About Andy Glazer Expertise I am a poker expert and probably the leading poker tournament writer in the world. I am also an expert at almost every form of casino gambling (author, Casino Gambling the Smart Way). I can answer specific questions about a game, send people towards other resources, or provide lessons.
Experience More than 30 years gaming in casinos. I write the weekly gaming column for the Detroit Free Press, the largest paper in the country to have a gambling column. I am also Tournament Editor for Poker Digest Magazine, and am the online poker guide for www.poker.casino.com. I have taught gaming seminars for The Learning Annex in New York, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and for similar organizations in many other cities.
Publications Detroit Free Press, Chance Magazine, Esquire, Card Player Magazine, and probably half a dozen smaller ones I don't recall at the moment.
Education/Credentials I'm a recovered lawyer, please don't hold that against me.
Awards and Honors I've won all kinds of poker, blackjack and backgammon tournaments.
Question At a resent friendly poker game, one of the players called their hand as a straight,I had four of a kind and was said to be the winner and i drug the pot and began stacking my chips when the player with the straight said she found she had a straight flush. I would not return the pot and said that she had already called her hand.Just how many times should a player be allowed to call a different hand after they have called and named their hand? I was told that the cards speak for themselves, that is fine but how should it be handled. Should all remaining hands be layed out for the other players to figure out or is the hand you call the one that is played? I should mention that this happens alot at our games and I would like it to end. I don't feel that calling two or more different hands is the right way to play. Your help is greatly needed.
thank you very much....Deb from Indiana
Answer Hi Deb,
You pose an interesting question because several basic poker rules intersect/conflict on this particular situation.
The cards do speak, especially if a player has laid his/her hand down on the table for all to see. If a player keeps his hand to himself and announces it wrongly (like a straight instead of the actual straight flush) and the chips are now already in the stack of the winner, I would usually rule in a money game that the player who has miscalled his hand is out of luck. In a big tournament, I might try to reconstruct the betting and award the pot to the player with the best hand, but big tournaments are different from money games and especially private games.
I think one of the most important points you made is that this happens a lot in your games and you would like it to end. That makes a lot of sense. To do that, you need a rule: anyone who wants to contest the pot should lay his/her hand down on the table, and announce what he/she thinks she has. Even doing this, it is possible for someone to make a mistake, but if someone has failed to recognize the strength of his/her hand, they are probably out of luck UNLESS the person who won "wants" to do something to make the situation more fair and perhaps just offer to give the person a part of the pot. There has to be some penalty for miscalling your hand because otherwise there is little incentive for making sure you get it right. One thing is for sure, do not release your own hand of, lets say trips, when someone says "straight" until you actually see the straight.
Generally speaking, when the game is a "friendly" one, players try to award the pot to the best hand. However, if the chips are already in someone else's stack, it is usually very difficult to reconstruct the betting and figure out how much should be given to the player who should have won. That's why an offer of "I'll give you $X to be nice" is often a fair way to resolve these things.
If the player with the straight flush has NOT laid his or her hand down, but just announced "straight" and you have shown your four of a kind and taken the pot, and then suddenly you hear "wait, I have a straight flush," that is a little different, because depending on how high the stakes are and how good the friends are, cheating issues could become involved, i.e., someone could spot the nine of diamonds somewhere and substitute it for a card in his/her hand once s/he realized that a straight wasn't any good. That's why a rule requiring players to put their cards on the table if they want to compete for the pot is a good one.
I hope this helps.
Andy Glazer
www.poker.casino.com
www.casinoselfdefense.com
