blonde poker forum

this happened last night and nearly caused a riot:

blinds are 500 and 1000, UTG raises to 5k, the next folds, and the next goes all in also for about 35k, i've got about 28k and I fold. Small blind fold, and the big blind then flat calls. the person that raised to 5k then contemplates for a while. now what he does at this point is wrong but thats not what is at issue here. he holds up his cards and shows them to the host who has just been knocked out who is sat between him and the person from the big blind and says ooh this would be a tough call but should i go for it? the problem that caused the riot was the lad who was sat in the big blind who turned his head, looked at the guys cards that were held up and said oooh a pocket pair...you may as well fold cos i'm beating that...it all kicks off and the guy sure enough folds his pocket pair. the cards go on their backs and its AQ for the guy that went all in and 22 for the guy that flat called. no hand improved so 22 won the pot. UTG had he called would have won the hand (well, I would have actually won but who calls an all-in bet with J7 right?)

now, when things need a ruling they turn to me cos i've got the most poker experience so, what would the ruling be in this case?

when everyones jumping around showing their cards to the whole world, get up, smack him in the mouth and say: "wtf are doing, sit down you concrete pleb"

Just have to make it clear to UTG guy that he cannot expose his cards until after the hand is over and move on.  Once cards are exposed you make sure everyone in the hand has seen them and carry on.  Don't think the guy with 2-2 has done anything wrong here really.  I shouldn't think there's any real need to smack anyone in the mouth.

In my home games I have a rule which kills any exposed hands, so the second the UTG player exposes his hand it is dead.

Unless you have such a rule however, then you'd just have to give him a warning or time penalty after the hand is finished.

The all in player has obviously done nothing wrong.

The player in the BB is not completely blameless. Yes, it's not his fault the player has exposed his cards, but he shouldn't really give a reaction to them. With a 3rd player all in the BB and UTG should not be discussing their hands. Eg, all in player has AA and is wanting UTG player to call, the BB has now prevented this.

Ban every player that thinks it's ok to show his cards to his neighbour while they are live.

Not just from your game.

Why do you need a ruling?

The guy that showed his cards and folded the best hand because somebody told him to should be able to retrieve his cards from the muck and claim the whole pot.

ldo... ::)