Rules of the Game: Part IX

Many new players are coming into brick-and-mortar (B&M) casino cardrooms for the first time. They have played online and in home games, but may not know the rules and conventions of live cardroom play, and might get tripped up.

As a public service, this series explains many of the rules that newcomers probably have not encountered.

What You Say

Be careful of what you say when you call your hand. In some cardrooms - not all, by any means - what you say could cause you to lose a pot even when you have the best hand. It could allow someone to win who otherwise would have no claim on the pot.

This is another commonly misunderstood - by beginners - rule. Online players don't encounter such a rule because the software always automatically awards the pot to the best hand at the showdown. Home-game players don't encounter such a rule because the best hand always wins at the showdown.

But many B&M casino cardrooms have a rule worded approximately this way: "Any player who miscalls his hand at the showdown, causing another player to throw away his cards, loses all claim to the pot."

What this means is that if you overcall your hand at the showdown and another player mucks his hand, if you can't produce what you claimed, you lose the pot, even if your actual holding is the best.

The Official Dictionary of Poker (TODOP) lists one of the meanings of "overcall" as: "At the showdown, declare a hand as being better than it is, for which some cardrooms impose a penalty that the player may lose claim to the pot; that is, the verbal announcement takes precedence over the actual cards. The reason for the rule is that one of the tactics of an angle shooter is to miscall a hand, hoping that the other player will inadvertently throw away the winning hand. If the loser then sees that the announcer did not really have, for example, a flush, but only one diamond to go with the three on the board, the angler then says, 'Oh, sorry; I misread my holecards. I thought I had two diamonds.'"

If you honestly make such a mistake in some cardrooms, you still might have the best hand but lose your claim to the pot. For example, if you are inadvertently guilty of the preceding, the misread heart that you have in the hole might form a pair with one of the other boardcards, and that pair might be higher than the pair with which an opponent called the last bet. If the opponent throws his cards away, however, he gets the pot.

This is not the case in all cardrooms. In many cardrooms, the rule is, cards speak, as follows: "The rule followed in many cardrooms that what a player says about his hand has no relevance: only the cards shown are of importance, and those cards, when placed faceup on the table, are to be 'read' by the house dealer, or any player at the table. Sometimes the expression is extended to cards speak for themselves. The rule is invoked in two situations. In the first, a player can say what he likes about his hand, but it is what he actually shows down that determines the winner of the pot. (The opposite situation is also common, particularly in California, where some cardrooms hold that if a player miscalls his hand as being better than it is, he may lose claim to the pot; that is, the verbal announcement takes precedence over the actual cards.)" The other situation is in high-low split games, and does not concern us here.

How it often works in practice in cardrooms in which the rule is observed is that if a player after being called announces his holding, an opponent who cannot beat that hand immediately mucks his own cards. Then, when the announcer tables his cards, if he turns out not to have what he claims, the house dealer awards the pot to the player who threw away his cards.

The situation becomes complicated when more than one player is in the hand and a miscall is made. Who gets the pot?
Usually, not the player who mucked his cards. The pot usually goes to the player holding the best undiscarded hand.

The best thing for you to do in cardrooms with this rule is, when someone declares a hand better than yours, wait to see it before discarding your hand, particularly if more than two players are involved. And, to be safe, don't yourself announce a holding at the showdown; just spread your hand and let the world see it. Of course, in cardrooms in which "cards speak," just ignore anything you hear and spread your cards in turn if they beat the bettor's hand.

Parenthetically, it's not strictly true that miscalling causes the utterer to lose all claim to the pot. This holds only if he announces better than what he has (overcalls his hand). There is no penalty for undercalling a hand. Also from TODOP: "Undercall: At the showdown, declare your hand as being worse than it is. Some cardrooms have a penalty for overcalling a hand, in which they rule that if a player miscalls his hand as being better than it is, causing another player to discard his hand, he may lose claim to the pot; that is, the verbal announcement takes precedence over the actual cards. There is no penalty for undercalling a hand; except for accidentally, it is usually done only to needle another player by making that player briefly think she has the winner."

Michael Wiesenberg has been a columnist for Card Player since the first issue in 1988. His latest book, The Ultimate Casino Guide, published by Sourcebooks, is available at fine bookstores and at Amazon.com and other online book purveyors. The Official Dictionary of Poker should see a new incarnation as part of a more extensive work within a year. Send rhapsody, rebukes, and requests to [email protected].