Show-Off
Many pokerplayers don’t like to show their cards when the hand is over at the casino-they don’t like to inform other players of their strategies. Sometimes, though, I find that a little show and tell can go a long way in giving yourself a mental edge over your opponents. Showing a successful bluff can go a long way towards putting another player on tilt. I was at a table with a few players that I knew from previous tournaments, and I was putting my stack on the line with rags. I was a medium stack at the table and I was dealt pocket 10’s, so I raised before the flop. I only got one caller-a hotheaded guy that I’d played with a few times before. He had the large stack at the table, and I could tell that he wanted to push me around. The flop came Ace-9-4, all of spades. Neither of my 10’s were spades, but when he raised me, I re-raised him with no hesitation. A King of hearts came on the flop, and he called my bet, but when a 3 of spades came on the river, I went all in. He was already invested about a third of his online poker chips, and calling my raise would put just over half his chips at risk. He deliberated, then folded his pocket Jacks, no spades.
He asked when I got the spades, so I turned over my 10’s and put him on tilt. He went nuts, started making some reckless bets, and was gone within an hour.
