Last night we had out regular Sat night poker game. Things didn't start out well for me as I had a big boat cracked by quads. Later on during a Hold 'Em game I have Big Slick and flop a set of aces. Betting is real good, turn is a rag, and the river is the 4th ace! Hot damn I have never had quad aces. I don't shove but bet $20 (stakes .25/.50 blinds most players bought in for $60). All fold around to my son who sits there thinking. I put him on a high pair K or Q so he is wondering do I have the 4th ace 'cuz he thinks he has the best boat. At last he folds & I drag a good size pot.

Quick as flash he tosses me his Show 'Em chip so I slide my hand over to him, he looks at it then mucks it knowing he dodged a big bullet. The way we play Show 'Em chips is that the player using his Show 'Em chip is the only one who gets to see the hand. If anyone else wants to see the hand they have to play their Show 'Em chip as well.

I guess I will never get quad aces again as it's a once in a lifetime event. But I'm happy!

Oh, you'll get it again. But nice hand, and nice fold on your son's part.

Congrats!

I may be a terminology nit, but where I come from a "set" requires a pocket pair, while "trips" is the more general term for either your pocket pair matching one board card OR one of your hole cards matching a pair on the board.

Nice hand. Just wait 'til you get a straight flush!

Nice Show 'em chip idea! Anyone else here heard of that or do that?

I'm introducing that idea next game.

So everyone starts with one each, and if someone throws one to you to show them your hand, you then have 2 that you can use, and so on?

Wouldn' that be kinda broken? I meanm it's a nice idea, but I guess they're one use only. If they stack up, it kinda destroys the mechanics of the table doesn't it? It would give a lot of power to one player; although I guess it could give birth to very interesting spots where the guy with the SE chips would assume players would play more straightforward vs him, etc.

But as said, I guess they are one use chips.

We tried this once, and it was once and done thing. And the entire table saw the hand. I like the idea of showing it to only one person per chip. Can they tell everyone what they see if they want to?

Hard to get paid off on quads. Villian has to be a fish or catch something like top FH.

Oh, and

Yeah, if the son had KK as OP suspects, that would be hard to lay down.

OK here are the rules we play by with the Show 'Em chip:

6h. Show ‘Em Chip. Each player may purchase for $3 one Show ‘Em chip per game. The Show ‘Em chip may used at the end of a hand to force a player to show his hand to the player that presented the Show ‘Em chip. No other players may see the shown hand unless they too present a Show ‘Em chip. The player who presented the Show ‘Em chip may not tell any other player what the hand was or if the player had bluffed etc. Once the Show ‘Em chip is presented it is immediately redeemed for $3 by the banker and the Show ‘Em chip is retired from play. The player showing the hand receives the $3 redemption. Each Show ‘Em chip may be used once and only once during the game. Players may sell their Show ‘Em chips to another active player for whatever price the market will bear during the game. Show ‘Em chips may not be used for betting or antes. Show ‘Em chips not used during the game will be redeemed by the Bank at half price of $1.50 at the end of the game. They can not be saved for the next game.

From my House Rules ver 32 that can be found on my website.

1. The Show 'Em chips are used once and only once. If you want another Show 'Em chip you have to buy it from another player at what ever price you can negotiate. Free market plan!

2. The player who presents the Show 'Em chip may NOT tell the other players what the hand was or if it was a bluff etc. Mum's the word. Honnor system! Basicly you have to pay for information.

3. The 1/2 price redemtion at the end is to force the players to use the chip. Kinda like Monopoly when you sell houses/hotels back to the bank you get 1/2 price.

We had one player bust out and all he had left was his Show 'Em chip. Option was to get $1.50 from the bank or sell it. He got $3 in chips for it from another player, busted again, and then did his re-buy.

Here are the chips that we use:

http://www.abcgiftsandawards.com/showem.htm

Most players bought one.

Why the $3 price? Buyin was $40-$60 so it's less than 10% of the minimum buy-in. At $1 or $2 it's too cheep and at $4 it's too expensive. The players liked it.

Give it a try!

Naw, no nit - it's a good point. I should have said trips. I was just so stoked at getting quad aces I wasn't really thinking when I wrote the post.

I completely understand your excitement!

Glad to hear my feedback was appropriate. Makes understanding what people write a bit easier instead of needing full attention to follow along when hand histories are posted.

I didn't bat an eye, because I've heard plenty of players call trips a set.

Plenty of people use the term Chester Drawers too. You probably know what they're referring to, but that doesn't make it correct...

I don't worry about that either.

The show-em chip is pretty awesome.
My group recently started adding in a dice roll to see cards.
If you are the last to fold in a hand, you've got the option to
roll two dice, if you get a 7 or a hard roll, the winner shows the table his cards.

Although it can be pretty frustrating because it seems like the rolls come up pretty infrequently. I think everyone has been enjoying the chance to see some cards.

My guess is that it will cause some strategic play adjustments to occur much faster.

But if I had some of those show'em chips I'd use them instead, I think I like that idea even better.

It should be coming up about 1 in 3 rolls.

LOL. Was going to scare away the newbie too.... trips/set and BBV. Glad he's got a thick skin.

Yeah, nice getting great hands. Helps take the sting out of the times V shows em.

STFU chips - Got in on a group buy... may also be used a Show Them Face Up chip... perhaps time to break them out. More likely to issue one per player, and allow them to be redeemed multiple times, and show the whole table.

If calling it a set is good enough for Doyle in Super/System, then it's good enough for me.

Someone at my poker room had a STFU chip. Another player asked him what it was. I piped up, "It's where he went to University."

Nice !

Did he mention anything about playing with someone named Chester?

ok

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