Poker etiquette, good manners and behaviour at the poker table
Good conduct will not directly influence your financial position, nevertheless you should note some basic points regarding behaviour when playing poker. Remember, it is not as hard losing money to someone who is fun playing against!
Online poker behaviour
Your opponents will not care a bit if you are dressed in your underpants in front of the screen munching loudly away at a kebab oozing with fat as their financial situation deteriorates. Therefore these rules of behaviour for online poker etiquette chiefly concern the chat area.
A basic rule concerning the play is as follows: It is rude to be absent at every second hand so condemning the other players to watch as your time expires before you fold. Reserve enough time for online poker, or forget it if you have other distractions that will rob you of your concentration. By the way, lack of concentration is the main reason for playing miserable poker. If you play online poker at a new provider inform yourself first about the recommended etiquette.
Further rules of behaviour concerning chatting:
- Never make comments about a hand you are not involved in. Never mention which cards you folded. An unpleasant example: If you fold the start hand 73 before the flop and the flop comes 773 then do not make any comments however much you are itching to do so.
- Never give your opponents advice or instructions during a hand!
- Never make comments about the possible hole cards of an opponent if you are not personally involved in the hand.
- In short: Do not make comments on a game which is still being played in which you are not, or not anymore involved!
- Do not try to teach your opponents! No one wants to hear how you would have played a certain hand.
- Never make fun of your opponents however badly they play.
- After you have 'fooled' an opponent it is rude to rub it in. The amount of chips or the balance on the account will speak for itself, so further comments are superfluous.
- Most online poker providers would like you to chat only in English. Please respect this rule. It is annoying when two players converse in, for example, Polish, when a hand is being played. Who knows they could be describing their hands to each other.
- Omit swearing, however hard your luck has been. (By the way, good poker players stand out by keeping their heads however unkind fortune has been to them)
- Never insult your opponents!
- Do not react to insults from your opponents. Most online poker providers offer a function to block chat communications from individual opponents.
- Welcome comments in a chat room at the beginning with a short "gl" (which stands for "good luck") or after an especially beautiful hand one can throw in a "nh" ("nice hand"). If in your opinion, an opponent has played their hand especially well, you could write a short "wp" (which stands for "well played").
- And last but not least: If you generally want to chat, keep it short!
- If you do not want to have anything to do with chatting then almost all providers offer a function to block it!
Brick and Mortar Poker
The usual norms of behaviour are to be respected as you would in normal daily life. Actually, we did not want to mention this subject as we assumed it would be clear to everybody. However, after a few hair-raising experiences at smaller tournaments some things just have to be mentioned.
- Please lay importance on basic hygiene. At a tournament your opponents cannot get up and go, they have to put up with your sweaty armpits.
- Announce your raises, folds, calls etc. loud and clear so that every player at the table can hear, even those at the far end. At big tournaments the halls can be very noisy as there can be hundreds of people in the same room. As in a restaurant one only needs to speak loudly enough to be heard at the table.
- If you are eating do not speak with your mouth full. Bring a napkin with you. Sticky cards are not really cool...
- Give your direct neighbours enough room so that they can also put their elbows on the table. If one of your neighbours is hogging too much room then make them aware of the fact! Some players do this intentionally in order to take on a 'dominant' roll. Insisting on having enough room is already a first possibility to show that you are not going to let yourself be trampled on.
Further poker related behaviour (e.g. for games at home or privately organized tournaments)
- Keep your piles of chips where your opponents can see them. Your opponents must be able to estimate how many chips you have.
- When raising or re-raising say how many chips you are betting. If you do not want to say, then bet the chips in a manner that your opponents can count them easily (no piles of 27 chips, but rather, for example, 5 piles of 5 chips and next to them 2 single chips).
- Pay attention to the game! There is nothing more tiresome than always having to remind an opponent when it is their turn, or when it is their turn to post the small or big blind.
- Do not play out of turn. It often happens that someone folds out of turn. For the player directly before you this is an advantage because he then knows that a player has already folded. This is a disadvantage to the players on your left!
- Do not make fun of your opponents' mistakes.
- Do not try to advise your opponents without being asked.
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