The Most Recent Assault on Poker Rules & Etiquette

Yep... its not a matter of "if" there's some violation of poker rules and etiquette when you play at the Juice's game, it's "when" is it going to happen! There's an entire assortment of rule violations and all around poor table etiquette that you can and should expect when you play with the Juice... it ranges from outrageous rakes, to showing your live cards to others at the table (some times when there are people behind you yet to act), to showing your live cards to others at the table who aren't in the hand (but you can pick up some input from them to help guide you on your action). Now the most recent attack comes from the combined brain-merge of the Juice & SuperPlaya... a scary combination on the best of nights... this particular night, SP was trying to see if he could somehow equalize the alcohol content in his blood to 50/50... I think he almost made it. Now in all fairness to SP, he seems in most instances to actually know the rules, but is such an antagonist that he will disagree with the rules just to create an argument and slow down the game. The Juice on the other hand wouldn't know an authentic rule if it showed up and turned off his illegal porn.


The rule/etiquette that they are choosing to focus on this evening is when does someone HAVE to show their cards. This rule/etiquette changes based on the circumstances and by poker room.


Here are some of the scenarios (most of these would apply to cash games)...

1) Player A raises all in and Player B calls -

the way that I've always played this one is that Player A MUST show his cards and it is optional as to whether Player B ever shows his cards or not. He, of course, will show his cards IF he has a better hand after all the board cards are displayed, but if he feels he has lost, he can muck and no one will ever know what his cards were when he called. In most cases, when you are playing no limit omaha hi-lo, you should probably show them just so there are others helping you figure out whether you have a winning hand or not...


2) Player A raises all in and Players B & C call and both Players B & C have more chips than Player A -

Player A should not show his cards till the hand is over and all board cards have been displayed and all betting between the other players has ceased. Player A SHOULD open his hand, but if the other players have continued betting and have displayed their hands and Player A's hand is beat, he can muck quietly and re-buy.

Enter SP the Antagonist.... here's the variation that SP & the Juice tried to implement last night...

3) Player A raises all in and Players B & C call for less -

Player A MUST open his hand but it is optional for Players B & C to open their hands.

Now what SP was trying to say is that Player B, who simply called the all in move by Player A which put all of Player B's chips in the pot, MUST open his hand but Player C (since he was the last one to call) didn't have to display his cards. And of course, the brain-power-challenged Juice wanted to agree with SP and try to inforce it. Good luck with that... I feel that I have "donked" off my chips that I should be able to muck my cards quietly with as little shame as possible.


There are some other variations as well and I know that it varies by poker room and whether you're playing in a cash game or a tournament. Unfortunately at the Juice's game, the rule book would not only have to be date-stamped, but time-stamped... since he likes to change them based on who is in the hand.

One of my peeves is that I believe there should only be "one-player-to-a-hand" and that you shouldn't show your cards to anyone while there is play in that hand. Your show and their reaction can all be viewed as assistance with the decisions that you and others can make about that hand and so it should NOT be done. The problem is that is the Juice's game and he will always make/play rules that work for him and/or that annoys me. Of course, I pointed it out last night and I knew when I did it that it would do no good... I believe the analogy that I TRIED to use was the old quote about trying to teach a pig to sing... of course my feeble memory couldn't quote it correctly, but I looked it up and here you go...


"never try to teach a pig to sing; it just wastes your time and it annoys the pig."


That, my friend, is how it is when you are trying to explain the rules and etiquette to the Juice... because he really doesn't care what is correct, only that he does it the way that he wants to do it. For those of you that know him, I apologize for pointing out the obvious.