New Summer Championships start Today!

For those of us who saw very little of the final table during the past few months, the start of the new season comes as a welcome opportunity to start again. As tonight's game is the first of the Summer, anyone finishing in the top 8 will end up with a league position in the top 8. For everyone else - there's always next week. (Note to self: try to avoid being the first out of the season).

Things changed over the Winter. For the first half, games were played at the Boot in Histon, then some players transferred to Oakington and games started up again in The Black Bull in Longstanton. Meanwhile, despite some players' reservations that expanding into other venues would water down the Oakington games, the average attendance there rose from 14 to over 19 players per game, with the lowest being 15 back in November.

With Longstanton games every week, we now have 2 similar championships running at the same time, and the likelihood of a 'team challenge' towards the middle or end of the season. Meanwhile, there should also be another "Champions' Table" coming soon featuring previous season winners and players with highest average points.

There are a number of grey areas within the rules and etiquette of Poker, particularly when it comes to one player trying to confuse another about the strength or otherwise of a hand. Apart from the obvious, allowed methods of misrepresenting a hand by betting strongly or checking, there's the well known and equally accepted practice of manipulating body language and facial expressions to cause confusion in an attempt to encourage a bet or fold.

Speculating about the cards in an opponent's hand in an attempt to get a 'read' is quite common, and not usually contentious. However, responding can be problematic. It's OK to join in the speculation saying things like, "I could have aces", or, "I've got the nuts", (which is just acceptable), but stating specific cards or hands should be avoided.

Unless heads-up, stating one or more of your cards is regarded as the same as physically turning them over, and to do so forfeits your hand. In heads-up play, stating your cards counts as declaring your final hand and the rules of misrepresenting a hand apply.

Another grey area is showing cards to other players and spectators. This has caused some issues on occasion and I would like to introduce a 'local rule' to ban both. Spectators at our games are almost always other players, sometimes still playing, and being shown cards gives them extra information. The 'show one, show all' rule is fairly easy to apply on one table, but having to show everyone in a tournament? Let's not go there.

Showing cards to anyone introduces the possibility of collusion, even unintentional. Say Player A shows Player B that he has the nuts, after having gone all in. Player B feels obliged to not give this away and gives a slight grimace. Player C takes the read from Player B and calls, loses and probably feels cheated.

I've never seen players showing cards to other players, or to spectators, on any televised tournaments, (at least not spectators near enough to the action to be able to have an influence), so unless anyone objects, deliberately showing live cards to anyone is now against the rules and will result in a fold.

"Never put your cards in your lap or intentionally show them to another player; these are grounds for declaring your hand dead, and you're out of the game." source:http://www.netplaces.com/casino-gambling/poker/poker-clubs-and-card-rooms.htm