Hi,

I got into a disagreement the other night. The turn card was dealt before some players had acted. The card exposed would have given me the nuts. I turned to my friend who was not in the hand and showed him my cards.

Is this action of showing cards during a hand against the rules (every poker rulebook every written)?

In Mike Carros book of tells he talks about getting reads off of the bystanders who are shown a players hole cards. So how can showing cards be against the rules in all rulebooks?

The WSOP rules state:
116. Exposing Cards and Proper Folding: A participant exposing his or her cards with action pending will incur a penalty, but will not have a dead hand. The penalty will begin at the end of the hand.

But does this include showing cards to a player not in the hand?

And in the Australian Poker League (APL) rules it states:
The following actions are improper, and grounds for warning, suspension, or barring a repeat offender:
- Revealing the contents of a live hand in a multi handed pot before the betting is complete

My question regarding the APL rules is, "Revealing to who?" We can't reveal the contents of our hand to players still in contention for the pot obviously, but can we reveal our hand to all others?

Thanks