Poker Etiquette

     The way people behave varies from place to place, and I'm sure what is acceptable at country clubs and what is acceptable in the backroom of a tavern are different things. So, feel free to post your own rules about smoking and language and whether or not you allow drinks on the table.

     Some behavior affects the game, and is considered bad poker etiquette. Penalties can even be enforced for repeated bad etiquette. Some misbehviors include:

Acting out of Turn
     One of the advantages of being in late postion is knowing more about how your opponents are going to act. If a player acts out of turn, he gives other players more information than they deserve. If I could see that two players following me are going to fold, because they threw their hands in out of turn, it may affect whether or not I choose to play my marginal hand. That has an unfair affect on the game for the remaining players at the table.

One Player To A Hand
     If you are not making the bets, you shouldn't play the cards. If you are making the bets, you shouldn't allow others to play the cards for you.
     I see this happening in home games both when players are knocked out and really want to keep playing, usually by "helping" a newer player.

Splashing the Pot
     Don't simply toss your chips into the pot. It makes it unnecessarily difficult to keep track of the betting when chips are scattered about the table.

Revealing Hands
     Although poker is a game that embraces deception, do not either disclose, or misinform players of the contents of your hand. It is also inappropriate for players who have folded to reveal the contents of their hands.

Show One Show All
     If you show the contents of your hand to one player, you must show it to all of the players at the table. This is to keep one player from having more knowledge than the other players have. Every little bit of information, even what you folded, says something.

No Cell Phone Conversations at the Table
     This should be obvious.

No String Bets
     When raising, you must declare the amount of your raise, or place the amount of your raise into the pot in one motion. This keeps players from declaring a raise, placing some chips into the pot, reading their opponent, and then placing more chips into the pot until the opponent looks scared to call the raise.

     Other house rules often include:
No Rabbit Hunting
     If a card wasn't dealt, you don't see it. Don't dig into the deck to see if you what the next card would ahve been and if would have caught that flush or not.

No Reading the Board Aloud
     Refrain from commenting about possible hands by reading the board out loud. If a player doesn't see a possible straight, don't point it out to them. That has a negative effect on the game.