This is topic that's come up and I've stayed away from it.

Personally, regarding online poker- dumb.

It's obnoxious, IMO. If you had shit, it's a juvenile display of a bluff that WILL bite you in the ass. When you semi-bluff and hit, it'll scare people. But when they don't call, there's no reason. If you think it's gonna get you more action later when you want it, nuh-uh. Whether you have crap or not, people notice if you're aggressive or not and maintaining mystery is the key to aggression. Online, you have an auto-muck. It's a great excuse. "I don't wanna hold up the game."

Now showing good cards is equally obnoxious, but only pre-flop. That "I read poker books. I know what I'm doing." snobbery that comes across is the ugliest thing in a player at the table and if you think it's keeping aggressive players away- nuh-uh. I gun for these people every time I have position because the majority of these book-idiots can't play postflop. And if you're a good postflop player, you take away from that by taking mystery away. If you think that this allows you to open up- nuh-uh. You're setting yourself up to get trapped because it can easily send the message that you love 2 cards and you do, you marry them.

Live, I'll show periodically, when I see that someone's made a really tough laydown as a social gesture. I am a pretty nice guy and I love to laugh and make others laugh. To put someone through that agony and muck rubs salt in the wound, so if you're gonna do it, be ready to go to war. If I'm willing, yeah, I'll muck.

Just a rant. i have a ton more to say, but that's my general thought. I know others think differently, but I think there's something megalomanical about overrating your importance online. In the long term, I think it only bites you in the ass. I'll tell people what I had at times and won't lie (about 95% of the time). I do it live all the time, but ONLY talking about it and doing it a lot adds to the mystery.

So many people are not gonna notice it and in the database age of poker, do you really want your opponent having more info? It's enough that you can't muck a losing hand anymore. That's ridiculous.

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I will show my cards but I will NEVER show a bluff. If I'm bluffing someone, I don't want them to know. What I like to show is my strong hands, and I do this because I'm a very aggressive player who would rather take down pots without a fight. If I've been on a raising frenzy for a little while and no one has played back at me, I'll make sure to show the table a couple of my good hands. I find it's a good way to remain aggressive without pissing off the rest of the table. I don't want someone to get fed up with me and have them start pushing back. Of course a good player is going to do this anyways but more often than not you will scare the weak players enough to continue pushing them around.

I think both strategies can work dependent on your play.

I like to steal lots of blinds in a row shorthanded and then getting the bullets. Here I'd rather not show my garbage hands since I want to get called or raised when I have the bullets and not before that.

On the opposite if you get lots of good hands and steal the blinds, you might want to show them, so that later when your great card run stops, you have a better chance of stealing with bad hands. I wouldn't do it myself, but I've seen people do it and it's not unreasonable imo. I'll definitely put those players into the TAG category, which they could use to their advantage.

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ICM / EV Calculator and other free poker software

And that's exactly why I like to show my strong hands. I want the table to think I'm a TAG player who is catching a lot of cards when in reality I'm just LAG.

I showed my strong hands for a while but have stopped now, the reason is that everytime you show a strong hand people get that info on you and when you don't show a winning hand they'll assume it was a bluff that you didn't want to show.

Either way your giving more info away than you need to. Most people at the table wont notice or care anyway.

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Bad Beat of the week 27/08/2006:

:kh :jd

Flop - :jc :3s :6d I raise 2/3 pot, Villian calls.

Turn :kd - I raise to put villian all in, he calls

he flips over :4d :4s :eek:

River :4c :rant: :mad: :rant: :eek:

I see your point but you must realise that the only information I'm giving away is the information that I want to. By showing down uncalled strong hands I'm creating a TAG image (which is exactly what I want.) I want my opponents to fear my raises. If I were to constantly raise but not show down anything, my raises would begin to gain less and less respect from my opponents as they will start to perceive me as a blind stealing thief (which I am.)

Consider this...
If I were to raise 20 hands in a row and all my opponents folded everytime, what would you do when I raised you that 21st time? You would probably re-raise me with almost any 2 cards.

Now, if I were to raise 20 hands in a row but showed you A's 15 out of those 20 times, what are you going to do when I raise you that 21st time? (aside from asking the dealer for a new deck. lol)

We all agree that poker is a game of incomplete information. Well I feel that by controlling the information that I reveal to my opponents I am able to manipulate their preception of me and, perhaps more importantly, manipulate the way they play against me.

I rarely bluff so when I make a big bluff I sometimes do show it.

You say people may observe how aggresive you are anyway and pick up that it is unlikely you have made any other bluffs but it will be in the back of their mind at all times.

Maybe they have AK on a board A78 and 2 spades. And you check raise thema ll in. They may call anyway, but just thinking well I know he's capable of bluffing - maybe he has a draw, can tip the odds in favour of a call.

I saw a show on TV the other day I think it was part of the WSOP or WPT and one buy showed a stone cold bluff after he had pushed the other guy off his pocket pair (I think he had 45o).

A little while later the same two were in a pot and this time the previous bluffer had picked up 2 pair and the other guy pushed with mid pair. Now I don't know if him showing that hand pissed this guy off enough into making the push but I suspect it did.

I think there are definite merits to showing various hands to different people in live games I'm not sure people notice it that much online and as said previously you don't want to put too much info about you into other peoples databases.

If however you can see that it was a reluctant fold from someone then showing them a bluff might piss them off enough to get action later. Conversely showing good hands a lot might give people that "he's on a hot streak" feeling and maybe avoid you later.

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Bad Beat of the week 27/08/2006:

:kh :jd

Flop - :jc :3s :6d I raise 2/3 pot, Villian calls.

Turn :kd - I raise to put villian all in, he calls

he flips over :4d :4s :eek:

River :4c :rant: :mad: :rant: :eek:

I always thought that if you are going to show weak or bluff, to do it early and then play TAG. OR if you can't get action on your bullets, to show a bluff to increase the action (in the spirit of bigger pots, not more pots philosophy). Am I missing something or is that too elementary?

*shrugs*
I just find that the above strategy seems to work in my favour. I get away with being a lot more aggressive than I normally could be.