Showing Your Cards: Bad
One “rule” you will often hear in poker is: Never show your cards when you don’t have to. Now generally that is a great rule and anytime you are not sure if you should show your cards–don’t! Yes, there are times when you can gain an advantage by showing your hole cards but first and foremost, if you don’t have to show don’t.
Here is an example to illustrate our point: You watch as a aggressive strong player plays a hand against a tight perhaps weak player. The action is (pre-flop) strong player bets, weak player calls; the on the flop, strong player bets, weak player calls; on the turn strong player bets, weak player calls; finally, on the river the strong player bets and the weak player raises. The strong player thinks and says: “Well I have top pair and top kicker, so you must have me beat, I fold.” The weak player shows his flopped set and rakes in the pot.
Imagine if you will the weak player not showing his hand. Now the strong player (and everyone else at the table) is wondering. Is that guy really weak? Did he have top pair beat? By showing his hand the weak player did nothing but let everyone know that he is indeed playing only premium hands; oh and… he will weakly call you down and give you a chance to beat him. He gave away valuable information on his own play and gained nothing. In fact, he made the strong player stronger by confirming that he had made a good read on the end.
The rule should read: Do not show your cards when you don’t have to, unless showing them will gain you an edge on your opponents. Next post will talk about some situations where you can gain from showing your hand. But first remember the “almost” poker rule: Don’t show when you don’t have to.
-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #210
