Don't Show Your Cards

Let the information flow toward you, and not away from you

by Lee H. Jones | Published: May 30, 2006

"There's something happening here; what it is ain't exactly clear"

There's this weird trend that I've been seeing in poker games recently. I see it all the time, online and in brick-and-mortar rooms, in big games and in small, in tournaments and in cash games: players showing their cards when they don't have to.

And I'll admit that I'm completely baffled by it. We spend hours studying the game, trying to get an edge over our opponents. We read the books, study the Card Player columns, and review the online poker forums. We keep a book about our live-action opponents and take notes when we play online. What's this all about? Information. That's right – the priceless commodity that separates winners from losers at the poker table.

So what do you do when you show your cards to opponents when you don't have to? You give them information for free. Why in the world would you do that?

Oh, I can see the lectures revving up already. You do it to confuse your opponents. The last time you made that play, you had Q-Q; this time you did the same thing, but you had 6-4 offsuit. OK, that's fine. But what if there really was something different about the situation? What if you were responding to a specific situation at the table and one of your more observant opponents noticed that? Now he's able to associate your play with that situation. Let me a bit more blunt: Suppose that you have a tell of which you're not aware. You raise and steal the blinds twice. Once, you have Q-Q, and the other time you have 6-4 offsuit. If you never show your cards, even somebody who has picked up your tell gets no information. But you show your cards, for whatever reason. Now the observant opponent knows which facial expression, chip move, or whatever goes with Q-Q and which goes with 6-4 offsuit. And you don't even know that he knows it.

Maybe you'll say, "Well, Lee, I'm just being courteous." Praise the Lord – I'm all for a courteous poker game. Be polite and considerate to your fellow players. Pass them a napkin and admire the picture of their new baby. Laugh at their jokes. But if you want to give them free information, tell them about the great new sushi restaurant that just opened three blocks over – not when you have the nuts and when you don't.

Here's an example from a recent pot-limit Omaha hand I played online (yes, occasionally I play a game that gives you more than two cards). I had raised preflop with a very strong hand: A-A-K-10 with one of the aces suited. I got one caller. The flop came good and bad: A-7-4 (so I had the current nuts), but with two hearts (I had no hearts). I was in no mood to offer any free cards, so I bet the pot. My opponent thought briefly and called. The turn was a 10, but not a heart. I still had the nuts. I bet the pot again. My opponent thought a bit longer and called again. We both had large stacks compared to the blinds, and had plenty of money left. The river was a dreaded non-pairing heart (the deuce, specifically). I didn't feel like facing a raise, so I checked. My opponent made a large bet, about three-quarters of the pot. I didn't expect him to have 5-3 for the straight; no, his bet said he'd made the flush. I ultimately decided that I didn't want to pay him off, so I folded, wondering if I'd just laid down the best hand. Then, he showed me that he had K-Q-10-9, with the K 9. He'd flopped the nut-flush draw, taken it to the bitter end, and got there. "Nice laydown, Lee," I chuckled as the next hand was dealt. I'd forced him to take much the worst of it throughout the hand, and then didn't pay him off when he hit his card. In short, I'd played the hand perfectly. I felt sure of myself, confident, and ready to win some money. And I did win some money. Had he not shown me, I might have been wondering for a while longer if I'd made the right play there. But his "courtesy" (or whatever it was) gave me confidence that I was playing my A-game. That's not the feeling you want to instill in your opponents.

The other half of that coin is the infamous "fold and show." Oh, online players love that. "Look at the monster laydown that I'm making." Or, "I'm folding the big blind just because I didn't have anything, not because I respected your raise."

Feh! Let me tell you a story from a tournament I watched recently. It was a big tournament, with lots of money involved. They'd gotten down to four players, and one of those guys was making life miserable for his opponents. They'd raise and he'd reraise. Then, they'd fold. If it was folded to him on the button or in the small blind, he'd raise most of the time – and usually win the blinds. Using this tactic (and by hitting a few key hands), he'd accumulated about half the chips on the table. His absolute aggression was dominating the opposition. Then I saw the most amazing thing: The player on his immediate right raised, and yet again, the chip leader pushed all of his chips in. His opponent thought and thought, and then folded A-10 faceup. I thought right then what that display must have cost him. Here, the person on his left was constantly forcing opponents to decide if they wanted to play for all of their chips, and the folder said, "I am not willing to commit all of my chips with ace-ten." In a shorthanded no-limit hold'em contest, A-10 is a very big hand. By showing his fold, this fellow essentially told the chip leader, "Unless I have a truly monster hand, I will fold to your reraise."

I had a chat with 2004 World Series of Poker Champion Greg Raymer about this subject. Greg thinks about poker as much as anybody I know; he is a student (as well as a champion) of the game. Paraphrasing Greg, "One of the few times it's correct to show your cards is if you're making a huge laydown and you're absolutely sure that it's correct. In that case, your opponent may believe that you have an extremely accurate read on him and give you more respect. But the cost of doing this incorrectly is enormous."

Unfortunately, I fear that most players have not thought the situation through as carefully as Greg has. I believe that most unnecessary revelation of holecards is for one of the reasons I mentioned earlier: either (1) to demonstrate to your opponents how masterfully you played, or (2) to show them "courtesy."

If you are a world-class player and can truly manipulate your opponents by judiciously revealing cards unnecessarily, you have my respect and admiration. But I believe that only a tiny fraction of us have that ability. More often than not, we're giving away priceless information and getting nothing for it. For what it's worth, I don't show my cards if I don't have to; I'm not good enough to get away with it.

There's one important exception to this rule: If you're in a poker game that is mostly about fun and not money, then sure, show your brother-in-law how you bluffed him. Poker can be a wonderful excuse for food, beer, and camaraderie; most of the rules about trying to win money go out the window. I've had some of my most fun in such games. But other than that, fold or muck your cards, facedown. Let the information flow toward you and not away from you.