Playing in a 5-10 game at the local casino. I flop nfd+oc and get it in with another guy who was on my right, he made the last call. I bink on the turn and have the nuts on the river. For a second i was confused and asked the dealer "I show first right?" before turning my hand over. The delay would have been about 3 seconds. Whole table erupts and accuses me of slowrolling. They say that since I had the nuts it didn't matter who shows first, I should have tabled immediately anyway and it was poor etiquette not to do so.

So is this the general consensus? That whether I am required to show first or not, I must always table immediately if I have the nuts? My practice has always been to table first if it is my turn to do so, otherwise wait for opponent. I might muck if i'm first as well. I always expect my opponents to do the same.

If this is convention, wouldn't you agree that it is a bad one? Because going in order always would just be simpler and reduce the possibility of angle-shooting.

I always show in turn. But if I call an all in and I have the nuts I'll say "I call I have the nuts" or something a long those lines. And wait for them to either show an inferior hand, or muck before I table mine.

EDIT: Oh and a little side story about just showing your damn cards. I'm at a 1/2 table waiting for the 5/10 game and I'm just messing around. I got J10o on a 89xKK board. The guy bets like 25 into 50ish on the river, I raise to 100. He calls and I SNAP tabled my hand like it was the nuts and he say's "ahh good hand", and MUCKS!! without even looking at my hand. As soon as he realized he tried to grab them outta the muck, claimed he had QQ!!

What angle shooting? Just turn your cards up. Who cares your getting the pot isn;t that the point of poker.

Dude, you got it in with a draw (realistically you probably had Ace-high at the moment, right?) and hit the nizzle. Table your hand so they can ship that ****. Who cares what the other guy had?

Don't be That Guy.

If you've got the nuts, you should just turn your cards over immediately. Any delay will indeed be considered slowrolling by most live regs (or any rec player who knows what slowrolling is).

A couple of weeks ago, I had this hand:

Guy goes all in on river. I call. I hit royal flush on river. If I had waited for that guy to turn over his FH, and then go "oh, I have a royal flush" the entire table would berate me for slowrolling--and rightfully so.

You used the word etiquette in the thread title. Without question, showing first with the nuts is proper etiquette.

The wording of the rules is that if you think you have the best hand you should show. So by the rules, if you recognize that you've got the nuts, you should be beating any other player, regardless of action or position, to the race of putting your cards on their backs.

There are rules for who has to show first if everyone is reluctant. In a perfect world table etiquette would be enough to sort these things out, but in the world where we all actually play live poker, rules had to be written down to sort things out.

In the long run, you do the most for your bottom line by just flipping your cards over as fast as possible. It's good for your table image, it's good for your demeanor, and it is beneficial in terms of getting into good games.

There are select few situations where you'll not be the last aggressor and also curious about the exact holdings of your opponents which may affect how you play future hands against that person, but you still do more for your bottom line by taking an attitude of just showing as fast as possible, even in those situations. It's the ultimate "good for the game" move.

Yes, this is general consensus. It's even in the rules. The people arguing in the couple of active 1/2 Showdown threads could do well to realize that an entire 5/10 table understands this.

I'm curious, what angles do you fear being shot here, if you table the winner and receive the pot?

I actually don't even wait to hit the nuts. I turn them over when there is no more betting.

Well, I was thinking of the soft angle of someone who would always make you show your hand first if he could to gain information, while you always conform to the etiquette of showing if you expect to win. There are guys who do the far more serious angle of abusing IWTSTH when they're curious.

I dunno, coming from an online background, it just seems simpler to me to have everyone show in order or open muck if they choose. But I guess since the consensus on this seems nearly universal, I'll go along unless I'm up against a known angle-shooter.

But how much of an angle is that? How important are the actual holdings? And if you have the absolute nuts, how good is this for the social aspect of the game? I've found that there's far more information to be had by allowing someone to muck quietly, because that person is now a little more forthcoming with overall information on how he plays the game. Maybe not in that moment, but we're talking the long-term cumulative effect of small edges.

After all, if you're calling, you know where you stand in the hand, right? If you think you're trapping with a weak hand, just show. If all you have is a bluff catcher, then maybe wait a beat, and if he balks, then show. The better you are at sensing where you are in a hand, the more you'll know you're good and can just show. If you find you're unsure where you stand at showdown, then you're calling too much.

Information is out there on players on all hands played, not just the ones you happen to get to showdown when you call. If you think you've won, just show. Don't make them hate you, because then you lose out on all kinds of information over the course of the game.

I guess if you have the nuts the proper etiquette to flip 'em over, but I think with any think less than the nuts you are entitled to ask your opponent what he has.

If you don't mind, what stakes do you play?

Yeah, this is kind of a weird situation for me. Technically you show in order, but the nuts is the nuts and etiquette counts too. But the thing is, as far as I'm concerned, etiquette also should mean that even if I fastroll, the guy ought to do me the favor of showing his hand when I do.

To get around this, I usually do what someone else mentioned - just immediately say I have the nuts and hold my cards in my fingers as if I'm about to table them. If he mucks I'll flip over just not to be a dick. But if my opponent has been a dick - maybe been a real stickler, or maybe shot an angle before - then I'll get technical with him and play strictly by the rules.

If I'm trying to not ruffle any feathers and no one is outplaying me or withholding info on purpose in a low stakes game, I'll just flip out of turn to keep everything smooth.

I play in one local game where the house rule is that you have to table a hand to win a pot on the river. Personally I think that's stupid. So, if my opponent bluffs on the river, and I make a hero call, and he just mucks, then I have to table my hand.

They've never given me a straight answer as to what they'd do if I shot my cards deep into the muck. What would they do with the pot?

I actually once saw a guy try to do this, after arguing for about ten minutes with the dealer, the floor, and the shift supervisor that he didn't have to show his hand. He finally tried to push his hand into the muck himself. The dealer and floor both grabbed his wrist, physically wrested his cards away, tabled them, mucked them, and pushed him the pot. Then they called security and had him ejected from the casino.