Mucking your poker hand - PokerTraining.org

Showing your cards
Only give out info working to your advantage

One thing I hardly understand is the reason for some players to voluntarily show their hole cards so often. Like it or not, a move like that gives out more information than you probably like being disclosed. When I´m looking to acquire information about a single player, I´m happy about every bit and piece, leading to the following question: Is there a reason for you to display your hand or should you rather consider not showing your cards at all?

Well, especially when you´re a rookie in Poker or in case you´re a losing player, I´d recommend you not showing anything. Keep your opponents guessing and don´t help them paint a clearer picture about your playing style. In case you have a little experience, you might try to trick your opponents by showing some of your hands in order to make them believe that you follow a certain playing style. For instance, you´re playing tight-aggressively with some occasional bluffing and you´re trying to make your opponents call you a little more often, one way of doing so is by showing your bluffs. The intention behind this move is that you either try to make your rivals put you on a looser image or that you annoy the heck out of some of the other players, forcing them to lose their temper. Please keep in mind, that there´s no guarantee that these moves work in your favor, but if they do, you have to cut down on your bluffing in the future.

Another way of using this trick is by occasionally showing strong hands when you´re constantly attacking your opposition with inferior hands. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book of old Poker tricks, but it might still work against weak competition.

One thing I´ve experienced quite a lot while playing SNGs against weaker competition on middle-limits is that some players have a tendency to show their cards in heads-up situations once you´ve shown a hand yourself. When you´re going up against such a player, revealing your hand in a similar situation might make sense if you want to find out something about your opponent´s betting behavior (Is he bluffing on the flop, is he betting on the turn once you checked on the flop, is he attacking with a draw, and so on.). In case you decide to do so, pick a situation in which you didn´t bluff, potentially giving you a slight edge against that opponent for imminent hands.

Again, it´s basically a toss-up when you want to determine whether those moves really work in your favor, so not showing your cards at all is probably the best solution. To close out this section, let´s take a look at situations where some players like to flash their hands:

1)      You´re sitting in the BB with 42o, someone raised and you fold your hand.

Come on, you´re folding, that basically says all about the strength of your hand, so there´s no need to tell everybody what you have. Additionally, such a move rather shows that you´re growing impatient instead of you being an educated player that needs to be respected.

2)      You hold a strong hand like top-pair, two-pair or better and you fold because you fear that you´re beaten.

There´s no shame in folding a hand when you assume that somebody got you beat. There´s no shame in getting bluffed out of a hand you were winning. But one thing you can never, ever do is to show your hand in such a situation. Make your opponents believe that you were on a draw, that you chased certain cards or that you were bluffing, but absolutely do not give them the certainty of knowing that you´re willing to throw away strong hands when you´re seeing specific scare-cards. Your opponents are not going to respect your knowledge of the game, they´re going to play you much more aggressively in the future, trying to bluff you out of the pot as often as the can.

3)      You tried to bluff on the flop, another player called and bet on the turn and you folded.

Great, by showing your hand you did not only reveal your bluff on the flop, by doing so you also let everyone know that you´re pretty stupid. By showing your hand, you want to make your opponents believe that you´re a smart player but on the other side, you´re showing your bluff, giving away precious information for free, proving that you´re not a smart player.

Things get even worse, when you tried to semi-bluff other players by betting or raising on a draw or something like a bottom- or middle-pair with a poor kicker, because now everybody that´s paying at least a little bit attention to the action on the table should be aware of an important part of your betting pattern.

4)      Someone raised, you called with a terrible hand, another player goes all-in and you fold.

By showing that hand, you not only proved that you´re not that smart at all, you also let everybody know that you´re a calling-station. Great, now all of your opponents are not only lacking respect when going up against you, they also know that your main intention is not to win some $ but to get involved in as many hands as you can.

After reading this article, please keep in mind, that every move you make at the tables can be used against you. You have to be really careful to prevent telling more about yourself than you intend to when showing your hands.

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