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. What’s wrong? What’s right? What’s an angle? Got a question about how to behave at the poker table (or a comment about a column)? Email TRG at [email protected].

Props to Lee Robert Schreiber

In his 2004 book Poker as Life: 101 Lessons from the World’s Greatest Game, Schreiber covers a lot of ground on the importance of knowing the rules, not just to keep things fair to make them more pleasant for everyone. On the subject of house (card room) rules, he states that “one commandment trumps all: What the house says, goes.”

Think It’s Obvious? Think Again

Dear The Rules Guy:

I had an interesting exchange with a dealer in a local casino’s no-limit hold’em tournament last Sunday. With blinds at 600-1,200, I decided to open for a raise. I put out a red 5,000 chip while announcing “Five.”

The dealer said “That’s a call: 1,200.”

When I asked how she got to that, she told me that “five” wasn’t definitive enough: I could have meant 500 rather than 5,000. Everyone else at the table had no problem understanding me, and they all folded, leaving me to rake in the blinds so I pushed the point no further.

Okay, there’s no question that spelling out the raise precisely would have been best, but wasn’t my intention obvious? Heck, with other dealers at that casino I have had no problem making such a bet. I’ve even used the colloquial “buck and a half” to signify a 150 bet and no one blinked—it was obvious what I meant! I thought that obvious intent counted at the poker table.

So what do you think?

­— Stu in Ft. Wayne

Dear Stu:

Here’s what The Rules Guy thinks: He thinks he would have understood your intent perfectly. And he thinks he wants that dealer at his table, every time.

The rules as we will explore are arguably with you, by the way. But she is helping avoid poker’s inherent ambiguity, one of the chief sources of problems at the table.

Here’s the most relevant, on-point rule from the TDA (#52: Non-Standard & Unclear Betting):

Players use unofficial betting terms and gestures at their own risk. These may be interpreted to mean other than what the player intended. Also, if a declared bet can reasonably have multiple meanings, it will be ruled the lesser value. Ex: NLHE 200-400 blinds, player declares “I bet five.” If it is unclear whether “five” means 500 or 5,000, the bet is 500. See Rules 2, 3 & 42. See Illustration Addendum.

(Strange that your situation seems to be the TDA’s example of choice.) In your case, it’s quite difficult, nigh impossible, to think that your bet is in any way unclear. When you put out a single chip worth 5,000 with the blinds at 600-1,200 and say “five,” no one on earth will think you mean 500. Obviously, you have to put in $1,200 just to call, so a bet of $500 would make no sense. And a bet of 50,000 is also out of the realm of conceivability for obvious reasons.

So you’re right: Your intent was clear to you and the rest of the table.

In short, you have a case. The addendum to that rule is quite interesting, and provides a certain amount of discretion in determining intent and the actual size of a bet. Since in the situation you describe it’s really quite impossible to imagine you meant 500, the only conceivable amount you could mean is 5,000. (If the blinds were 100-200 and you say “five” with a 5,000 chip, the bet is 500.)

TRG has thought about how to make an angle out of ambiguous verbal announcements, and it’s hard to come up with a scenario that might work (though he invites his eagle-eyed readers to send him some).

But that all said, what TRG likes about this dealer is that she is trying to reduce ambiguity, which always (always!) makes the game better for everyone. Think of edicts like the “one chip rule,” the ne plus ultra of procedure designed to reduce ambiguity. Haven’t we all made that mistake? And with a clearly defined rule against it, you’re not likely to make it more than once or twice (and everyone accepts the outcome).

Reducing ambiguity is great for poker: It reduces the likelihood of angles being shot (and remember, a suspicion of angle shooting can be as harmful to the game as actual angle shooting). Reducing ambiguity speeds up play (fewer long questions, answers, clarifications). And it’s nice for your fellow players.

TRG also think it’s ultimately better for your game to be clear and unambiguous. It means less clarification (possibly an opportunity to give off tells) and more confidence. You reveal less by being more clear. Clarity is actually a cardinal virtue in life; it commands respect and shows respect.

This doesn’t mean you need to bet or act with robotic precision or formal diction. It’s not necessary to announce, “Dealer, it is my intention to raise in the amount of five thousand dollars.” Just make your action obvious and clear:

Make it five thousand.

Five thousand to go.

Five large all day.

(That one might get some pushback!)

One final point: Your notion of “obvious intent” may in this instance conform to the letter of the rules, but it cannot hold water as standard by which dealers and floor people can make decisions. Think of the string bet rule. A player’s obvious intent, at some point in their fumbling, is to make a raise, but no player (except someone holding the nuts and behind the action) would ever say, “You know what? I believe him. Let him raise.”

Intent is nothing at the table. Actions are everything. So props to your dealer (and props to you for writing to The Rules Guy).

If You Welcome Them, They Will Come

Dear The Rules Guy:

Has anyone ever asked you what we players can do to make poker more inviting and lure (I mean “encourage”) newcomers to play this beautiful game?

— Perennially Worried About The Future of Poker

Dear PWATFOP:

No one has asked TRG that question, but TRG does have opinions (naturally!) on this subject, inspired by the realization that the poker-sphere (Card Player, podcasts, blogs, etc.) seems perennially worried that poker is not growing in the way it was back in the good old days. A more informed mind than TRG’s knows if that worry is justified, but we should all want to develop the ranks of players. And so some ideas (and TRG would welcome correspondence on this topic):

Introduce friends and family to the game you love (in a low-stakes, non-threatening way).
Take a friend to your card room and show him or her the ropes.

And be particularly friendly and helpful to newcomers; make their experience a pleasant one. That doesn’t mean play soft, but it does mean play nice, show interest, and encourage them to come back.

Poker is not for everyone. But it is a great game for a lot more people than currently play. ♠