The game is 9-handed 1|2 NL with a $400 max buy-in

HJ (?): Laggy. Not much info.
CO ($1300): MAWG. Likely a small winner at the game. Somewhat tight. Had a hand earlier where a self described pro opened UTG, many callers, he 3! with KK, UTG made a small 4!, and he tanked with his KK for awhile before GII for about $350 (worried about AA, which UTG ended up having)
BU (~$400): Early 20s white guy. Came from another table a few orbits ago, and hasn't played very many hands. Usually comes in for a raise when he does play a hand. No showdowns.

EP limps, HJ raises pre-flop to $8, CO calls, BU calls, EP calls.

Flop ($31):

8 6 2

checks to CO who bets $20, BU calls and the rest fold.

Turn ($69):

6

CO bets $35, BU quickly raises to $100, CO calls.

River ($269):

7

CO checks, BU pauses for a second and declares "all-in." CO proceeds to tank, and apparently he's one of those chatty types. Eventually he double checks his cards one last time, then asks BU if he'll show a card. BU says he'll show the 8, looks at his cards and flips over the 8

What do you think this means? How do we interpret this action generally? Does the color of the 8 on the flop matter? IMO it's easier for most people to remember you have the 8 if you have 88 compared to 88, so it might matter if the board blocks 88

Are there more examples?

Showing cards is always interesting and fun for me. I will do it, if allowed, in spots both where I want folds and calls ... and I agree it can be tricky as to what to show and how to handle the conversation.

I love the 8 here since it still leaves B range wide ... Anywhere from A8 to 88/86/87 or any 8X. It does eliminate a straight but for the purposes of showing a card it still allows for a wide range of holdings.

Why is he so willing to show the 8? IMO it is to give off some idea that he possibly was on a flush draw that busted.

Why did he raise the Turn? Why scare off the flush draws if you have a boat? What holdings are nervous about the River coming out ... basically 6x hands IMO, but if he had 6x8 why raise? Sure to build a pot ... this is 1/2 ...

Generally speaking, quick bets are draws. Players with strong hands generally want to calculate the best bet size in order to get value. Of course nothing is true without history and we have none here. If the CO bet fairly quick and that was followed up by B betting quicker, then I would lean towards a draw/improved hand, but not necessarily a nutted hand.

It's a pot sized bet (whether CO knows this or not is another thing). But B has seen CO tank and call with great holdings facing a smaller situation (min 4bet) so perhaps the bigger bet is designed to push CO into a fold?

Such a great spot. You never really want to shove into a big stack but IMO B thinks CO is willing to fold based on the KK hand.

My question is does the 8x eliminate enough hands in B range to make a call getting 2 to 1? I think it does ... I think we see 87 here a bunch so it comes down to what CO is holding.

To the 'color' question. It may play a small role but if 8 is on the board then a player should know he has one of each color in his hand and by default knows he has 8. But with a red on the board he may have had to look to make sure the one black 8 was a spade in order to 'show' the 'correct' card here.

I would be more leery of a boat if the Turn was a different 6 and he volunteered to show the 8 ... calling it a spade.

IMO he either has 8c8s or 8sXs due to the speed of the turn bet. I would probably call here a lot if I can beat or chop against 87 and I would call here some of the time with less.

This probably got off the 'tell' basis into some strategy but ... GL

I wanted to answer before reading the above.

The 8s is an interesting card to show. It includes boats and busted flush draws that wouldn't shove river with top pair. By showing this card he is implying that he can't be bluffing and must have a boat.

If he's capable of turning top pair into a bluff then that's probably what he is doing because of CO's nitty scared description.

From a poker analysis it makes more sense that he has 8 + fd as opposed to boat on turn, but different people will play these hands very differently.

In my humble opinion:

I would think this card show makes it more likely he has a strong hand, in this case a full house.

Most shows of cards from bluffers will be showing like the fourth flush card or fourth straight card. By showing this card, he's basically polarizing his range to full house or just a pair, which would be a weird thing for a bluffer to do. A bluffer would want to keep the potential straights and random smaller full houses in his range, which showing this card removes. So I think a bluffer would be less likely to show this card because it's too likely to make an opponent suspicious. This is kind of like removing a bunch of strong hands from your range, which bluffers generally don't like to do.

Depending on how/when he said it, I think the suit mention is interesting. If he said that first without looking at his cards, it could make it more likely he has pocket 8s, because he'd be more likely to remember like black eights or something. Or maybe it means he has a suited 8, like maybe 8s6s. But mostly I wouldn't read much into that myself.

i agree, i think this guy has it more often than not. maybe 88

In general I would say showing this particular kind of card leans more towards strong hands/boats.

However in this case:
1) This particular card takes away all 68s combos and he likely doesn't have 68o - which leaves only 888 for a boat
2) A lot of ppl won't even raise a boat here. Especially when raising on this particular card reps 6x so it might scare villain away.

Given the above, there are just way more 8xss stuff he could have.

Personally, I put BU on A8 spades. The quick raise on the turn does not make sense if he has a boat. He wouldn't want to scare CO out of the pot while holding a full house. With a nut flush draw the bet makes more sense because he could be trying to take the pot down right there and yet still have some outs if he gets called or reraised.

Moreover, if BU had 88 wouldn't he have reraised preflop considering he is on the button facing a limper and a smaller raise with two players still behind him. Just doesn't add up to 88 imo.

I think showing his 8, might have been a way for him to get value ? I think he has 88, and he was hoping the other guy was strong enough to call top pair when really he has the boat...

IMO

must be forbidden ;-)

There's only one possible 86s combo anyway, so that basically removes 1/4 of his 88/86s combos.

Showing that card adds another psychological component to the decision, but also removes the majority of the math complexity.

Prior to showing, he had 88/66/86s/76s/65s/64s/A6s/K6s/22 and maybe a couple more combos in his range, most of that is gone now. On the other hand, lots of his possible bluff combos are also gone and he's basically down to busted 8xss FDs. And maybe he's turning 8x in a bluff now since he thinks CO has an overpair a lot of the time.