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 David Mamet

Playwright, screenwriter, and director David Mamet likes poker, and it figures often in his work, perhaps most notably in the excellent 1987 movie House of Games. In an essay he had this to say about the game:

The poker player learns that sometimes both science and common sense are wrong; that the bumblebee can fly; that, perhaps, one should never trust an expert; that there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of by those with an academic bent.

To which The Rules Guy adds, “The poker player learns that there isn’t a rule for everything, but figuring out what’s right is never impossible.”

Use Your Senses, But Ask If You Have To

Dear The Rules Guy,

At the beginning of a tournament, I told the dealer I was color-blind, and if I asked him repeatedly for the amount of a raise at the other end of the table, that was the reason why. Robert, a very good dealer, said he would give the amount, if asked, but was not supposed to do so if not asked. Is that correct? Some dealers announce the amount of every raise. Is that incorrect? Just curious.

— Wild Bill Will in Billsville, Arizona

Dear WBW:

Such a simple question – and such a good one (so thanks for sending it). Let’s start with the short answer and proceed from there. You’re right, and the dealer is more right than wrong, but the issue raises some interesting points of rule and etiquette.

To The Rules Guy’s way of thinking, the most relevant actual edict is Rule #8 from the Tournament Directors Association: “Accommodations for players with special needs will be made when possible.”

One can argue about the political correctness of “special needs,” but it’s probably the least offensive way of indicating something that might give a player a difficult time at the table. We make room for people in wheelchairs, of course. People who are blind play at the WSOP, as do people who need help manipulating chips and cards. TRG has no doubt that being color-blind would be a definite challenge to a poker player, making it difficult not just to count bets (chip color being one of the quickest ways to discern value) but to read suits of the cards in your hand and the cards in the widow. So in accordance with Rule 8, you naturally asked for help, and you should receive it.

TRG likes how you made it clear that the dealer’s help is only necessary when you need it. You would not, presumably, ask for the size of the raise in hands in which you’re not involved (in fact, that’s against the rules). You wouldn’t ask for a count if the bet size is obvious because of some combination of verbal and visual cues (a player clearly says “Raise!” and puts out a single chip with $1,000 on it) or if you really don’t need to know the answer (a player is all-in and you’ve got the nuts). But when you’re not sure, you will ask for the size of the bet.

This actually has nothing to do with the fact that you are color-blind. Any player is entitled to ask the amount when the action gets to him or her.

Three key points on that last bit:

First, the reason you ask (and here, “you” means any player) is because knowing the actual amount is vital before you say “call” or “raise.” Verbal declarations are binding, and if you say “call” thinking you’re calling a $100 bet and it turns out to be $1,000, you’re obliged to put in that $1,000. Note particularly: If the dealer counts wrong or if your opponents says something incorrect, you are still responsible for the actual amount, which is as it should be. (See TRG’s all-time favorite rule from the TDA, “#49: Accepted Action: Poker is a game of alert, continuous observation. It is the caller’s responsibility to determine the correct amount of an opponent’s bet before calling, regardless of what is stated by others.”)

Second, you must not ask out of turn. TRG sees this all the time. An early position player will say “all in” and a late position (i.e., out of turn) player will bark (it’s always a bark!), “How much is it?” This is a great (and by “great” TRG means “horrible”) angle, an attempt to preempt someone in the middle who might consider calling but changes his mind for fear of a squeeze play. Bad, bad, bad.

And third, players should not abuse this situation by continually asking the amount of the bet or raise. A genuine query is always acceptable; a query that stalls for time is not, nor is a query by someone who is not fully paying attention to the game and is engrossed in conversation, playing OFC on his or her phone, and slowing down the game for everyone. But you could reasonably ask every time given the fact of your color-blindness, and no one should be perturbed.

TRG suspects that your dealer is telling the truth according to the rules of his card room. Most dealers don’t want to have to count out every bet or raise, and they shouldn’t have to. Different card rooms have different attitudes on this, but it’s not uncommon to have a rule (more like a procedural suggestion) that says not to announce the amount of each raise.

This is reasonable. Counting the total amount and determining the size of the raise is time-consuming, and pointless if it does not change the action. Trivial example: someone opens all-in, and you have aces; there are very few scenarios in which you’re not going to be overjoyed to say “Call!” or “All-in!” Asking for a count just postpones the inevitable, slowing down the showdown and the game for everyone.

But in your situation, you’re well within the rules to ask. Not only that, it’s good of you to be upfront about it, to ward off any subsequent grousing from your tablemates too. But to reiterate: It’s completely permissible to ask what the bet is – provided the action is on you (color-blind or not).

The Existential Rule

Dear The Rules Guy:

I recently found myself all-in with pocket tens and was called by a pair of jacks (the nerve of those knaves!!!). The flop helps no one, the turn, ditto; the dealer burns the next card and there was a ten. Only problem: It was face up (in the deck). WTF, TRG?!?

— Dejected and Defeated in Decatur

Dear Dejected and Defeated in Decatur,

Welcome to the example par excellence that the laws of reality don’t apply to poker. Your dealer found what is known as a “boxed” card, and as you no doubt discovered, a boxed card doesn’t exist. It’s there, and you can see it, but as far as you’re concerned it’s insubstantial and meaningless. It’s taken out of play, and the next card replaces it. End of story.

If only Sartre had played poker. But you know what would have been super-cool, Triple-D? If the next card in the deck had been a ten. ♠