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].

Stack ’Em to the Top

Dear The Rules Guy:

Is there really a rule about stacking chips? Are we playing poker or Jenga?

— Not a Very Good Jenga Player

Dear NVGJP:

Let The Rules Guy put a question to you: If you were playing basketball, how important would it be for you and your team to know, say, the score? Let’s say there are two minutes left, and you know you’re behind. If you’re down by 20, the game is over; if you’re down by two, you’ve got a chance. Just as obvious, you’ll play differently when you’re up by 20 points with two minutes to go than you will if you’re up by two.
Basketball does not offer a perfect analogy with poker, but it’s close. Only the most clueless players act without considering their opponents’ stack sizes. A tournament short stack in the cutoff might not shove so fast if the big blind has him covered by a multiple of ten. A big stack might not make a steal move from the cutoff if one of the blinds is super-short and essentially guaranteed to call.

Virtually every competitive endeavor keeps score, and poker is no different. But poker is different in how it’s scored. Most sporting events are scored in real-time, with precision, by disinterested third-parties; poker is not. It’s up to the player to stay on top who’s got what (with exceptions, of course, for big tournaments with TV coverage).

And because there is no real-time, up-to-the-minute count, the responsibility for determining who’s ahead devolves to players. You eyeball stacks. You ask for a count. As The Rules Guy noted in an earlier column about asking for a count, you’re under no obligation to make the count yourself, but your opponents are absolutely entitled to ask for one.

So why not speed up the process by stacking your chips neatly—for the benefit of the counter (i.e., the dealer) and for your opponents, so they can eyeball your stack and avoid the time-consuming counting process?

Even a bad Jenga player can stack chips according to the prevailing conventions:

— Make easily countable stacks of like denominations, usually 10 or 20 chips; 40 or 80 if there are a massive number of chips in play.
— Don’t mix denominations to create “dirty stacks.”
— And stacks of high-denomination chips should be clearly visible, which means putting them in front of stacks of smaller denominations or stacking them on top of your other stacks.

The advantages of clean stacking are obvious: People can eyeball your stack and get a rough idea of how much you’re playing. Often, the eyeball is sufficient, particularly when the discrepancy is substantial.

Neat stacking is an example of good poker etiquette, but there is a rule about it. In fact, there are a couple: Tournament Directors Association Rule 2 states that “Players are expected to…keep chips correctly stacked.” Rule 24 outlines what “correctly stacked” actually means:

Players are entitled to a reasonable estimation of an opponent’s chip count; thus chips should be kept in countable stacks. The TDA recommends clean stacks in multiples of 20 as a standard. Players must keep higher denomination chips visible and identifiable at all times.

A couple of observations: “Players are entitled to a reasonable estimation” does not mean you’re entitled to a time-consuming exact count whenever you want one, particularly if it’s visually obvious that one of you has the other covered. If you’re unsure about the stack size, by all means ask for a count, but don’t ask if the answer is “a lot more than you’ve got,” as The Rules Guy once heard from a cheeky (but accurate) dealer.

Second, multiples of 20 are considered “a standard,” but that’s not an explicit rule. But ask dealers—or bloggers or reporters—and they’ll tell you that 20-chip stacks makes their job easier. Not that your job as a poker player is to make someone else’s life easier, but be reasonable. And remember that poker is a game. Games need scoring mechanisms. And chips are the scoring mechanism for poker.

So stack ’em high. In clean, easily countable stacks. And no chip sculptures please. This ain’t no game of Jenga.

Slow-Rolling Redux:

The All-in Slow Roll

Dear The Rules Guy:

It’s late in a tournament here in my home city of Vegas, and UTG+1 raises. Fold…fold…call…and the action’s on me. I look down at a pair of jacks, and I think I have some fold equity so I move in. It folds around to the original raiser, who calls, and everyone else mucks. We’re all in, it’s a tournament, so I flip my jacks over and the original raiser…stalls and doesn’t turn his cards up until the dealer reminds him to.

I don’t get it. He had aces. Of course he’s going to call. He saw my hand. He knows the rules. Why oh why didn’t he just turn his cards up as soon as the action was complete? The outcome wouldn’t have been any different: his rockets held up and I was busto. Busto and steaming. Was I slow-rolled?

– Grumbly in Green Valley

Dear Grumbly:

Oh, you were unquestionably slow-rolled! Not a classic slow roll—the kind where you triumphantly turn over a made hand (say, the king-high flush) and your opponent looks at your hand quizzically, glances at his cards, then waits for a beat or possibly three—then turns his ace-high flush over (one card a time, natch) and collects the pot. Usually with a smirk.

The rules for tournament play are clear: When two players are all in and there’s no further action, both players turn their hands over. It doesn’t matter who goes first; in the ideal world, both hands are turned over at about the same time. (The reason to turn both hands over is to prevent collusion: A chip dumper could call an all-in bet from a confederate, then muck his hand without showing it.

And with aces, since there is virtually no chance the holder won’t call, there is zero reason not to table the cards immediately (assuming no action pending behind, of course). If the guy has another hand—even kings—some deliberation might be called for. But not with aces. Extremely bad form on the part of your opponent! ♠