One point of view people may be missing about the Rancor pit scene…Luke was visibile to Jabba and many of his associates and underlings most of the time in the pit, even when at the gated entrance. He probably didn’t want to use the force unless absolutely necessary otherwise it would give his “hand” away to Jabba who would then take precautions against these witnessed abilities and likely foil Luke’s plan.
Pretty much the only time he is properly out of sight is when he’s under the rock overhang (rear gated entrance still closed at this point) and you might say he used the force then to smash the Rancor’s hand with the rock as I don’t think a normal person doing the same would even cause the Rancor to flinch, let alone rear back and roar in utter pain.
He does use the force earlier to choke the initial two palace guards but no one else is nearby to witness this to understand how they died.
.Val
I’m sorry but that ship (people knowing he’s a Jedi) sailed long ago. Not only he force choke the guards, but he presents himself as a Jedi, he tries to use the jedi mind trick on Jabba (after using it on Bib, and Jabba pushes him saying something like: “your fool, this is an old jedi trick” and tells Luke that it won’t work with him), and finally he uses the force to grab a gun and try to shoot Jabba.
I don’t see why after all this he would risk his life by hiding his jedi powers. It doesn’t make any sense to me.