This article was originally written by me and posted on NWP in April, 2008.

Poker Etiquette

Sure, there have been articles written before but they are few and far between in my opinion. What is good poker etiquette? Do the same rules apply online as they do in live poker? I like to follow the age-old rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. It doesn’t matter if you have inside information on a particular player from a reliable source who might have said “the guy you’re playing likes to stack you then quit”. You have to keep in mind that not everyone treats each player the same. The following circumstances apply to both live and online poker.

How long do you have to play a session before you are NOT considered to be a “hit-and-run” artist? Well, obviously there isn’t any real time line that a person has to follow. However, when you are winning a good portion of money and you have only played a short time your reasons for leaving should be somewhat moralistic. For example, if a sudden emergency should come up and you have to leave, well, then you have to go! If the rhythm of the match starts to change and you find yourself losing profit that you’ve worked hard for, or you feel like you are starting to tilt then of course you can get up. But, in that instance I would explain to the player that I had to quit for a while and that I would play again later if he were interested. I would try to set up a time to play that person again, or exchange information to contact them so that you can play at some other point in time. I would do this so that there aren’t any bad feelings about you quitting, especially if you feel like you have an advantage playing that person. You certainly don’t want them to quit you for life. There isn’t any rule that reads that you have to break even or lose in a match, but there are ways to quit tactfully so that your reputation is still in tact while securing a win.

When I am playing live poker and I see that the game is becoming very short handed I start to re-assess for how long I am going to be playing based on the players that are left in the game. If I think I can get more from a game and I choose to stay, I usually tell the players that I am going to play for “the rest of this dealer”, or “I’ll play out this dealer and one more”. Once I make an announcement I can usually gauge how the match is going to go in terms of the players staying or quitting.

When you are playing a game like PL or NL and you stack a player and quit, that is bad etiquette plain and simple. If you need the buy-in that badly then you are playing too high for your bankroll. If you are winning in any match and you know that dinner is in a half an hour, tell your opponent that you are leaving in a half an hour. He may end up quitting sooner than you like, but he will also end up playing you again because you were courteous.

If you aren’t sure what is good and bad etiquette do your best to follow the rules of common courtesy. Of course much of this doesn’t apply if you are the one losing in the match, or if you don’t mind being viewed as a complete asshole.

Other rules of etiquette for live game play:

1. Peeking at another player’s cards (even when you are not in the hand) as this will influence their decision. Take notice when you see a bad player at your table (playing live) and a player that they respect is standing behind them. They do things apprehensively or make better decisions because they don’t want to look like a complete idiot.

2. Making a motion to fold before it is your turn to act. This obviously will influence the decision of every player who hasn’t yet acted at your table.

3. Angle shooting: Checking, Betting, or Raising out of turn, moving forward with chips to induce a check. Exposing cards when you aren’t Heads Up in a hand.

4. Commenting on what you have, or on what you think another player has when there is more than one person in the hand. Commenting at all when you are not in the hand.

5. Asking to see a losing hand simply to gain information. Some casinos have rules that prevent the abuse of this action. This will only embarrass a bad player and cause them to leave.

6. Don’t everyone quit at the same time when the “live one” goes broke. If there are only a few players at the table left who are seemingly all of the regular pros, we like to play what we call a “courtesy round” after the player has quit. This can also apply online when the rest of the table clicks the “sit out” button at the same time the player has quit. I mean can you be any more obvious?

7. Needling players is obviously bad for business. Now, there will always be some type of small jabs among players, but down right criticizing a player for how badly they play is unacceptable by a professional. Which brings me to my next point…

8. NO POKER LESSONS at the table. When you start using poker jargon most casual players won’t have a clue as to what you are talking about, but believe me even casual players are curious and willing to learn. They will go out and either read online articles or buy poker books, and if they are the least bit intelligent you as a professional will be very sorry in coming months.

9. Do your best to win and lose with class and dignity. This isn’t always easy, but it is something on which everyone should try to improve. You see people on TV jumping on the tables when they win, leaping around like morons, or players in the casino who let out an amazing “YEEEESSSSSSS!!!” when they have just won a pot in NL, as if they’ve never won anything. Like my friend Peter always says “Act like you’ve been there before”

10. Lay off the dealers. I know first hand how bad and retarded some of the dealers can be in casinos, but I’m here to tell you, it’s mostly not their fault. It is the fault of the Commission and/or the Casinos that hire them to do a job for which they aren’t quite ready. Out West you don’t even need to go to dealing school to become a dealer. On the East Coast you do need school, but it’s an absolute joke. I would politely ask the floor to tell the Dealer Control not to put any amateur dealers on your game (when playing higher limits especially), and if the dealer that you have presently is really bad you make a report after they leave the table, or asked to have them removed from the box if it the beginning of their down.

11. While it is a common rule in most casinos, you should speak only English when you are at the table and a hand is in progress, even if you aren’t in the hand. The only place you’ll never get them to change or completely comply with this rule is in LA. Sorry.

There are many more instances I could cover, but I guess the message that I am trying to convey is that when you are playing live poker it is best to keep your mouth shut when you are at the table, unless the conversation that you are having is a general conversation, and not about the game in progress or the players who are playing. As always, feel free to disagree.

Tags: online poker | poker | poker etiquette | live games

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