Value of Seeing Opponent's Hand

[Josem]

I didn't know where to put this post, but here goes:

Cliff's Notes Question: What is the dollar value of seeing an opponent's hand?


Situation: I was playing $2/$3 no-limit cash live on Thursday night (buy-in $A200). My opponent with $62 or so, had a dollar chip sitting on his cards acting as a card protector. He had the remaining $61 in a single pile. Without announcing his play, he moved the $61 stack into the pot. Thus, he was not all-in.

I called, and come the river, I happened to have the nut flush. I bet $1 to take his remaining chip (actually, the dealer told me off and said I couldn't bet $1. I said "ok then, I bet $400"), and my opponent called with his last remaining $1 chip.

Other players at the table were annoyed that since I bet on the river (and was called) I was now the aggressor in the hand, and after I showed my nut flush, the opponent no longer needed to show his hand.

That got me to thinking - at the time, I decided that I would rather have an extra $1 than see my opponent's hand (as it happened, he had announced that he was leaving at that this would be his last hand before leaving). However, obviously my opponents, who did not gain the extra $1, would rather see his hand for future play.


About the game & opponents: Obviously the value of seeing the opponent's hand varies according to the quality of play, whether you're likely to see them again, and so on. I'd say that the play here was reasonably decent - they weren't total morons, two of the 10 players at the table had played in the $10k buy-in Aussie Millions the previous week, but at the same time, I was comfortably beating the game and didn't feel under any pressure. My oppponent's were relatively decent, but not world class.


The Question: How much money would you be willing to pay in a situation similar to this to see your opponent's hand (assuming you were likely to play hundreds of hands with him in the future)? For the purposes of this theoretical discussion, answers of under $1 are valid too.

Conceptually, if you were willing to pay an amount of money on this hand, you'd also be willing to pay money to see an opponent's losing showdown hand at every single showdown you'd play.


My answer: <font color="white">If I knew my opponent was going to hang around and play with me much more in the future, I'd pay no more than $0.25 - $0.50.</font>

[sabre170]

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