It's said that poker is a game played with incomplete information. One of the ways you gain information is by observing past behavior. While this can give you some information, you really can maximize this information in poker if you observe the behavior of a player and you know what cards they were playing with. This takes us to an important poker tip concerning the showing of your cards which is: don't do it if able.

Many times you will see players call another players bet and then plop down their cards. They are so excited about their hand, they just can't wait to show it. This is a very bad move. If you show your cards first like this, the player who had their bet called can then muck their cards without showing them if they know they have already lost. Yeah, the caller won the pot, but they lost out on the chance to gain additional information about the other player which may come in very handy in future hands. So here's the rule:

When calling a bet, never show your cards until the other player(s) show theirs.

By doing this you gain information about other players that may have otherwise been lost. In addition, if you know you have lost the hand, you can then deny information to the other players at the table by mucking your hand without showing it.

There's a similar strategy you can take when you are the one who was called. While you are supposed to show your cards first, pause for a second or two (nothing to noticeable or annoying) to see if the other player(s) throws down their cards first. If so, you then can muck your cards if you are beat to deny other players information on your play. And even if you've won, you've now gained information about the other player that you might not have gotten if you were quick to show and they knew they were beat.