Poker etiquette can be tricky.
There are many unwritten rules of the felt. But worry not, dear reader, because we're going to note them down for you.
Whether you're pulling up a chair during your poker vacation in the bright lights of Las Vegas or similar, with your friends at a home game, or online at the likes of bet365 Poker, it's not just your poker skills that matter. Your poker etiquette is equally important.
Follow these simple guidelines and you'll skip the embarrassing moments where your poker etiquette slipped, and instead you will be able to keep your fellow players onside!
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Treat your opponents with respect, regardless of their skill level. Everyone has to start somewhere. So, if your fellow player blunders, avoid derogatory comments or rude behaviour. Because you wouldn't like it if someone did that to you, right?
Instead, create an inclusive atmosphere at the table, and lead by example with your poker etiquette!
For example, if someone makes a great call from a tricky position to win the hand, then let them know you appreciate the quality of their play. That isn't a sign of weakness. It shows you have recognised good poker play and it sends a message to your opponents that you fully understand the mechanics of what is happening at the table!
And how your opponents are playing the game! That will not only enhance your reputation, but can put opponents on the back foot against you!
This is a great example of how good poker etiquette can also improve one's standing with fellow players at the table.
Remember the adage: Slow rolls make our eyes roll.
Dear God, there's very few things more annoying when someone holds the nuts and they give you a terrible acting job to try and convince opponents that they have a massive decision to make.
And then they have the audacity to take an absolute age to reveal that they held the winning hand all along!
So, if you've won, show us quickly. Delaying for dramatic effect is SO IRRITATING. And can make players go out of their way to make sure you don't win another pot.
It is much more difficult to be successful in poker, especially when every other player has now mentally put a target on your back because of your slow-rolling!
Now, this is something that newer players are more likely to do, either due to being too excited, not following what is happening at the table, or not noticing that a player hasn't made their decision.
Timing matters in poker. So poker etiquette and common sense dictate that you should follow the action at the table carefully, and then only act when it's your turn.
Not only is acting out of turn bad poker etiquette, it can also impact your chances of winning chips. Imagine you are sat with pocket aces and the flop has turned up a third ace and two players before you are considering what action to take.
If you act out of turn and throw chips into the middle with a big smile on your face, you have ruined your chances of earning more chips from these players. Your haste and lack of poker etiquette means that they now know you hold a strong hand. As such, they are far more likely to fold than add more chips to the pot.
By staying quiet and calm and following the right poker etiquette, these players are more likely to add chips to the pot with a raise/call, raise/re-raise before they get to you, meaning your strong position now offers you the chance to win more chips.
So follow the action, stay calm, collected and only act when it is your turn to do so.
And yes, it counts for when you just want to fold your hand too. The dealer doesn't need to be picking up your castaway cards when their attention is on another player at the table.
The top rule for any poker player and a key aspect of poker etiquette is to only show or reveal your cards when it's appropriate to do so. That is, at the end of a hand. Never at any other point in a hand.
That's because revealing your cards when it's not your turn can provide unfair advantages to others and directly influence how a hand progresses.
Imagine you are a player that golds a pair of sevens and as the action progresses around the table and the hand progresses, one player folds their hand and shoves their cards into the middle face up. You and the other players note that in his hand was another seven alongside another card.
Now you know that your chances of hitting another seven in the flop, turn or river is reduced by half as there is just one more seven possibly in the pack. That completely alters your mindset for this hand now as your chances of hitting another seven to improve your hand have dwindled massively.
Similarly, if you fold a hand pre-flop and the flop turns up one or more cards that would have strengthened your hand, keep your mouth shut. By telling everyone at the table “I can't believe I folded a six and nine of clubs as I would have had a flush!” you have once again directly influenced how a hand you are not involved in will be played.
Divulging information players should not know is awful poker etiquette!
And to be honest, showing off your cards when you don't need to gives your competitors more information about you and your style of play and that's never a good thing either!
Keep your chip stack visible and organised. We don't want anyone hiding their high value chips!
Keep the shorter stacks of chips in front of the larger stacks so people at the table can estimate your chip count. Also keep denominations of chips together in their own stacks, don't mix them up.
Keeping your chips organised well also makes adding chips to the pot easier. If you stack your £10 chips into equal piles of £200 (20 chips), You know then that to raise £200 to £400, you need to add two stacks of those chips to the middle. That's much quicker than having to count out the number of chips you need in each round of betting on every hand.
As well as being bad poker etiquette, it's simply not fair. Everyone should be able to gauge your stack size accurately before they make a decision on what action to take.
Holy moly, isn't it annoying when someone dumps their chips in the middle in a mess?
You are not only creating a real mess for the dealer to sort out, which will take time, you are also showing a lack of respect to other players, especially those that have added their chips with care.
Furthermore, if you dump a lot of chips into the middle onto the other chips, how can the dealer be sure you raised what you said you did? They would then need to recount all the chips from the past action to ensure that is the case. This is not just bad poker etiquette, you will not be very popular with other players for slowing down the game!
Place your chips in carefully so your fellow players and the dealer can clearly determine exactly how much you put in.
Even when you're not involved in a hand, it always pays to pay attention in poker. Every hand is an opportunity to learn something about the other players at the table.
And if you are not paying attention when in hand, then you are quickly going to lose friends at the table with questions like:
“Is it me to go?”, “How much did you raise?”, “Are you still in this hand?”, “What's the blinds again?” and so forth.
Information gathering is a very important part of poker, after all. But paying attention also means you'll be ready to act when it is your turn and are showing respect to other players at the table.
Whether it's an honest appraisal, a genuine enquiry or you're trying to bluff, it's really bad form to discuss your hand when the game is still ongoing. It is probably the worst lack of poker etiquette you can get at the table.
In addition to commenting on your hand, you should also keep your opinions to yourself about other players' decisions and play. Don't ask a fellow player “What did you have?” after they folded. Don't offer an opinion on their choice of action “Man, there's no way I would have folded from there…” or “That's a cowardly call! You've got to raise in that situation!”. Nobody wants advice given or received during a game.
By all means, have a friendly discussion about the game after it has been completed, but when at the table, keep your opinions and hand details to yourself!
We're not saying you should show everyone what your hole cards are! But you should keep them on the table so everyone knows you're still in on the hand.
It is also very bad poker etiquette to hide your cards off the table. That opens up a whole can of worms about your honesty in the game. Who's to say you aren't swapping the cards for different ones under the table in your pocket etc?
This is why it is established poker etiquette for your cards to always be visible, either in your hands, or on the table.
If necessary, use a couple of chips or your own poker card protector to secure the cards and avoid accidental exposure.
“I know I folded, but can we see what the turn and river cards were to see if I'd have won…”
Although allowed in some poker rooms, asking to see additional community cards after the hand is over is bad form in our opinion.
Rabbit hunting delays the game and gives you nothing useful. In fact, it simply shows your either lacking conviction, or indecisive, or both.
The cards you see may reveal whether or not you would have won the hand on a showdown, but who is to say you would have reached that point as you don't know how other players would have reacted to those cards?
You may have wanted another queen on the river to add to the two in your hand, but what if another player had the fourth queen and the queen on the river completed a full house for them?
There's no guarantee that seeing those rabbit hunt cards would ensure you knew the outcome of the hand. So it's a waste of time conjecturing and second-guessing what you should have done.
Remember, you can only influence the next hand you play, not the one you have finished playing!
Practice your poker etiquette with a game online. Many of these faux pas are automatically bypassed when you play in a good online poker room, as so much of the play is automated.
But even so, you can be a good online player if you follow those tips and tricks. One of our favourite spots to play a game is bet365. Plus, you can use this bet365 bonus code to get a particularly juicy welcome offer!
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