Etiquette

Courtesy should be paramount at the table but unfortunately it is sometimes lacking. Indeed, there are many examples of bad conduct witnessed at the poker table. Here are a few tips on how to conduct yourself with courtesy in the game. Try to remember that when your conduct is above reproach players will respect your opinion and will seek your guidance when there is a dispute. Previous article
•    Do not pass your cards out of turn, even if you are no longer interested in staying in contest for the pot. It can affect the fortunes of one player over another when the field is shortened and a player has a difficult decision to make. It usually gives an advantage to the players seated before you who have yet to make their plays. You may see other players fold or call out of turn, but please don’t do it yourself. If you do, be assured you will be pulled up by the other players for it.
•    When discarding your hand do so at a low level of flight so that no other player can see what you have discarded.
•    Leave your cards in plain view at all times, preferably on the table in front of you. Holding them against your shirt or showing them to ‘railbird’ friends (see Glossary) is not approved behaviour.
•    Likewise, keep your chips in plain view at all times.
•    Refrain from criticising other players’ methods and standard of play.
•    Do not abuse the dealer, verbally or in any other way. Bad behaviour, such as throwing cards at the dealer, whilst mercifully rare, is totally unforgivable. Remember it is not the dealer’s fault that you are losing.
•    Forget post-mortems. It is irritating for other players to have to listen to discussion on what happened in the last hand or even several hands ago.
•    If you are plagued by the need to show someone what a good hand you had, when not required to do so at a showdown, make sure all players enjoy the same experience. The correct guideline often quoted at the poker table is ’show one, show
all’.
•    Showing your cards except at the showdown, even without bad intent, is bad etiquette.
•    Players must not show or reveal the contents of their hands when all-in before betting is over. A player who shows that he has a strong hand for the centre pot hinders the chance of a player who bets into a side pot. There is less likelihood of a call. If an all-in player shows that he has a weak hand he increases the chance of a call.
•    Likewise, please don’t feel that you have to tell everyone what your last hand was and what you would have had if only you had stayed in the pot, some polite people might feign interest, but few really are.
•    Do not splash the pot. This is where a player throws his chips into the pot when making a bet. It takes extra time for the dealer to re-stack and count bets when you splash the pot. When you bet, place your chips directly in front of you. The dealer will then be sure you have bet the right amount and when betting is complete will place them into the pot.
•    Soft-play agreements have a negative effect on the game. This is where a player bets less than they normally would or checks good hands when against friends, husbands or wives. Don’t enter into these types of agreements. Every player should play in his own self-interest - it’s the essence of poker.
•    Do not handle other players’ chips or cards.
•    Speech play (also called ‘coffee housing’) is the term used to describe what happens when a player makes comments about a hand when it is in progress. This is not prohibited in terms of the rules, but it is considered unethical in the UK (not so in the USA). So be careful what you say during the play of a hand and resist the urge to talk about a hand during the action or when someone is thinking.
•    Do not try to educate other players at the table by pointing out what you think are mistakes. Its odds on they will resent it and mark you down as a smart Alec, or worse. Why not let people pay for their education - it’s how I had to learn!
•    Players should speak up and assist the dealer by calling attention to an error in the amount of the bet or the improper reading of the hand etc. Likewise, any player who sees an error about to be made, such as awarding the pot to the wrong person, has a duty to speak up.

•    It is improper to make an effort to see another player’s hole card. However, one is not obliged to look away if any cards are openly exposed.
•    Talk or actions demeaning to any person at the table are poor etiquette and should not be tolerated by the other players.
•    A player going all-in should announce the fact and the dealer should make sure all players are aware of this circumstance.
•    There are occasions when intent has to be considered when making decisions and observing the strict letter of the rule can be wrong. Therefore, one has to look behind the rule and look at the intent. Any signal to act, whether it be a tap on the table to signify check or other hand signal or verbal to signify raise, should be accepted by the players if it is understood by all what the player’s intent was.
•    Any player or person in authority has the right to inspect a deck of cards and change it at any time to protect the honesty and integrity of the game.
•    When there are two players contending the pot to a showdown, both players may, if they wish, lay their cards down face up. If either player fails to do so any player can request all cards to be shown. However, the dealer must muck the cards that are being given up before exposure, i.e. touch the muck with the cards and then turn them over.
Actions by Players Considered Improper
It has to be remembered that poker is a game of deception. The following are a selection of reasons why certain actions, perhaps considered improper by some players, are not in fact bad etiquette.
•    Players taking too long to act with a cinch hand may not be acting improperly as some forms of poker make it difficult to know the best hand before the showdown.
•    Often, poor players do not know they have the nuts, therefore you should make allowances for them if they seem to take a long time to decide.
•    It may be considered discourteous to slow play the nuts but it is not prohibited and some, including myself, would argue that it is not even bad etiquette. It is just one of the artifices of the game. Remember other players do not have to call.