Psychology of loser showing his decent hand

[Wynton]

I was just wondering about those players who feel compelled to display their losing hand, when they could have mucked at a showdown, when their hand was a solid starting hand, or even good till the river and a victim of a draw out.

My first question is whether I am correct in assuming that these players have a need to prove to everyone that they are good players, or unlucky victims.

And if I am correct, then my second question is the following: how do we take advantage of players who have this attitude? Are there any adjustments you would against them?

[proxybot]

That's not necessarily true.. on UB, if the game is friendly and the guy shows me a fold, I have no problem showing him my winning hand to let him know he made a good fold. Sure, there's the whole information hiding.. but people online aren't that perceptive, or aren't going to stay long enough to make use of their knowledge. It's a non issue to me.

Now, if you're saying that they show their AA on the river that just beat by runner runner trips .. I'll symphatize with him as well, I don't see anything wrong with it.

[Wynton]

[nsidestrate]

I theorize that people who show their losing hands are people who think "see, I always get sucked out on" and I am somewhat more likely to bluff at them on scare cards.

[Wynton]

But nside, isn't it equally likely that these people fall into the category of those who have trouble abandoning a good starting hand, and therefore are less susceptible of being bluffed?

Also, I wonder if these people are less likely to recognize draws.

Again, I really don't know the answer, and am just looking for some opinions.

[Bullajami]

Of course there are a variety of reasons why people show their cards when they don't have to. I think one very common reason is that they want other people to see that they are a good card player, playing good cards, even though they lost. They don't want people to thiink they were stupid for playing the hand. Sort of an insecurity about how others view their play.

This frequently backfires, though, as I commonly see people show cards they should NOT have paid to see the flop with. For instance, A guy sitting in EP will show that his Q7s lost to AQo. He flashes the cards to show, "see, I had a reason to call to the river, I had top pair, and got out-kicked". Not realizing that his real message to me is, "I am a fish who plays Q7s from EP".

Wynton brings up a good point, though - how does one exploit a player who shows his cards out of his need to make others see he is "a good card player"?

[Viscant]

Good point brought up. It depends on what exactly they're showing down.
If they're playing a pretty tight game and showing down AA getting sucked out on or a set losing to a flush on the river, they're trying to either create or preserve a tight table image. Now, if this person actually IS a tight player, this is your cue to show more aggression and to take advantage of what type of player he actually is. If you notice that they're in quite a fair share of pots and raising a whole lot of flops, this is almost always just a ploy trying to earn back respect for their raises.

Now if they're showing down Q7 this is completely different and they're announcing to the table "hi, I'm a calling station that can't lay down a hand when I catch even a piece". This is telling you to not bluff at them. Ever. However if you have a hand and they're involved this is telling you to start value betting rivers and raising early and often because they've shown that they're in for the long haul even without the goods.

I tend to like seeing people show down junk because it's easier to deal with them on all levels. People who show down good hands that just ran into some bad luck could be signalling many different things and if I'm not paying particularly close attention, I might fall for what they want me to think.

[Piscivorous]

I don't like showing down a hand if I don't have to.

If the software permits it, like HU at UB, I will showdwon a crappy hand to a blindsteal attempt. Say I have 83o, and the button raises after everyone folds to him. If the SB folds, I'll fold and show. I do this to set the blindstealer up on the next identical blindsteal attempt. If everyone folds to him next time, he raises, SB vacares, I raise. I don't care what I have. I have found this works wonders. Even if, ultimately, I lose this hand, the blindstealer has been put on notice, and will usually only try to steal my blind with good hands, unless they are truly horrid players.

[Wynton]

To clarify, I guess I'm talking about people who show down pretty good hands, or at least good starting hands. In this situation, when they show their cards, it seems to me they often are doing so not out of a strategy to create an image, but simply out of frustration and/or to show that they are good players who just ran into bad luck.

If this type of conduct does, indeed, reflect some irritation or frustration on their part, are these players likely to act in a certain way on subsequent hands? Are they more prone to loosen up, or perhaps even tighten up? Are there any general observations that can be made here?