Originally Posted by Fishodeath

River comes a blank and he checks, I'm gonna bet here even though I'm 70% sure he missed his draw and won't make any more money. If he's slowplaying two pair or better I'm gonna take that hit, but bettin makes him pay to see my cards.

1st. if he has a better hand he's not going to pay to see your cards, he's calling a value bet (courtesy of you) or check-raising the best hand. With the check-rise you're now faced with a crying call or fold - and not privee to seeing his cards!

2nd. I would question the wisdom of placing a bet I know will only be called by a better hand vs just checking it thou and having my Top Pair exposed! Bluffs are something else again and a rive bet is probably the only way to win the hand (AND keep it secret) but a legit hand?? Of course I would have to have some idea my top pair wasn't the best hand to cause me to check it thru rather than making a bet against a calling station chasing down 2nd pair - from him I want that extra bet!!! But if it was me sem-bluffing the 2nd pair, a check-thru would save me the bet vs his top pair little kicker!

3rd - there are a few threads on showing down hole cards and the vast majority of post did not endorse the practice with the exception of planting a strategic seed into other players minds. For example shown down a A-Qo from the button to show the blinds you were not on a steal but NEVER showing down a real steal to brag up how clever you are (aren't!!). I'm sure a search for 'showing down' will turn up a thread or two.

At first I was cranky and thought "this is a stupid thread". Then my medication kicked in and I reread the posts.

This is an interesting idea . . . not sure what I think about it.

I'm very hesitant to bet my medium strength hands on the river in position when my opponent checks to me. It seems to be the loss when I'm check raised vs. the chips I pick up by my opponent not having a read on me. It seems very hard to put a number on that.

I think in order to do this effectively, you have to be very good at putting your opponents on a hand, and mostly do this against draws.

On the topic of generally showing hands . . . in SNGs when the blinds get up to the stealing level (the level of play where I'm primarily stealing to win, not playing the values of my cards) I will show down the big uncalled hands like TT+, AK, AQ. Depending on position, I'll also show down A8+, KQ, and lower pocket pairs (usually on the button when the blinds don't call). I do this to reinforce my tight table image so that my steals are more successful - my opponents aren't guessing what I'm raising with . . . I'm showing them.

Originally Posted by Fishodeath

Recently I've been expirimenting with trying show down as few hands as possible. For example -I'm on the button with top pair good kicker on a 2 flush board. I bet it on the flop and turn with the bb check calling the whole way. River comes a blank and he checks, I'm gonna bet here even though I'm 70% sure he missed his draw and won't make any more money. If he's slowplaying two pair or better I'm gonna take that hit, but bettin makes him pay to see my cards.

Another example - if I'm gonna put someone all in, I'll bet 95% of thier stack so they raise all-in. This way if I dont win the showdown I can muck. I dont think ppl realize you can check mucked hands on Stars.

I'm not sure if its really worth paying so much attention to the amount of hands I showdown... thoughts?

That is actually a good idea. I may try that tonight on my sit&go's.