To Muck Or Not To Muck?
After a hand is completed in online poker you'll never find me
showing my cards, win or lose, to the rest of the table. I
always muck. In fact my settings are pre-selected to "always
muck". You pay to see my cards, and if I've lost a hand online
there can be no reason to show my beaten hand. But now I ask
myself if this is the best strategy? Because there are times in
poker when it pays to show. That's certainly true in live-game
poker, but what about the online variety, which is a very
different animal? Let's look at this in more detail, especially
as it pertains to online poker.
There are three very good reasons to show your hand when you
have won a pot. The first is to create confusion in the minds of
your foes. The second is to provide disingenuous information.
The third reason is to get under everyone's skin, and hopefully
push some poor rube over the edge and on tilt. An example is
when you win a hand with a stone bluff. You advertise those
rags. Players are wondering how you could stay in with such
slop, never mind bet, raise, or re-raise. Players might wonder
out loud, and even get slightly miffed. All the better.
There are times when you want to show only one of your hole
cards, something you cannot do on any of the online poker rooms,
at least not to my knowledge (as yet - note to poker software
developers: add that functionality, namely "show one hole card
only". It could be to online poker what the double-click was to
computers, and if there are any royalties you know where to find
me.) So this is a tactic of misinformation that only works in a
live-game, and it can work very well.
Showing your cards can also be a forward-thinking strategy at
your local card room in that it helps to create a table persona
for you. Players now think you play very loose based on that
bluff, and next time you come out firing it will be tough for
them to put you on any hand. This is advisable if you're about
to spend a long session facing a mostly unchanging table.
Now for the cons of showing your cards online. First of all the
value of a table persona is diminished in online poker because
of the incredibly high rate of player turnover. You're
advertising for people who won't be there in five minutes time,
let alone five hours time, and who probably are not paying
attention in any case. The fact is that in a number of online
games the only players who will notice your hand are those still
in the pot. The others have run to the kitchen before the cards
are in the air for the next hand. Showing your cards online
frequently looks like inexperience and nothing more.
I think a good player gains a lot by seeing other player's cards
at the conclusion of a hand, and my advice to rookies or even
intermediate online players is to never show unless you are
compelled. The good players already have an edge over you - why
give them an even bigger advantage? There is no greater sign of
weakness then when a beaten player still feels the urge to show
the table his second-best hand. Your K9 outkicked by a KA? Don't
show me that in the misguided hope that I'll feel sympathy for
your plight. All I'll feel is delight that you handed me a
glaring weakness in your game, and the next time you play with a
weak kicker like that pathetic 9 I'll be right there to pick up
the pieces.