[n.s.]

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Like it or not, it IS a rule for information these days. You can't fight it, so don't let it bother you. You'll affect yourself negatively more than you'll affect anybody else positively.

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If you believe this, do you invoke IWTSTH whenever you are curious about what someone could have called with? I never let it get under my skin, but I do think that people should be heavily discouraged from abusing (i.e. using) this rule, or else it will start happening every hand.

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No, I don't invoke it. I also show down my hand immediately, regardless of position, if I think I have a winner. My goal is to get in as many hands as possible (for me and for the dealer), so I don't do anything that needlessly slows down the game.

However, I do recognize that for pretty much everybody, IWTSTH translates to "I'm curious" and not "I think you're cheating". It makes no sense whatsoever to let it bother me in any way. I feel my play is varied enough that nobody is going to figure out anything. And they're not even trying to learn, they're just curious. If anything, it's advertising, and I'll adjust my play accordingly.

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Yeah, just to be clear I never care when people use it on me - I'm perfectly happy to show my hand, win or lose. There are two reasons why IWTSTH bothers me: the first (and most important) is that it can embarrass a bad player. If some donk calls to the river with bottom pair no kicker and doesn't want to show it unless it's good, calling IWTSTH on this guy is just going to discourage him from doing that in the future.

The second reason is that it can slow down the game (as you mentioned above). This is especially true when some player *do* take great offense at having their hand revealed and so they start a pissy little fight that hurts the mood of the table, the speed of hands, and ultimately my profitability.