twizzybop said:
When everyone folds to the small blind and then the small blind shows thier cards especially when they are rag cards or premium cards. What really is the purpose of/or strategy really in that?
Ah wow this is a good discussion point. Showing cards to someone HAS to have a reason. Not just pre-flop but at any stage of a game.
Case point, a good freind of mine got (Dave) hammered in a home game a few months back and I gave him a good collection of books and told him to "play by the book" for a while. Good advise, but when you know someone is playing by the book they become a target.
So last month Dave was getting great cards and was chip leader at my table, I was a close second when it happened. I bluffed the guy with pure rags, after calling a pre-flop raise and him leading the hand I put him all in on the river when the board paired. So I said what the heck and showed him the rags.
WOW the reaction was amazing, he tilted so hard he nearly fell off the table. It was amazing, I never figured that you could get such a reaction from "just" showing cards.
Last night, same guy opposite situation (not against me). Dave showed rags to the table after taking down a big pot on rags. But it didnt work out, the table figgured his game, his raises were no longer respected, so when Dave raised, people NEVER gave him respect for a big hand.
The moral of the story ? If you are going to show cards do it for a reason. Why show AA if you min raise from the SB pre-flop what does it achieve ? If you have a reason, by all means go ahead and show, otherwise just dont bother, because you are giving the decent players at the table a free insite into your thinking.