Top Poker Etiquette Tips

Quit Stalling

No matter what sort of a poker table you’re playing at, be it live or online, don’t be that guy who always takes as much time as he can every single turn. You don’t need that much time to think about your move; you’re either doing that to annoy your opponents or make them think you have some special strategy going on.

Either way, it’s unprofessional, annoying, and outright rude. If you keep stalling, you’ll get dirty looks and the entire table will breathe a collective sigh of relief once you’re down and out.

Spamming the Chat

This one goes without saying, but we still see many people spam the chat all the time. Spamming, in its own right, is annoying and can get you kicked off the table, but there are far worse chat-related things than that.

We often see people berating their opponents, calling them names and showing off a vast repertoire of insults. Don’t be like that. Regardless if you’ve won or lost, have the decency in you to remain polite and avoid losing your temper.

Never Team Up with Your Buddies

Online poker, whether for real money or just for fun, is a great pastime. It requires the right mindset, focus, strategizing, and a fair bit of psychological aspects too. But, if you’re at the table and you notice a few players are soft-playing each other, it’s a sure-sign they’re colluding.

If you don’t want it to happen to you, don’t do it to other people. Be the change you want to see – never collude with your buddies and team up on other players. It provides an unfair advantage and completely ruins the gameplay for other players.

Long story short, if you’re teaming up with your buddies when playing poker online, you’re part of the problem!

Constantly Disconnecting

Make sure your connection is up to snuff. If your ping is too high and your connection keeps going on and off, it’s best to call it a day and play another time.

Constantly disconnecting produces delays and auto-folds, which ruins the game for everyone. So, just call it a day and be done with it!

Or, if you can, switch your connection to your phone and use that to connect to your preferred poker room. You can do so either via Bluetooth, WiFi, or USB cable. If your primary network is too clogged, switching over to your phone’s LTE or 5G network should do the trick.

Playing at Too Many Tables Simultaneously

Here’s another common online poker etiquette malpractices – simultaneously playing at too many tables. I can totally understand players who play at 2 or 3 tables simultaneously. That’s doable; I’ve been there, done that.

However, I’ve recently found out that several buddies of mine play 5+ tables at the same time.

“But what if you can’t make it to a table in time?” – I asked.

“It’s all good – the game auto-checks or auto-folds if there’s a call to be made”. – they all replied in a similar manner.

What this does, though, is delay the game for everyone else at the table. I can understand going through 30 seconds of LITERALLY NOTHING once every 20 minutes… but having to go through that every few rounds is outright agonizing.

Don’t string Your Bets

First, let’s define what stringing your bets really means:

Stringing your bets represents the act of adding more chips without fully declaring (AKA verbalizing) your action, which is what some players use to assess how a specific player reacts to their turn.

Here’s a clear cut example of string betting: Player A wants to know how player B will react to a call, so he says “I call,” then waits a few seconds, before grabbing his chips and continuing with “and raise for X amount”.

If this isn’t the player’s first time of doing so, chances are the dealer will accept the bet as a call and won’t take the remaining chips. In my opinion, the dealer has every right to do so!

Keep Your Phone Off the Table

This is just common sense, but I reckon some folks still haven’t got the memo. If you’re playing at a local tournament, the first thing you should do after taking a seat is put your phone on mute and throw it in your pocket.

The table is not a place for your phone!

“But other people do it too, why shouldn’t I?” Well, if other people decide to jump off a bridge, would you join them?

Jokes aside; having your phone on the table is not just a needless distraction but somewhat rude too, even if it’s in DND mode. So, just throw it in your pocket, forget about it, and focus on the game.

Running Your Mouth After Folding

We often see people discussing their hand right after they folded. This ruins the remainder of the round for other players because knowing which cards are out of the equation can change the complexity of the round.

This isn’t just an online poker etiquette tip; it works for real tournaments too. If you’ve folded, just discard your hand and analyze the action. Don’t run your mouth and share which cards you’ve folded. That’s rude, unnecessary, and oftentimes a valid reason for you to be kicked out of the game.

Hit and Run Technique

The so-called hit and run poker technique revolves around players taking a seat at the table, forcing a big play within their first few hands, take a massive pot then run off to do their bidding elsewhere.

Why is this wrong? Well, there’s nothing inherently wrong about this. It’s not against the rules. However, it’s considered fairly rude, especially to the player who was on the receiving end of the big pot. At least give the guy a few more rounds so he can try to win it back. That’s the least you can do.

Not Handling Your Chips and Cards Correctly

Here are a few examples of what we mean by this:

• Not positioning or guarding your cards properly can make the dealer think you’ve folded, so they’ll take your cards away and count you out of the next round.
• Not verbalizing the amount of your raise and stringing your bets (throwing them in several batches) can (and most likely will) piss the dealer off.

Always be respectful to the dealer and your opponents. That’s the only way you’ll get nothing but respect in return.