With the explosion of interest in poker, many players are coming into brick-and-mortar (B&M) cardrooms for the first time. They know how to play - and often very well - on the Internet, but they don't know the rules and conventions of live cardroom play. Others have seen poker played on TV or think they're ready to graduate from their home games. They, too, may run into rules that are likely to trip up beginners. Some rules seem specifically designed to "get" the uninitiated, but they're not. The rules are for the protection of the players and to maintain the honesty of the games.
This series explains many of the rules that newcomers probably have not encountered.
Every cardroom has a rulebook, with most of the rules governing play in that cardroom in the rulebook. The first time you go into a cardroom, ask for a copy of the rules and familiarize yourself with them. Some rules differ from one cardroom to another, so make sure you know what the rules are where you are. And I say "most of the rules" because not every rule is in the book. Some apparently seem so obvious that they're not written down, but they're enforced, and newcomers might not be aware of them. I'll identify such rules when they come up.
Protect Your Hand
Probably the most important rule in any live cardroom is, protect your own hand at all times. Doing so might not occur to you Internet players, because you don't have to do anything special to protect your hand when playing on your computer. Cardroom dealers are taught to scoop up cards lying randomly on the table, because those cards are assumed to have been discarded. Hold'em players learn to keep their holecards directly in front of them and maintain possession of them. Players do this by putting one or more chips on top of their cards, by resting a hand on them while the cards are in play, or by placing a special coin or other object on the cards. Greg "Fossilman" Raymer puts a small fossil on his cards. "Spinners," disk-shaped devices that have a small point on the center of the underside, such that they can be spun on the table or on the cards, are popular card protectors. Some have designs, which sometimes become hypnotic when spun. Whatever you use, make sure you have some indication that your cards are in play so that the dealer doesn't just scoop them up along with the other discards. This can happen easily if you're sitting next to the house dealer. Everyone has heard of or seen the sad situation of a player having a sizeable financial investment in a pot suddenly say, "What happened to my cards?" The cards are gone, picked up by the dealer, and oftentimes they cannot be resurrected. If a floorperson is called over to make a decision, the dealer says, "The cards were just lying there. They weren't protected. I didn't know he was in the hand." If the player is new, the floorperson may try to find the missing cards, but often can't or won't. Many dealers would of course be aware of who was in the hand and who not, but dealers get very busy, and they can't always keep track. If your hand is protected, it won't accidentally end up among the discards.
It's not just Internet players who run into the preceding. Home games are often very informal, and folded cards just sit on the table until the start of the next deal. Usually, the players deal for themselves rather than having a house dealer, and rarely are cards mistakenly scooped up. So, again, it's not something home-game players think of when playing in a public cardroom.
Another aspect of protecting your hand is to look at your cards carefully, in such a way that you do not expose them to others. You don't have to worry about this in online cardrooms. You're the only one in your room. The other players are often thousands of miles away. There's no way they can see your cards. In a B&M cardroom, though, players are right next to you, usually on both sides. Cardroom regulars often can tell beginners by how they look at their cards. Most players don't go out of their way to see the holecards of the person seated next to them, but many also will not tell you if you're exposing your cards. One of the precepts of poker is that your hidden cards are your secret; you greatly increase an opponent's edge if he knows your cards. Get in the habit of cupping your hands over and around your cards, and then just lifting the edge of each card so that only you can possibly see them. This applies also to stud games. Don't pick up the cards; leave them sitting facedown on the table. I've seen beginners pick up both cards and face them toward themselves in such a way that the entire same side of the table can see them without even trying. I once said to a beginner who sat opposite me, "Sir, could you just turn those cards around so that we can see them on this side of the table, too. You're giving that side an unfair advantage." And of course remember to put something on top of the cards to protect them from being taken away from you.
More next time.
Michael Wiesenberg's The Ultimate Casino Guide, published by Sourcebooks, is available at fine bookstores and at Amazon.com and other online book purveyors. Send offerings, orders, and objections to [email protected].
