The Rules Guy: How To Conduct Yourself at the Poker Table

Most players learn poker’s explicit rules pretty quickly: the “one-chip rule,” for example, or “verbal declarations are binding.” But not everyone seems to have digested the game’s vast book of unwritten rules, admonitions like “don’t berate other players (particularly bad ones)” or “say ‘nice hand’ even when you mean something entirely different.”

Enter “The Rules Guy.” TRG believes that civility and sportsmanship are never wrong, and that bad behavior (even when you’re simply trying to get an edge) is bad for the game. Have you got a question about how to conduct yourself at the poker table? Email TRG at [email protected].

Dear The Rules Guy:

According to the rules, as long as I’m in a hand, I can ask to see a winner’s cards even when the hand is mucked without a showdown, or a losing hand if it’s mucked. Here’s my question: Why shouldn’t I ask to see these cards every time? Seems like it would give me a lot of valuable information.

— Nosy in North Dakota

Dear Nosy,

You have made a query that illuminates one of the great conundrums of the poker rulebook. One the one hand (no pun intended), there is an explicit rule that addresses your question: If you are dealt into a hand, you may ask to see any hand involved in the showdown, from a quietly mucked loser to a hand that won without being tabled (assuming, of course, the cards are identifiable; for instance, slid forward face down but not yet mixed into the muck).

Yes, sir, you do, in fact, have that right.

But just one second. The Rules Guy has to ask: “Why do you want to those cards?”

Wait! Before you answer, TRG will answer correctly for you: “I want to see those cards to ensure those players are not colluding.”

That is the only answer you can give that will carry any weight. TRG is guessing that is not your purpose. In fact, TRG can hear you (figuratively) remonstrating, “That’s not what I was trying to do! I simply want the information.”

Ah, it is as TRG suspected. And that reason — wanting information — is simply not enough. The sole purpose behind the rule is to protect players against collusion. Period. Full stop. End of story.

At least, that’s how TRG has always thought of the rule. But it’s actually hard to find an explicit mention of the rule and its connection to collusion or cheating. As the clear and concise Robert’s Rules of Poker (by Card Player’s own Bob Ciaffione and freely available online) has it, “Any player who has been dealt in may request to see any hand that was eligible to participate in the showdown, even if the opponent’s hand or the winning hand has been mucked.” But Ciaffione makes no mention of why or when a player should make such a request.

And the always reliable The Rules of Poker (Lou Krieger and Sheree Bykovsky; Lyle Stuart, 2004) simply notes, in Rule 5.25, that “any participant in a hand may ask to see a hand that was called.” They only mention collusion as the rationale for the rule in an “interpretation note:” “[O]ccasionally allowing players to see called hands protects them against collusion, and that’s the goal of this rule.”

But nowhere will you find this interpretation of the rule: “If you’re trying to get a line on your opponents’ play, or trying to console yourself that you made an excellent laydown, by all means ask to see a mucked hand at showdown.” Nowhere.

All commentators go out of their way to suggest that a strong degree of judiciousness is in order. Ciaffione in Robert’s Rules of Poker: “[T]his is a privilege that may be revoked if abused.” Krieger and Bykovsky: “This rule is often bent to the point that it is applied solely to get a read on an opponent’s playing style, or worse yet, to annoy and irritate him.”

TRG has been around the proverbial block a few times. He suspects that collusion does occur in live games and believes that having a rule that gives a player an opportunity to spot collusion is a good thing. But TRG also suspects that the vast majority of the times someone asks to see a mucked hand at showdown is not connected with the quest to keep poker free of cheaters but “solely to get a read on an opponent’s playing style, or worse yet, to annoy and irritate him.”

Not ethical. And definitely not cool.

The possibility of collusion, in particular, chip dumping, is a much more important problem in poker tournaments, which is why most tournament rulebooks, including that of the Tournament Directors Association, insist on players turning their hole cards face-up in all-in situations: “All cards will be tabled without delay once a player is all-in and all betting action by all other players in the hand is complete.”

In short: You should not ask to see a player’s mucked hand at showdown unless you think he or she is cheating. Any other reason is off limits — according to the rules. Any other reason is off-limits — according to the unwritten standards of etiquette.

When you ask to see someone’s mucked hand, you are, perhaps unwittingly, implying they are cheating. But at worst, you are forcing them to reveal something they’d rather not: the third-best hand that should have known better, the bluff that convinced no one, or even the nut hand that got no callers (the bettor might prefer to be viewed as looser than he really is).

Regardless, you will rankle players. TRG knows that some players will ask to see cards for that very reason. In fact, when TRG proffered a mild rebuke to a player who asked to see a mucked winner (at a $3-$6 limit hold’em game!), he said, “Well, now that I know it bothers you, I’ll ask to see your cards every chance I get.” TRG immediately gave him a mental label (not “nit,” “rock,” fish,” or “donkey” — if memory serves, the label was “asshat”).

If you really think someone is cheating, by all means use this rule and ask to see the cards. You probably won’t determine if the player is or isn’t, but the warning will force him to be a bit more careful for the rest of the session. But if you simply want to get information, get it the old-fashioned way: earn it. Observation and analysis require effort, but that effort will make you money. Getting under the skin of another player will just you make you an enemy.

One afterthought: If a player not in a hand asks to see a mucked hand that didn’t win, the tabled hand is dead, dead, dead. But if the winning hand asks to see a mucked hand at showdown, and the mucked hand is identifiable, cards speak. Be careful! ♠

Comments? Questions? Behavioral issues? Email TRG at [email protected].