Table Games : Don’t Talk if You Want to Win

This article is about talking at the table and I don’t mean social conversations. In a game situation it is about the talk with those no longer in the hand, about community cards and what the remaining players may have in their hands. These cheating ways should be interdicted. Dealers and floor people at the casino usually discourage them.

But there are other poker rooms where these things are not respected. For example, when the flop shows a 6-7-9, someone who has already faced up his cards will say something like, "Uh-oh, someone may have a straight." In case it happens, the dealer should remind players not to make comments. Usually, it doesn't happen often because most players know not to talk about the hand while it's still being played out.

In the possible straight situation, when there are two players remaining, someone may wonder out loud, "I wonder who has the high end?" The player with a 5-8 in the above situation may not realize that his opponent could have an 8-10. Experienced players always know the chance that someone else could have them beat, but it's not good to point it out to a player who may not see this possibility.

Also it's unfair to make comments about someone's playing style. Let a player learn from his own remarks that his opponent always shuffles in with one type of hand and raises with another or never bluffs. It's like acting out of circle: a player who has already opted out of the hand is giving at least one player who is still in the hand an unfair advantage by saying anything about the board or another player. Those players still in the hand can talk and protest and wonder aloud all they want, but the others out of the game should not make remarks.

Another inequitable aspect is that of a player who upon seeing the flop or turn, is letting the whole table know that he threw away the winning hand pre-flop. For example, if you threw away an unsuited 7-2 and then see three deuces by Fourth Street, there is absolutely no reason to indicate that a fourth deuce cannot possibly be helpful.