RULES?? PLEASE HELP! - Showing your cards?? revised?

[dldurda]

We play No-Limit Texas Hold'em Tournament every Wednesday. We all put $30 each in the pot and start with $100,000 in chips. We are all new but absolutely love the game. Here is a rule we couldn't figure out by watching TV and/or research.
>> What are the rules pertaining to showing your cards to other players?
We had a situation last week where Player A went "all in", as Player A awaited player B's desicion to call him, he (player A) showed other players his hole cards. Is this legal? This offended Player B. (although he won that hand) Please help with this particular scenario and any similar that may come up if possible?? I'm trying to prevent as much controversy as possible.

[Sorak]

It is legal to show your hole cards to the table. It is generally just not done.

[DDiehr]

In the situation you described, player B's actions seem okay. That is, only if he didn't receive/solicit advice from the other players. There is a hard and fast rule in every poker game I've been in (or would be in) that says "one player per hand." The reason is, if I show a hand like pocket nines to another player while deciding to call an all-in bet, he could say that I should call because he threw away an two face cards, making it less likely that the all-in player has a bigger pair, and less likely that the all-in player will hit with a hand like AK or AQ. Likewise, a player may tell the player with 99 to fold, because he threw away a 9, meaning another 9 hitting the board less likely.

Another thing to note, since this is a home game, you can change these types of rules. If one or more players is aggravated by this kind of thing, make a rule that says "absolutely no showing cards until all decisions are made." I say "decisions" because once all players are either all-in or out, showing cards is perfectly acceptable.