When to Show Your Bluffing Online?

When you play a game of poker, you should look for spots to pick up pots without a showdown. In every form of poker to maintain a steady win rate you have to be able to bluff in certain spots, or have the ability to make your opponent make big lay downs. If you can do this with a high level of efficiency, you will be one of the top poker players in whatever game you choose to play. The hard part of poker which tempts some players is to show hands when they win the pot. In live games or online games, you have the option to show the table your hand after you rake in the pot. In most cases you should never show your hand, and especially never show your hand if you feel the table is as good as you or better than you. If you show your hand to a skilled table they will have some insight into how your mind is operating on a given day, and also the table now has a hand range to put you on. Giving away some small information such as betting out with top pair, and showing an AK can harm your chances in the future whether you know it or not.

If you decide to show your hand after you make a hand like top pair and top kicker, you are telling the table that you are very tight, but also that you don’t want to be messed with. Given this information now every player in return will mess with you in pots. When you tell a poker player you have it all the time, most players become stubborn enough to attack you constantly. It can have ups and downs depending on if you are careful or not, but showing your cards is definitely not the best solution. It gives away useful information about your playing style, and it is not suggested unless you are playing against a table of horrendously loose and aggressive poker players.

If you sit in a poker game where you see loose aggressive players, and not just one or two, but an entire table of wildly aggressive players, this is the time to show one bluff. The reason to show a bluff at a table like this is because once you start making big hands you will now instantly get paid off. There are no ifs and or buts about it. If you sit at a table with wild players, in return you will receive wild payouts. This is the only time where it is acceptable to show a bluff, and it is also one time where you can amass heaps of chips in front of you in a matter of minutes. If you go on a sick run, you could be talking about big money getting shipped your way. This is also the extreme upside to showing a bluff. There are almost no other instances where it is acceptable from a monetary stand point to show down your cards without getting called. If you are bluffing you should be the only one at the table that’s knows it.

If you decide to not show bluffs this will mean that you feel you have a tighter table and perhaps a more relaxed atmosphere at a poker table. Sometimes it is acceptable to show bad players your hands because they will go on tilt and lose the rest of their stack to you. Other times you can do this to win an ego battle, which is in essence a battle of wits. If you are in a battle of wits then you only care about one player at the table, and this is not winning poker. Other players get hands occasionally as well, and to show the whole table your hand when you only intended on showing it to one person isn’t a good strategy.

The best time to not show bluffs is all the time. If someone doesn’t pay to see your hand then they should not see your hand. There is no reason to let a decent player have free information. This is more evident in live poker games than it is online because in live poker games you see far fewer hands and in return need to make more moves at pots. By not showing bluffs to the table you have an edge, and this edge could help you win a massive pot later on in the session. You should never give away free information ever at a poker table as the little things are what make winning players unpredictable.