Quick thought...

Cashed in a live tournament for the second time this year at my own home game the other night.  Played just about perfect poker, lost two 60/40s where I was the 60, AIPF - and I lost a third one where I was dominated with A8 vs A10.

Really felt I would have taken it down if I could have faded those 6 outers and/or for once been the sucker instead of the suckee.

Last night I took down the tournament in my WSOP online satty series - and played great poker while also running fairly hot.   Learned one big thing -

Showing cards is essential in NLHE tournaments.

Every book will say the opposite - but I really believe to get into people's heads, it is very necessary to showski at some point.   Allow me to explain.

My image among my friends, live and online, these days is pretty aggro / spewey - last night I used this to a full advantage and hammered home the point by SHOWING when I had successfully bluffed two different players off of better hands.

I firmly believe if I hadn't stuck the needle in, in these two hands, I would not have gotten paid off like I did later on.  I got paid with quad 3s for God's sake!   How often does that happen?  Next to never if you don't demonstrate that you can fire with air.

I really believe, if you have any understanding of the psychology of the game, that showing cards at the exact right time is just too powerful a tool in the arsenal to ignore.

I also showed a few times when I open shoved and everyone folded - in those instances I had a pair of jacks, and two times AK suited.  It seems like this wouldn't work, but later I was able to shove and get folds with much trashier hands.

When I lucked out and more than tripled up in a 3 way pot, after being short stacked for a long time, I had some ammo and was able to show a few bluffs to these same players - and then they couldn't help but call me down with top pair when I turned a monster full house or flushed up.

So every poker book I've read is essentially full of shit.  Showing cards, when you have the experience and understanding of how other players are thinking, is not only okay - it's basically required in tournament play.   AND you can show both good hands and bad hands at different times on the same players and they will not necessarily be savvy enough to know that they are being manipulated.

Now, as Annie Duke likes to point out - there really are no absolutes in poker.  If I'm at a table where I'm seriously outclassed by most of the players at my table, such as if I were to run deep in a WSOP event, I would seriously consider not ever showing my cards if I didn't have to.  But in my home game, online with friends, and even at Commerce with a softish table draw - I'm certainly going to be whipping my cards out more often now that I've come to this conclusion.