There is no doubt that poker has changed a lot over the years.

From dingy back rooms in underground clubs to the bright lights of Vegas and the modern glory of online poker as we know it today.

So the tda rules represent the most current and regularly updated ruleset available. Also it seems like generally speaking the trend has been towards reducing/eliminating a lot of table talk that used to be considered a part of the game. Poker is a social game, and players sometimes talk at the table. This talking can sometimes be innocuous, but other times it directly relates to the play of the game. There are a few ways you can handle table talk. In-depth poker strategy articles exploring the psychology of poker. Tips on exploiting your table image, using tells, managing your emotions and more. 100% Up To $600 or $100 tickets. All-in Poker Rules: Rule #1 – Table Stakes – The table stakes rule says that a player can’t be forced to wager more than he has brought to the table. In the past, it may have been possible for richer players to bully poorer players by betting amounts so large that no-one would be able to call, even if they wanted to.

There are a lot of reasons why poker boomed and continued to grow in popularity during the 2000’s and onward. One of those reasons is undoubtedly the boisterous characters that have shaped modern televised poker.

Names like Phil Hellmuth, Tony G, Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreanu instantly come to mind.

If table talk was an art form, these guys might be considered Picasso. Some new-age poker players, however, prefer to sit under their hoodies with headphones covering their ears.

They pay their buy-ins like everyone else, so that’s their choice, but they undoubtedly still have to deal with table talk every day at the poker table.

Like it or not, banter is a part of live poker and that’s not likely to change. Players can either make it a weapon in their arsenal, ignore it altogether or be indifferent towards it.

Poker Table Talk Can Help You Win

One player who certainly uses table talk as a weapon is 2013 WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Reiss.

Riess doesn’t try to tilt his opponents with table talk like some of his contemporaries such as Tony G. Riess instead makes friends with his opponent and uses that to his advantage.

“I feel like something as small as creating conversation with the person on your left or right can really help your game,” Riess says.

“Then when you get into those blind versus blind situations or I’m raising from the button they are probably less likely to three-bet me if I’ve been talking to them and we have had like a friendly conversation or camaraderie going on.”

Prominent Australian pro Jackie Glazier shares a similar sentiment to Riess. For most people it’s not too much of a challenge to simply be nice and treat someone with respect.

“If you make friends with someone at the table, they may then show me their cards if I make a fold on the river to them,” Glazier says.

“I feel like I really get shown a lot more cards by being nice to people at the table and that gives me more information and therefore more of an edge.”

Recent 2013 WSOP Millionaire Maker victor Jonathan Dimmig isn’t so explicit in using the “making-friends” method that Riess and Glazier seem to be utilizing, but he still uses table talk to get an extra edge.

“I definitely use table talk as a strategy sometimes,” Dimmig says. “When you talk to someone and find out how they think, you can really get a feel for what they are doing and then use that to your advantage when making decisions.”

Poker Table Talk as Means of Manipulation

Table talk isn’t just about being nice to your opponents or getting extra information. Sometimes you can simply manipulate a player to make a decision they may not usually make. Or you can even talk yourself into the making the wrong decision.

There was great example of the power of table talk back at the $1 million buy-in Big One For One Drop at the 2014 WSOP. Basically, Scott Seiver moved all in with an open-ended straight draw on the turn of a queen-high board with three clubs showing.

Table Talk Rules Poker Games

Seiver’s opponent, German high roller specialist Tobias Reinkemeier, went into the tank on the turn and started with the banter. At first it seemed like Reinkemeier was trying to use table talk to his advantage by getting some extra information from Seiver.

However, Seiver may have out-talked Reinkemeier and the German’s table talk may have had a negative effect as he seemed to have levelled himself.

Talking for the Good of the Game

There are more reasons than just strategy for table talk. You could also make an argument that table talk is important to the health of the game. Poker should be a fun, inviting place for recreational players.

If someone walks into a poker room for the first time and is berated for their bad play, or is just made to feel uncomfortable at all, they may never play poker again. That’s simply not good for the game.

Poker should be fun. It’s a simple statement but something that seems to have been lost on some players, be they those who berate others they think are not as good as them, or even those that just sit there saying nothing.

“Table talk is just straight up good for poker,” Riess adds. “It’s obviously better than everyone just sitting there like statues, not saying anything.”

Dimmig agrees with Riess.

“Table talk is definitely good for the game as it makes it fun” says Dimmig.

“I hated when they brought the no talking during hands rule into the game. I mean having people like Daniel Negreanu talking and having fun at the table is definitely good for the game.”

Poker is viewed by many, first and foremost, as a form of pure entertainment. There are some players that truly only care about how much money they can win, which is fine of course, but there are also a lot of players that are primarily interested in having fun. These players would obviously love to win some money if they could, but they don’t mind losing providing they are having an enjoyable experience.

This is one reason why it’s so important to act properly and be respectful while playing poker. To some extent, every player has a responsibility to ensure that other players have a positive experience. Knowing the rules of how to play is simply not enough, as you need to know the rules on how to behave too.

There’s a great deal of etiquette involved in poker. There are some unwritten rules which dictate what you should and shouldn’t do and breaking these will likely alienate your fellow players. You should be aware of these, as you don’t want to upset your opponents and ruin their overall gaming experience. There are several formal rules too, which you need to abide by in order to avoid a penalty or being asked to leave a game altogether.

Below we list and explain our top five rules for behaving “correctly” at the poker table, along with our top five taboos that you should avoid. In addition to that, we also focus in on some extra etiquette that’s worth mentioning.

Five Golden Rules To Follow

The following rules are what we consider to be the five golden rules of poker that you should always try to follow when playing it live. They aren’t in any particular order because they are all equally important, in our opinion.

1. Be Polite and Courteous

If you play live poker for long enough you’ll probably encounter plenty of players who don’t follow this rule. It’s a very easy one to stick to yourself and there’s really no excuse for not being polite and courteous to your fellow players or your dealers for that matter. You don’t have to overdo it and you can even stay quiet if you want to, but using good manners isn’t hard to do and it’ll create a more welcoming atmosphere at the table.

2. Keep Up With the Play

You have a responsibility to pay attention to what’s happening at the poker table while you’re playing and it’s especially important to know when it’s your turn to act. It certainly won’t take long for other players to get frustrated if they have to constantly remind you when to play. You should also ensure that you post your blinds and antes in a timely manner and that you avoid acting out of turn. Don’t take an excessive amount of time while making simple decisions and don’t keep players waiting while you order a drink or something to eat.

3. Make Your Actions Clear

Making your actions clear will not only make your life easier but your opponent’s life as well. Shoving a few chips into the pot and mumbling “call” or “raise” under your breath doesn’t give you an advantage and it’ll probably just annoy your opponents. It’s not hard to slide a neat stack of chips in front of you and declare your actions with clarity. This will avoid any confusion and it will help ensure that you don’t get accused of trying to gain an unfair advantage by misrepresenting the action you are taking.

4. If You Show One, Show All

If you win a hand without going to a showdown, you can choose to show the table your cards. What you cannot do, though, is show them to just one player. This potentially gives that player an unfair advantage, as they are then in possession of information that no-one else has access to. It may not be extremely helpful to them, but it’s the principle of the matter that’s the real concern. As the saying goes, “If you show one, you must show all.” The same rule applies if you decide to muck (throw away without showing) a losing hand after going to showdown.

5. Be Gracious in Defeat AND Victory

No one likes a poor loser or a poor winner, so you should always try to be gracious in both defeat and victory while at the poker table. There’s nothing wrong with showing a little bit of frustration following a particularly crushing defeat, but you won’t gain any respect by going on a massive rant every time you lose a hand.

Likewise, a small celebration after winning a big pot is perfectly acceptable. Celebrating too wildly is just going to agitate your opponents and gloating about how brilliantly you played a hand is equally annoying. If you want the respect of your opponents, then you should act with some degree of humility.

Top Five Poker Table Taboos

Poker etiquette isn’t just about what you should do, but it’s also about what you should NOT do. The following points are the top five taboos that you should avoid at the poker table, and again these are in no particular order.

1. Revealing Your Cards During a Hand

Revealing your cards during a hand, regardless of whether you are still active or not, is very poor poker etiquette. It gives away information to the table that may provide an advantage to one player over another. For example, if one player is on a draw and hoping for certain cards to come and you reveal that you had one or more of those cards, this could change the way they play the hand, which ultimately is an unfair advantage.

Please keep in mind that there’s more than one way to reveal your cards to the table. It’s easy to avoid telling everyone what you have, but you need to be careful not to reveal your cards accidentally too. Carelessly throwing your cards away when folding, for example, can easily result in exposing them. Your reaction to seeing a flop after folding your cards can also give away unplanned information. If you exclaim in frustration that you would have made a great hand, then players may be able to determine what exactly was in your hand to some degree of certainty.

2. Talking About a Hand You Are Not Involved In

Giving a running commentary during a hand that you aren’t involved in definitely goes against poker etiquette. No one wants to hear your views about what each player may or may not have, what they should do next, or what you think is going to happen. It can be annoying to the players that are involved in the hand, as they probably just want to concentrate. It could also be constituted as giving advice to a player, which is prohibited in most poker rooms.

3. Criticizing Your Opponents

It’s not your place to criticize the way any of your opponents have played. Even if they have made a huge mistake, or you are just trying to offer constructive feedback, it’s simply not the way to behave at a poker table. Everyone has the right to play how they want, within the rules of course, and it’s not your responsibility to point out where they might be going wrong. In any case, why would you want to help your opponents improve their game? You want them to make mistakes, as that ultimately improves your chances of beating them, so please keep that in mind.

4. Blaming or Berating the Dealer

Remember that Poker dealers are just there to do their job and they have no control over what cards are dealt. Verbally attacking a dealer because you’ve suffered a bad beat or are getting a poor run of cards is never acceptable. You are practically guaranteed to get some bad luck from time to time. It’s simply the nature of the game and it’s your responsibility to learn how to deal with the frustration and stop yourself from taking it out on the dealer.

It’s also worth pointing out that this rule is applicable even if a dealer makes a mistake. Dealers are human after all, and mistakes do happen. There’s no excuse for berating a dealer, even if their mistake might have cost you money.

5. Slowrolling

The term slow rolling can be used to describe a few different circumstances, but it would generally apply when a player knows he has the best hand at showdown and takes a long time to turn over his cards in order to build up suspense. It could also apply when a player takes a long time to call an all in bet, despite knowing that they have the best hand at the table.

Many poker players consider slow rolling to be one of the worst breaches of etiquette. It serves no real purpose other than trying to wind up other opponents and rub salt in their wounds after you won a big pot. While some players will slow roll precisely to put down their opponents, it’s really not a move that we recommend making.

More Poker Etiquette

The points discussed above are the most important to be aware of when playing live poker, in our opinion at least. There are several additional rules that others may think are just as important, or maybe even more important, so please try to follow the ones below as well.

Don’t splash the pot

If you follow our golden rule #3, then you won’t do this anyway, but it’s a good idea to be aware of what the term means and why you shouldn’t do it. Splashing the pot is basically throwing your chips into the pot when making a bet, call, or raise. This is considered bad etiquette as it makes it extremely difficult to see exactly how many chips you are betting.

Don’t make string bets

A string bet is when you don’t make your bet in a continuous motion (i.e. you put a few chips in front of you, then a few more, then a few more) having not announced the total amount of your bet out loud. This is frowned upon and is technically against the rules, as it not only slows down the game but it can also be used to gain an advantage over your opponents. String betting can potentially allow you to gauge an opponent’s reaction to the size of your bet, and then decide whether or not to increase it based on their reaction.

String betting is a very common and often times an unintentional mistake, that’s typically made by inexperienced players. It can be used by players for tactical reasons but this isn’t usually the case. You don’t want to be accused of attempting to cheat, so you really should try hard to avoid making string bets. Again, this is relatively easy to do if you simply follow our golden rule #3.

Be considerate to others at the table

When playing live poker it’s possible that you could spend several hours sitting next to the same players. Although you obviously want to beat your opponents, you don’t want to ruin the whole experience for them either. Being considerate might seem like common sense, but there may be a few things that you haven’t considered in the list below.

Table Talk Rules Poker Tournaments

• If smoking is permitted, it’s still courteous to ask neighboring players if they would object to you having a cigarette.
• Some basic personal hygiene is also a must; sitting next to a player who doesn’t smell very pleasant could negatively affect a player’s experience.
• Many people are offended by swearing, so you should try to keep the profanity down to an absolute minimum.
• There’s nothing wrong with having a drink when playing, but moderation is a good idea. A player who has had one too many drinks can easily ruin a game for everyone else. Besides, you’re unlikely to play very well if you are drunk or even tipsy for that matter.

Keep your cards visible when you’re in a hand

Keeping your cards visible when you’re active in a hand might not seem like a big deal, but it’s actually very important. If you have your cards hidden away behind your chip stack or underneath your hands, then many players will assume that you are no longer in the hand. This could potentially lead to someone acting out of turn through no real fault of their own.

When we say that your cards should be visible, we obviously don’t mean expose them face up. We just mean that they should be placed in front of you in a way that everyone at the table can see that you are still active in a hand.

Tipping the Dealers in Poker Games

We’ll finish with this point because it’s somewhat controversial. It could actually be argued that it has nothing to do with poker table etiquette at all, as it doesn’t affect your fellow players and there are certainly no specific rules relating to tipping the dealers. We feel it’s worth mentioning though, because it’s an issue that comes up as some pokers player don’t really know how to approach this situation.

There is no right or wrong action to take here. You are certainly not obliged to tip a dealer at any point and a lot of poker players steadfastly refuse to tip because they are already paying rake to the casino. It’s worth noting, however, that many dealers around the world aren’t paid very well and some even rely on tips to make a living. This doesn’t have to affect your thinking of course and the decision to tip or not is entirely up to you regardless of what a dealer earns.

With all of that being said, we are advocates of tipping the dealers. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount and you definitely don’t have to tip every time you win a pot, but we do believe it’s reasonable to offer at least one tip at the end of your playing session.

We would also advise that you base the size of your tip more on how the dealer performed and less on how much you won or lost during your session. A dealer who has dealt quickly and efficiently, with a friendly and pleasant manner deserves a larger tip than a dealer who continuously made mistakes and wasn’t particularly friendly.