of the situations it may be beneficial is if you feel your opponent will tilt as a result. This is, as you said and I neglected to mention, more beneficial heads-up or at least short handed, as you have fewer non-tilted opponents you're handing free information out to.

Online and Face to Face showing is alot different i would say. Online its pretty hard to get really clear reads. So sometimes showing isn't that bad, but face to face showing a bluffed hand could be bad, even showing that you had it can be bad. But i think a good general rule is not to show.

I find that sometimes showing you hands works against a specific player. If someone is easily agitated at losing big pots then it can work to your advantage to show them they threw away the winning hand and just sit back and let their emotion throw away their chips. Another advantage is that if you show a complete bluff you can sometimes get a good hand directly after that pot, thus allowing you to bet big as opponents will think you are bluffing again.

Hindsight is 20/20. Its easy to say 'he should have folded' after seeing that I had the best hand. I'm sure we have all called someone without a great hand because we think they are bluffing, and usually they are. I called someone all in yesterday with Q J and like I thought, they had crap: J 6. I'm sure he thought his hand was the best hand, and even though it was a stupid move on his part, i'm sure he was tilting just a little

Guilty for calling when I shouldn't, sometimes with a player you just have to see what cards they were holding, especially if it goes right to the river - probably the reason I'm still a novice at this game, have to control my emotions!!

Are you saying with the roles reversed you call in this situation?

Your hand has nothing to do with it. Against most of a random selection of hands K8s would only be a slight favourite, and if he's a decent player he's asking himself "Why is this guy pushing into three other players now right after showing a bluff?" Unless he reads you as an incredibly bad player, he must assume you have a hand, as trying to bluff more than one or two players is often suicide.

Though without an exact hand history it's hard to say exactly how bad a call it was, but I maintain it was terrible.

That's really funny, because the other day the exact same situation arose for me in a cash game. I had 2/7 os and bluffed 2 players the next hand I caught AA and took down a decent pot! So I second the showing notion crippler, but only if I'm not getting enough action on my good hands will I start showing bluffs.

i sometimes jus like to show off my good hands just so i kan pull off a couple of bluffs later on!