Have you ever been playing cards and found yourself in one of poker’s gray areas, where you’re not technically breaking a rule but you’re gaining an unfair advantage at the expense of others?
It’s a difficult situation to be in for sure. When you’re faced with the paradox of beating the game and your personal ethics, even though you’re not breaking a rule or cheating, it can still be a very difficult decision on how to proceed.
Thankfully, these situations, where the lines between the rules of the game and ethics are blurred, aren’t all that common in poker, but they do come up more often than one would think. And how you handle them is important.
This column is about just a scenario; a scenario you will likely find yourself in at some point in time.
The setup
An interesting but all too common situation that falls into this “gray area” category was recently debated on Facebook; what do you do when the player next to you is haphazardly exposing their hole cards?
Unless you are leaning back and purposefully trying to get a glimpse you’re technically not breaking any rules.
And yes, it’s up to each player to protect their hand.
But at the same time it’s also up to each player to maintain the integrity of the game.
In my opinion, knowingly looking at another player’s cards is on par with shooting an angle, and it’s not something we should be “ok” with, and just chalk up to a fish who can’t protect their hand, as many of the respondents to the initial question on Facebook seemed to be inclined to say.
The responses ranged from you need to tell him multiple times (the minority), to alerting the dealer and/or floor staff (the extreme minority), to do your best not to look, to “screw him” he needs to protect his hand.
The onus is certainly on the player, but this is more than just a case of taking advantage of this one player’s ignorance.
What to do
Here is how I handle this situation and why.
The first thing I do is politely and discreetly tell the player that I can see their cards. I never want to make a big deal of this as it can be embarrassing and come across as showing the person up –essentially calling them a noob– and if the person is exposing their cards they are not very likely to be a good player. The last thing I want to do is cause them to pick up their chips and leave, which fortunately they cannot do in a tournament, but this is a possibility in a cash game.
Additionally, this gesture creates a lot of goodwill.
Furthermore, it also clears your head of the push and pull conflict you’ll be going through as you think, “should I look or shouldn’t I? Should I say something?”
I do this for several other reasons as well:
- Most importantly, I’m gaining a very unfair advantage over not just the offending player, but every player at the table, since I know two cards in the deck that other players do not based on sheer luck (seating assignments). For instance, suppose you watch him fold pocket 2’s and the flop is 22x, and your opponent (another player on the other side of the table) starts betting, at this point it’s pretty easy to use the information to your advantage.
- Even if I’m purposefully not looking at his cards, other people at the table are likely aware that the player is not doing a good job protecting their hand and will likely assume I can probably see the player’s cards. In these situations most people just figure you are looking and not saying anything about it to gain an edge, and they may look down on you.
- It’s not the reason I play poker. If I played poker to win as much money as possible then I’d probably use these types of unscrupulous advantages, which is akin to wishing the best player on the opposing team to get hurt so you don’t have to face them in my book. I’m not playing for that reason, I’m playing to test my skills against my opponents in fair, honest competition.
Nine times out of ten this discreet mention is enough to end the problem, but occasionally the person continues to expose their hand in a way that I can’t avoid seeing. They could be drunk, they could be the player who has to lift their cards completely off the table, or it could even be how they have their chips positioned and how far out they keep their cards on the table.
Regardless of why, when this happens I make a point to inform the player for a second time, only this time I do it in such a way that the entire table can hear what is going on.
“Sir, can you please keep your cards down.”
The reason I up the intensity and make sure everyone becomes aware of the situation is two-fold. First, by being more direct there is a better chance the player will start protecting their hand. Secondly, it alerts the other players to what is happening, and puts the onus on them to make the player stop exposing their cards.
As I said above, they are the ones being hurt by it and should be very upset someone is not protecting their hand. If I can’t solve the problem, perhaps they can.
What to do if you suspect someone else is peeking at cards
So what should you do if the situation is reversed, and you notice a player on the opposite side of the table can see another player’s cards?
As I noted previously, the other players at the table should do everything in their power to make sure one player in the game is not gaining an unfair advantage, so if you find yourself in the unenviable position of being on the other side of the table, and suspect a player is seeing another player’s hole cards and not telling anyone, here is what you should do.
Instead of starting subtly, you should be very direct and ask the player who is being loose with his cards to keep his cards down. Obviously you want to end the problem, but it’s important the player who is peeking (and not saying anything) realizes you’re on to them, and now so is the entire table.
If this doesn’t work you need to alert the floor. The best way to do this is to get up from the table and quietly explain the situation to someone. Causing a scene at the table is going to make for a very uncomfortable atmosphere moving forward.
Think about what would happen if you yelled for the floor and started throwing around accusations: If it comes to this than you’re already mad at the player exposing their cards and at the player peeking. The player exposing their cards is now likely extremely embarrassed and will certainly be very defensive, and the player peeking probably hates your guts.
If this is a tournament you’re going to have a very long day ahead of you unless the table breaks, so best to do this quietly.