Is it bad etiquette to ask to see a hand?

Jacki Burkhart

Jacki Burkhart

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When 2 players sitting next to each other are in a hand together and one of them shows his hand to the other player, without showing it to the rest of the table...is it bad etiquette to ask to see the hand?
 
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waterboy73

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No, or at least I don't think so. It's "show one, show all." Usually when this happens, if the dealer sees they show it to the other player, the dealer will usually table that hand face up for all to see.
 
The1AceJack

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Agreed, not bad etiquette. Had this happen at a table today, actually. Dealer enforced it, too.
 
wanderingthehall

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I think it depends on the table. I usually wouldn't ask unless I was involved in a big pot with the other person. Usually the players showing off their hand aren't very good anyways since they are already giving away free info.

Of course, I'm a little biased, because I'm usually the person people are showing their cards to. But it's usually geriatric old men trying to socialize with the pretty girl at the 3/6 table. So it's not exactly high stakes poker, or high class players.
 
steveiam

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The dealer would normally show the cards to the rest of the table.
 
PoKeRFoRNiA

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No. It's show one, show all policy.

JC Tran did private showing to his buddy next to him in wsop 2013 and he was requested to show his hand, so he rolls over his set of 5s.

Bad etiquette is showing one player privately and not to rest of the table.

NO EXCEPTIONS
 
Chipper_Tracy42

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No. It's show one, show all policy.

JC Tran did private showing to his buddy next to him in WSOP 2013 and he was requested to show his hand, so he rolls over his set of 5s.

Bad etiquette is showing one player privately and not to rest of the table.

NO EXCEPTIONS
- This, In every room. If the dealer forgot, You can remind him/her for that.;)
 
BearPlay

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Nope. The bad etiquette is demonstrated by the person showing the hand to someone privately and not to the table.
 
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torosanti012

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It's not bad etiquette, if you wash all the poker on youtube. you'll see players ask all the time if they can be shown a hand
 
IntenseHeat

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As has been said, "show one, show all".

If someone else is supposed to show, I don't like to show first. But I try not to make a big deal about it. However, if someone has bet on two or three streets, then I'm going to want to see. If you fold to someone that you suspect may be bluffing, then ask them to show it, they always say something clever like "You should have called if you wanted to see." or "It costs money to see my cards" or something like that. So the more someone makes me pay, the more I'm going to want to see. For a small bet into a small pot, I might let it slide. But if you start giving free peaks to someone else, I start to feel like I'm getting cheated out of my money's worth.
 
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If someone shows privately, I always ask to see what he showed just to try to keep the table honest and I don't care if it's bad etiquette or not, I want all the info I can legally get.
 
Jacki Burkhart

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If someone shows privately, I always ask to see what he showed just to try to keep the table honest and I don't care if it's bad etiquette or not, I want all the info I can legally get.

Thanks for all the replies. I usually do this too, in a nice way, because I feel the same way. I recently was chided that even though I was within my rights it was still bad etiquette, similar to calling a clock.
 
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jj20002

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if you want to see my cards you have to pay, otherwise i don´t get any info for free!!

I saw a hand between Tony G and Wiggins and the second went allin after flop and the first asked to see one card, but one rule: if he sees it then he has to pay the bet!

this is poker!
 
TeUnit

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nope not bad etiquette, just fair for all to have access to the same information
 
imtheman

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no it is not bad etiquette to ask just like pokerfornia says It's show one, show all at lest that's what i think
 
WeenieSVK

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Not at all. Its bad etiquette of those two, whos shows cards to each other only like gays :D
 
OzExorcist

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As everyone else has said above, the short answer is no, it's not bad etiquette to ask to see the hand - the player showing their hand to someone else is actually breaking the rules.

That said, like pretty much everything else in poker, it'll depend a lot on context. For example, say someone raises preflop and it folds around to the big blind, who looks at their cards, shows them to the person next to them with a "ugh, rags again" look on their face and then folds. Even though it's not bad etiquette to ask to see those cards, some players might still view it as poor form on your part to do so as it's already obvious from the action that the big blind had nothing, and effectively all you're doing is holding up the game.

Sometimes you've got to think about what effect asking to see the hand will have, and what's better for you in the long run. If asking to see the hand will piss a few people off and change the way the game is being played, is that worth the little bit of extra information you get from seeing the hand? If it'll tilt the player in question and have them spewing money, then it's +EV. But if it'll make a fish leave the game, then it's probably -EV.
 
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its an iffy situation i think, i played my first live tournament a few months ago and i saw it happen, i didn't say anything but i thought in my head "how can they think that's okay?". i don't think its bad etiquette to ask, i think the bad etiquette was shown when someone shows a hand to just one other player.

then again, the thought that goes through my head is,...if there showing a hand at all, they probably dont fully understand the reason why most pros choose not to reveal there hands, even though they ALL know they can be seen on tv a few weeks later. so i think to the players that do this arent aware of the way it can make an avid player feel, or they just dont care because there too friendly with the other players at the table... if thats the case id say its okay, because if there "friendly" asking shouldnt be such a big deal, and if they dont know any better cause there ameture players, well i see no harm in that, if someone just told them the rule on it that should be the end of it.

im a firm believer in show-one show all, and other rules that were are in place for the fairness of the game, its very hard to have an edge in poker, i dont think one player should have an edge as big as seeing how a particular hand was played cause his friend is sitting next to him and wants to show his "uber-fold" or his "favorite" 27os hand that he check-folded after a bet pre.. thats the kind of info everyone wants to know, NEEDS to know to make good decisions against a particular player.

my final verdict... ask away.... let the whole table know your asking... they cant hide the hand then. lol
 
LeanAndMean

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absolutely not bad etiquette. The dealer should have seen his action and turned over the cards as he took them
 
OzExorcist

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then again, the thought that goes through my head is,...if there showing a hand at all, they probably dont fully understand the reason why most pros choose not to reveal there hands, even though they ALL know they can be seen on tv a few weeks later. so i think to the players that do this arent aware of the way it can make an avid player feel, or they just dont care because there too friendly with the other players at the table... if thats the case id say its okay, because if there "friendly" asking shouldnt be such a big deal, and if they dont know any better cause there ameture players, well i see no harm in that, if someone just told them the rule on it that should be the end of it.

This is a very good point, and it's one of the things that I was getting at above: a lot of the time if a player is showing their cards to someone else, it's because they're a new / casual / bad player. And generally speaking, those are the players that you want to keep happy so they stay at your table and keep losing their money.
 
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Friede1988

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no, it's just helphy to increase your skillz by reading the opponet
 
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kungfupanda1105

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I think its okay to ask since he already show his cards to another player
 
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hffjd2000

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If the situation is both heads up and end of river, if player1 folds but player2 shows his hand to player1, we have no right to see it. But if the showdown is check check or the bet was called, and the winner doesnt want to show to all, the winner will not be paid if he will not show it or anyone can has the right to request the winners hand, but of course not all the time. Maybe just on those big pots, etc.
 
OzExorcist

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But if the showdown is check check or the bet was called, and the winner doesnt want to show to all, the winner will not be paid if he will not show it or anyone can has the right to request the winners hand, but of course not all the time. Maybe just on those big pots, etc.

The question of who does and doesn't have to show their hand at showdown is an interesting issue that was discussed in another thread recently: https://www.cardschat.com/forum/general-poker-13/live-players-am-i-in-wrong-239654/

Long story short, it can very much depend on where you play and what the house rules are.
 
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