Message Board : Rules/Etiguette Question

Hey, I am new here.  First post.  I am a big fan of Eds.  I am happy to be aboard.

I have been playing hold’em for about 5 years now.  My friend, who discovered the game at the same time as I, is very enthusiastic about the game.  Much more so than I am, and I really love it.  One of the problems this brings up is that he always has to blurt out a rule or be the first one to calculate the outs / odds one has in an ‘all in’ situation.  He’s like the kid in fifth grade that can not wait to be called upon by the teacher and has to blurt out the answer.  While this is entertaining, some of the time, there have been times when I think he should be quiet.  Specifically, he will correct the play of people in a hand after he has folded and no longer has an interest in the hand.  My contention is and always has been that the play is between the people still in the hand and he should stay uninvolved.  Let me give you an example…..

Situation…Low Stakes, No-Limit play, Home Game.  Average play at the table is poor.  You are heads up with an experienced, albeit poor player.  You make a bet and he announces a raise.  Your bet was representing a better hand than you are holding.  Your bet is $12 he puts $20 into the pot….not a legal raise.  You are on a draw and calling an additional $8 is attractive.  Our nosey friend, with no interest in the hand and no stake in the play, points out the player’s error and tells him to put in an additional $4.

Question….Is it appropriate for players not in the hand to comment on the play and make corrections?

My answer…. No.  I have always believed that when you are not in a hand, you stay out of it unless your assistance is requested by the players who ARE in the hand.  At the poker table, we are there to profit from the errors other players make.  Since you are on a draw, and the legal raise prices you out of the pot but the illegal raise makes it a profitable call, the interference from the third, uninterested player, is tantamount to two players playing one hand.

Comments, please

I agree with Jamleeco. As far as it being an illegal raise, I have absolutely no problems with your friend piping up and saying so. The rules are the rules and as soon as they start getting muddy or glossed over then things can get out of hand really quickly. (I realise that might sound a little melodramatic, but it’d be awful for friendships to be strained etc. all over a little money in a home game. But if you feel like you’ve been cheated by a friend things can go awry real fast.) 

As for your friend being the font of all knowledge, yeah, that’d get a little annoying after a while! And as far as I’m concerned, any comments based on odds, draws, cards already out on the table, what someone’s hoping to see on the river etc. is strictly taboo.

All in all, I think a comment on an irregular raise, or any other rule irregularity is sthg that anyone, either in the hand or not, has the right to make. And should make, as it’s in everyone’s best interests, as we all want to have a good time with mates, beat them fair and square when given the chance, but also educate those who still have a couple of holes in their poker knowledge about how to raise, or even just to keep their hole cards from showing.