1/3 live. V1 ($50)
V2 ($500). V2 is a huge nit who is there to grind promos.
Hero ($350)

V1 $12, V2 looks at his cards. Hero inadvertently sees that V2 has a Q in his hand. V2 3 bets to $100. This is literally always QQ. Hero looks down at KK. Hero?

I guess there are two issues. First is the ethical issue. Given the SPR and the hands I feel like it’s less of an ethical issue than if he had just open raised and it wasn’t a cooler spot. The hand will almost always play out the same regardless of if I knew what his cards were. Knowing his cards doesn’t dramatically change the situation and I shouldn’t be punished for his carelessness.

The next question is to flat or jam.

Happens a lot.

It's not our fault that Villain exposed his cards.

We can flat and play perfectly post flop.

It's a side benefit that you can make the fold if the flop comes down Q-high, but calling probably gives us a better chance to stack the nit.

What if you saw one of villain's cards is an ace? Could you conclude it's literally always AA or would AK be in his range? (And if so, what then?)

Disregarding any ethical issues, I just call. If hes a huge nit and you jam he might fold. Just call and let him value own himself.

There's no right or wrong answer. As a pro, you want to use any information you can get and would call. If you feel you need to say something, one alternative to just saying you saw a card of his would be to jam. If the villain isn't a complete noob, he should know that a cold 4 bet is KK+ and would fold.

If he's grinding promos, why is he raising that much? That makes no sense. I just got back from a session with a $500 hourly HH and I saw multiple instances of folks limping big pairs pre-flop, folks never raising sets, folks never raising trips, and calling with any draw to a straight flush. So I'm not getting why this guy bumped up to 4x-pot

in any event, cold flatting a 33x three-bet just screams strength. There's no way to play this hand without wearing a giant neon sign that says "big hand here". So just raise

I want to get money in now. There are 2 cards we hate on the flop, but there are 6 cards that he'll hate.

Ok, as played I called. He checked dark. Flop Q53r. Turn 7. He jams I fold. He wins side and main pot with QQ.

I treat cards like tits. If they are going to show them, I'm going to look.

Bad,

The first time this happens, I say “you’re flashing your cards, I saw a queen.” They do it again after that, I don’t say anything.

In this hand, after saying that, I push.

That’s just what I do. I think it’s totally fine to not say anything.

Well played. I love the decision to flat pre instead of 4betting and scaring the nit off. I also love the disciplined fold on the turn, when you know that villain almost always has exclusively QQ.

When someone's cards are exposed preflop as a result of the dealer flashing them, I'll always speak up and say "I saw that card, it's a black picture card" or whatever.

But when someone's cards are exposed preflop as a result of their own incompetence in protecting their hand, then I won't say anything. I consider it a tax on the stupid.

This is the correct answer, unless the person has a limitation that prevents them from protecting their cards, in which case you should look away from them.

The fact that the guy is a reg removes any debate.

I can be sloppy with my hole cards myself. If I expose them that's on me.

No point in raising, even without knowing his cards. Knowing them, it would be terrible to raise.

Played it fine. If you are friendly with the guy, then you might tell him that he needs to protect his cards. But there is no mandatory rule that you have to tell (I generally do once and if they continue to do it well then that is their problem).

I would probably still say something like "hey, watch your cards, I think may have caught a piece of one". If he continues to look at them recklessly, I've done my part and it's on him going forward.

I would probably lean towards a flat because laying down QQ to a cold 4bet is fairly trivial for huge nits simply grinding promos. We risk scare cards killing our action, but that's the risk we have to take here, imo.

GcluelessNLnoobG

I saw an older guy flashing his hole cards accidentally preflop in seat 1 the other day. I watched seat 2 as he did it a second time a hand later and sure enough, his eyes were definitely looking at them. I told seat 1 a minute or two later to protect his cards better when he looked at them because he was flashing them to his neighbors.

If I can’t see them, you can’t either. Go ahead and hate me, I can take it.

This is what I do as well. I have been put in this exact situation fwiw.

We are in the minority though.

In a hypothetical situation where he opened to $12 and I saw a card, that’s what I have often done in the past. Here, given that I thought his hand was already face up as JJ/QQ/KK, and given the SPR, I didn’t want to punish myself for his mistake. I’m not entirely sure if that’s just a rationalization though.

I also posted this because I think shove or flat both have merit.

YES! And it's not "just a rationalization".

Poker is a game of information. When people give it away, you take it and use it in the most advantageous way possible. There's no "ethics" here unless the guy has MS or got his fingers blown off in 'nam, or something like that. Protect your hand or suffer the consequences.

I *never* say anything in these situations. I'd put my shades on and see how many more hands I can catch a glimpse of. If I'm sitting still, in my own seat, and not doing anything that appears like an obvious attempt to look at cards, then I'm not the problem.

There have been times I've seen more than a dozen hands from a player next to me in a single session. You would be surprised how un-helpful it actually is. Spots like the OP are exceedingly rare. Usually the only information you learn is innocuous like "Oh, he folds 94o too" or "He's got AK and put in a raise, I've got Q4o and don't give a ****"

"...There have been times I've seen more than a dozen hands from a player next to me in a single session. You would be surprised how un-helpful it actually is. Spots like the OP are exceedingly rare. Usually the only information you learn is innocuous like "Oh, he folds 94o too" or "He's got AK and put in a raise, I've got Q4o and don't give a ****" ..."

+1

Even from a nihilistic self-preservationist point-of-view (which yours is, imo), my guess is that you'd still do better in this regards by warning the player he is exposing his cards due to the fact that sometimes he'll be exposing those cards only to your opponents (where they will then sometimes have the information advantage instead of you).

GcluelessnihilisticnoobG

Not seeing it. That would only come up in situations where I'm in a 3 way pot with the exposer, and the guy on the other side of him. And it has to be a situation where the other guy can see cards, and I can't. Given the fact that I'm not seeing every hand, the guy on the other side probably isn't either.

So you need a lot of things to line up for that 'bad' situation to happen.

I'll gladly trade that for the much higher frequency of good situations where the other guy is out of the hand.

You can just say 'ass hole'. It's fine.

I prefer asshat.

Think of the case where the guy is randomly picking up cards on different sides of his stacks or with a different hand or maybe he even changes seats. Sometimes his exposing of cards is giving you the information, but sometimes it is giving others the information. Even from an asshat point of view, you should inform him and the dealer that he's exposing his cards.

GcluelessasshatnoobG

Raging,

I’d agree with you there if you’re heads-up, but not with other people at the table who don’t have the opportunity to get that information. In that situation, it’s exactly a question of ethics imo.

But like I said earlier, I don’t have any problem with anyone who chooses not to say anything.