THREE POKER RULES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

How many of your poker buddies think they know every rule there is to know about Texas Holdem Poker?

A lot of rules become greyed-out through home game variations, differing casino house rules and confusion between poker types.

1. Showing your cards after the pot is won

The winner must always reveal their cards.

Everybody else involved with the 'showdown' must reveal their holding cards if another player (or the dealer) asks them to.

Those who want to 'muck' their hand can do so but the other players always have a right to request that they're shown. Still, it can be considered poor etiquette to demand a player turns over their mucked cards.

There are many principles behind this rule, with the main point being that if only the called player was ever required to show their cards, aggressive play styles would fall victim to the rule.

2. Reshuffling the pack after a mistake

We've all got that one guy in our poker circle, who can't shuffle, and deals like the cards are made from sugar glass.

Whereas this guy is more likely to misdeal than anybody else, we all do it from time to time - even the pro dealers flash a card now and then.

The key here is to know how to handle the different types of mistake that can occur.

Misdealing

The term 'misdeal' refers to when the dealer makes such an epic fail, that the only solution is to bring all the cards back in and reshuffle, such as:

  1. One of the first two cards to be dealt is accidentally shown
  2. Two or more cards are shown during the original deal
  3. The first card to be dealt goes to the wrong player
  4. If any player receives more than two holding cards

Flashing

Poker The term 'flashing' refers to when the dealer accidentally shows the face value of a card to any player during the original deal (it does not refer to actual flashing…though that is likely to be frowned upon at the poker table too).

If this happens, there is no need to drag all the cards back in and re-deal. Instead, the flashed card is placed face-up. The deal continues as normal and everybody pretends nothing happened. Once all cards are dealt, the player who was meant to receive the flashed card will be holding just one. So, the dealer takes another from the top of the deck and slides it over.

The flashed card is then announced to the rest of the table. It is then considered the first 'burn card' and so another is not burnt before the flop.

Note: Sometimes, the flashed card is placed in front of the player that it was originally dealt to - other times, the dealer prefers to place it next to the deck. 3. Checking it down

When a short stack pushes all in and two more players call, it is considered illegal for them to openly agree to 'check it down'. This refers to when two players purposefully check as to not risk any more money and effectively double the chances of eliminating the short stack who originally shoved all in.

It is known as 'collusion' and if the dealer identifies any form of it, the non-cheating player is awarded the pot, regardless of their holding cards. The holding cards of those 'checking it down' are considered dead.

There are many more poker rules worth learning about. Point 3 also applies online when games are monitored by administrators - risk it and you could face a ban.