"English at the table"

Naturally, online poker is for an international audience, and this means there'll be players who prefer their native language to that of English.

But isn't there a casino rule where it's only "English spoken at the table"?

... Ok. Maybe in English-speaking countries!

But, bearing in mind issues of collusion in online gambling, would it be pertinent to localise the language by the room.

e.g. Spanish rooms, Russian rooms, English rooms, Cantonese etc

Anecdotally, I was multi-tabling on FullTilt this week one night, and EVERY table was dominated by Russian speakers. Unfortunately, while I do speak a couple of languages, Russian isn't one. I also happen to live in a former Soviet country, where the Russian reputation is, er, not the cleanest. Infer what you will.

Anyway, if non-native English speakers can presume the majority of players are ignorant of their mother tongue, doesn't this invite an opportunity to 'bend' the situation to someone's advantage?

The general rule in internet poker rooms is also "English Only". Perhaps Full Tilt is an exception. I just had a quick look at their website and couldn`t immediately find anything on the subject.

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/site-terms

Ah, thanks, I missed that.

FT is like most of the other rooms, then. If opponents are annoying you by jabbering in "foreign", report them to support.

I believe even internet gambling has restrictions to english only on their sites, but their is no way stopping it. I have been at tons and tons of tables where members speak to each other in many different languages. I am positive in real casinos that you can not speak a language of that of another country, i am not truly sure about internet poker. I am going to research this Good question

Since stealth communication can be used in collusion at a poker table (whether verbal or non-verbal, as in cues given to a partner to gain an advantage), there has to be one universal way to communicate that is acceptable. Since English is the most widespread language in the world, English it is.

English may be the most widespread language on the Internet and widely recognized, but it is not the native language spoken by the most people in the world - that goes to Mandrin Chinese.

Various websites dispute if English is 2nd or 3rd behind Hindi. I once thought Spanish or Portugese was the most widely recognized and spoken, but I was wrong.

fulltilt is the worst for this practice. It seems fulltilt can and will do anything they want. They are the biggest and the best, but eventually the biggest falls. No ranting on tilt but it seems they don't care either way.

I typically don't sweat it if people on Stars are speaking their language. Sometimes I run their words through Google translator, haven't come up with anything yet.

But one time playing a live tourney at the local room, the stupid dealer was talking to the player just to his right in Vietnamese. Now like half of the players at this place are Vietnamese, so if they were saying wrong I'm sure it would have gotten somebody's attention. Still, when I busted out of the tourney I was ticked off so I asked the tournament director if they had a rule about language at the table. First she thought I meant somebody was swearing, but then we got straightened out. When I told her it was a dealer talking to another player, she got PISSED. I left, but I don't think the guy had a very good day at work that day.

I was in a tourney at Titan recently, and there were two French players at my table. It was on the bubble and the short-stack was asking (in French) for the other French guy to go easy on him and help him survive into the money.

I can speak French moderately well and knew what was going on. I pointed out to them that soft-playing and using any language other than English are both against the rules at that site.

In fairness to them, they stopped both right away. Had they not done so, I would have got on to live support. Titan support are usually pretty quick to warn players who speak other than English, but you do need to report it. They don`t monitor the chat as a routine measure, as far as I can tell, and don`t seem to pick up on these things unless a player tells them.

I have been having issues with this alot at the

tables lately its gotten to the point where

I tell them english only plz they pretty much say to

me lol then go right back too it.

I went as far as emailing support on ftp over it

and there response did nothing but piss me off

saying I should pretty much mute the player and then gave

me instructions on how to do it lol

Seems they don't care to help this issue anymore as well

we seem to be becoming a minority more and more

on sites oh well.

Full Tilt and Poker Stars will do something if it is reported to them at the time that it happens. It is annoying when playing these kind of ppl who are persistant and keep talking in another language, It's humane nature to think that there is collusion going on.

I did not know English was mandatory at the tables. Kinda rediculous if you ask me... But I understand how collusion can come into play on the reasoning of the rule... But I s'pose if you really wanna collude you can just use Instant Messengers, not a dif language at the table... I dunno....

They have freerolls like that, but I wouldn't see the relevance. People barely chat during games and if you don't speak English you just don't talk. Simple as that...

It makes sense at WSOP because they could be talking about their hands and no one would know...

Imagine Webcam poker?, haha so you can talk and see the person...i wonder how that would work out.

Wow, I had no idea that English chat was required at FTP. I always just assumed that people just wanted others to speak it since it's the most standard. All those times people have said "Speak English please", they were actually referencing a FTP rule? Interesting. Works for me.

Normaly it is english at the table!
Except the rooms you named.
There has to be one language....

Yea, I've been in tournaments with 4 russians at one table and they just sat there speaking russian while I had no idea what they were saying to eachother.

The rules seem steep but I hardly doubt they are enforced to the max.

I have Google Translator up and ready when I am in a freeroll with thousands of players and I don't hesitate to copy and paste their chat in an email to the poker site, especially after the players have been advised that it's English only.

When I use the translator, sometimes I can see that the chat is innocent, but I have caught players in collusion and reported them, along with a copy of the chat and translation.

However, one problem with the translator is that is doesn't understand slang in a foreign language. So sometimes I may only get to see a few of the words that are translated into English in their chat, but not a complete sentence.

if you want to see many languages (except english), you have to play at mermaid poker... there seem to be any eastern european language and many romanians, bulgarians and russians

But your point is entirely about native speaking of the language only which isn't as useful. English is the most world wide language on the planet with estimates between 1/4 to 1/3 of the world speaking and understanding English to at least some reasonable degree. No, not fluent, but not just one word either....

Plus English is the most common language for international travel and is the official language of diplomancy. It's just so widespread that no other language would make sense.

I would imagine that one of the biggest factors regarding English at the table is the main poker sites are staffed with English speaking employees.

I can fully understand non-English speaking people to want rooms catering for their languages, but that requires an army of moderators who speak those languages.

English is the most widely spoken language, and therefore caters for the largest audience. Adding other languages in regularly may lead to an increase in running costs if the non-English rooms were not filled to capacity. This situation would lead to an increase in rake.

However if the demand is sufficient that non-English speaking moderators can be employed full-time then I see no reason not to offer poker rooms dedicated to other languages.

I also have my suspicions as to Mandarin Chinese being the most spoken language. Native language, I will obviously accept, but most spoken, I highly doubt it as the Chinese government actively encourages people to take up a second language. Many choose English.

Thinking about it - poker is a game based on information.

If players can share info using a language the others don't speak, this upsets the balance of the game. At best!

After all - it's bad enough you can't see the villain's cards! ;-P

So, wherever the game is played, it's a must to have a 'table language'.

[Mandarin is the most spoken language worldwide, then English, Hindi and Spanish:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_spoken_languages]

Ive been at countless tables with people speaking another language, german, french.. countless tables. I dont find a HUGE problem with it myself.. Most times its a couple of native countrymen that are friends.

Wow this is a good post.
I never knew,thanks everyone for clearing it up.
I did see that episode of the wsop were the guy spoke in another language and the table went off on him ,and had the director there and everything.
Pretty cool,the guy didn't know what was going on.

Allmost every poker room has this rule.ENGLISH ONLY but unfortunetly there is not many that respect this...specially french players are very very bad in this to respect this rule grrrrrrrr

i get the english at the table rule, but i kinda dont understand why a player cant talk to the rail in their native language..

I play in a couple of tournaments for Spanish residents only at Poker Stars.

At Poker Star's country specific tournaments, you are allowed to speak the native language, and English.

While I rarely speak at all when seated at an internet poker table, during these games, I become a the most talkative player you can imagine -- and only in English. My refusal to speak Spanish (and to shut up!) angers many of the players into over aggressive behavior against me, which I can sometimes exploit.

It's fun to give a little bit of their own medicine, and it's legal when I do it!

wow i never knew this either!

maybe every time i sit at a ring game and people start going back and forth in some weirdo language....maybe they are saying what cards they have?

OOOOOOOOOOO the conspiracy lol...ill be reporting these hooligans from now on!!!!

FullTilt aren't the biggest, and they aren't the best. I was quite surprised that FullTilt allow so many beggars at their final tables, and when I emailed them with the details of some EXTREMELY racist comments that had been made in the UK freeroll they essentially told me that I should turn off chat if I didn't like it!

However, my email hadn't been very diplomatically worded.

Quote:
Hello

I know that you are far more tolerant than PokerStars when it comes to chat, and are quite happy to allow lowlife scum to be begging at your final tables and things like that, but I just wondered if this chat goes too far even for your sloppy standards

LOL.....I love it!! Fantastic note!

I have sent similar emails to FT regarding abusive chat and players with multi-accounts (even though I know it's a waste of my time.)

If you think there is collusion going on, report that. They are probably not chatting about their hands at the table, maybe texting or using a seperate IM to do that, IF, that is what they are doing.

I play live poker in the Philippines and there is an english only rule here too. But they only enforce it if there is an obvious foreigner at the table. I am hispanic and blend in pretty well until I open my mouth.

Couldn't agree more with the general attitude of the thread. It actually throws me off my game quite a bit when I hear another langauge at the table - I only speak english so it's frustrating to think there are other people who may have more information.

Always /support I think!

i don't like players who spoke other langueges at the tables but english,but i have t admit that if i find on a table a friend of mine who is from romania,i talk with him in our languege. is much simple like that!

I met many russians in Titan also in a tournament. They were discussing cards tho they denied it (but I know russian language a bit). The problem was that they also helped each other. So at the end there were the russians and the others.

And situations like this is why it is English only at the tables in most cases.