Ettiquete and Poker

Poker is considered to be a gentlemans game. There are some things you do and don't do. They aren't "rules" per se, but more or less an unspoken knowledge amongst us that you just don't do.

A hand I played at Foxwoods Sunday night illustrates a perfect example of something you just shouldn't do while playing poker. I'm going to go into a little poker theory discussion as well to describe why I played the hand the way I did but it will lead into my rant about ettiquete.

I had been running really poor all night and couldn't pick up a good hand or hit any flops. The player to my right had been fairly aggressive in position with a wide range of hands. So we are playing 9 handed at the time and I'm on the button with 52 offsuit, a really garbage hand. A few players call the 2$ big blind and the player to my right raises to 17. Now since I've been running so cold, and it has been discussed at the how tight I've been playing, I decided to call. My reasoning here doesn't have to do with ettiquete but I'll explain.

I know how bad my hand is which makes it very easy to get away from if I do not flop anything. Even if I flop one pair it most likely will be the lowest pair on the board and I will not have a tought decision to make should I get bet into. Now if I happen to hit a great flop where I flop a straight, two pair, or trips, it will be impossible for this player to put me on a hand like 52 given how tight I've been playing.

So now that I got that out of the way I'll get on with the hand. I call and the small blind folds. The guy in the big blind thinks for about 10 seconds and annouces raise. He makes it a total of 52 making it 35$ more for me to call. Everyone folds to the original raiser and he calls. So now the pot has about 130$ in it and I have to call 35$ more giving me almost 4 to 1 pot odds. Now I know with a hand like 52 I may be a little worse then 4:1 should they both have big pairs, but with how weak my hand is I also know the implied odds I have if I hit my hand. (Implied odds is how much more I think I will be able to win should I end up with the best hand). Since I started the hand with about 190$ I'm really thinking about the other 140$ behind that i most likely will win should I hit a strong hand. I figure the odds are good enough in this spot and I make the call.

Flop (~160) K spade 2 spade 2 diamond

BINGO!!!!!!! I flopped trips. Now I have to hope someone is strong enough to pay me off here. It's nearly impossible for anyone else to have a 2 here because I have one, leaving only one left in the deck, and it's a reraised pot preflop and most people wont be in there with a hand that contains a 2.

Both players check to me and I bet 75. The BB calls and the CO folds. We go heads up to the turn.

Turn (~310) 7 heart

Ok the spade didn't hit so there are only 2 hands that I lose to. KK and 77 because it is not conceiveable that the other players holds the case 2. I moved my last 60 something into the pot and the other guy calls. Now given that he calls I know for a fact he has one of 4 hands 2 of which I beat. He can only have AA, AK, KK, or a very unlikely 77 because anything worse he would have folded on the flop and def on the turn. I think he folds 77 on the flop as well so it's really one of the first 3 hands. I ask him do you have AA or KK? and he stays silent. I table my 52 and he looks at it and doesn't say anything or flip his cards over. A little discussion starts up with the players around me like WTF how do you have 52. You've been playing so tight, etc etc. So the dealer deals the final card and its a 6 of hearts , the other player hops up off his seat and slams down his KK for the flopped full house.

What an asshole. He knows I have one out but still doesn't turn his hand over leaving me in suspense as well as making me feel I have the best hand. It's called slowrolling and it's extremely rude. If you have someone beat just turn your hand over. If the river was a 2 it's not like he would have just folded his hand into the muck and said nice hand to me. The old man is lucky I have a cool head while at the table, because I should have broken his 70 year old hip.

Another one is when someone has AA preflop. AA is the nuts preflop, no hand can beat you. So when playing NL it really annoys me when someone takes their time calling an all in with AA preflop. Esp since the game I play you have to pay 5$ every half hour so in turn the time it takes for them to call is less time we have to play.

Lets use a hypothetical hand. Player 1 raises to 15 and Player 2 with AA makes it 40$. Everyone folds to player 1 who moves all in for 137$ and player 2 asks how much more it is, or counts out his chips before making the call.

JUST SAY CALL. You know you're not folding and against any other hand you will win 4 times out of 5 so just save us all the time you are wasting by counting out chips to put in the middle, and making the dealer count down the bet. And even worse the time you take to call will really aggrivate the player holding KK or QQ who thinks his hand is best and you are making a tough call.

Don't slow roll.