Title says it all. Assume the other player has showed their cards at the end of a hand. Do you have to show your cards too or can you just put them in face down and concede the loss but not let the other person know if you were bluffing?
Same when you fold and anything else anyone can think of.
I would assume that if you’ve gone that far without folding, you now have to show your hand, as well. Otherwise, at the end of the hand, every remaining player would have an incentive to wait to see if the other player showed their hand first, and the game would stall with each waiting for the other.
I assume there is some order in which players have to reveal their hand but I do not know. If you are not the first who must reveal then, in theory, the players after the first could just concede if they lost without revealing their hand.
My understanding is that the player who has been called (so the 1st raiser or the initial bettor in the final round) is obligated to be the first one to show their hand (or “muck” their hand, conceding the pot).
All other players have the option of showing their hand or conceding without showing (mucking their hand).
Generally speaking, you can’t win a pot in which the final betting leaves more than one player in the pot without showing your hand, so the player most confident of winning the pot generally is the first to show their hand, though sometimes their is a delay as everyone waits for everyone else to show in multi-player pots.
Cash games and home games sometimes have rules or conventions that require everyone left in the pot to show their hands at the end.
ETA: Poker has abroad set of rules for each type of game and in general, if everyone in a game agrees on a rule, that becomes the rule for that game.
Upon a call, the player who last raised has to show their hand first. If all players have checked since the last card, the player immediately to the dealer’s left shows first. A player can ‘muck’ (fold and toss their hand into the discard pile) at any time. The only time players have to show their cards is if they are challenging a call or a side bet.
In tournament poker or at a casino, only the dealer can touch another player’s cards (or the community cards) even if they have been mucked. Touching another player’s cards or chips is a potentially disqualifying event. Outside of tournament play there is no specific rule about revealing someone’s mucked hand but it is considered extremely bad form and likely to result in being ejected from the game for a player who makes a habit of it.
Stranger
Huh…so if at all possible it seems there is a little advantage to sit to the dealer’s right.
(Thanks for the other info…makes sense.)
The dealer position (and the small and big blinds) rotate clockwise with every hand (even if a professional dealer is actually handling the cards) so that everyone has a more or less even chance of being in that position and/or raising first.
Once the first player reveals, there is really no advantage to waiting to show or muck hands. Those slowly progressing reveals make for dramatic scenes in films where everybody thinks they have the winning hand but is somehow outmatched by the player to their left but doing so in the real world will just annoy other players if you are sitting there trying to do some magical mental calculus that will make your 2-7 into a winner against kings over aces.
Stranger
This is generally true.
House rules (which trump any other rule) can of course differ, but this is the standard.
There’s a rotating dealer ‘position’ because it’s generally better (more professional, faster, fewer opportunities for cheaters) to have a professional dealer deal the cards than for the players to do it themselves.
There is an advantage to sitting to the right of the dealer position. You’re often (depending on the poker variant) the last to act in a round (unless the person on the dealer button is also in the hand), meaning you have more opportunities to gain information before acting. And vice-versa. It tells your opponents something if you are eager to act even before they do anything.
As for showing or mucking, I would disagree with the previous post. There have been plenty of cases where I (or other players at the table) have waited as each hand is revealed in order. There is plenty of information to gain from it. Not just whether or not you bluff, but, even if you are not bluffing, the strength of your hand. Combined with your actions at each round of betting, there’s a lot of information to be gained about you. That is, unless the winner just had a monster hand. In which case, just muck and get to the next hand. Or show, if you want, either because you don’t care or you want to selectively feed information to the rest of the table (misinformation also being a tool).
I’d estimated I’ve mucked more often rather than shown when my staring hand was strong but got outdrawn along the way. No need to give that information away unless somebody has paid for that knowledge or you are trying to present yourself a certain way (so it can pay off not immediately but later).
Whenever you feel like losing money.
The last player to create action by betting/raising has to show. Thereafter it is in clockwise order but you only have to show if you can beat the best hand already shown.
Third street
A checks, B bets $20, C raises to $50, A and B call
Fourth street
A checks, B bets $100, C and A call.
Fifth street
All check
B would show first since they were the last to make a leading bet or raise. Then C if they can beat B (otherwise they can show or muck) then A if they can beat B and C (otherwise they can show or muck).
I have seen hands where a person gets called on a bluff and they will say, “Good call.” and muck their hand. I’d wait until the dealer pushes the chips to me before mucking my winning hand.
It would be acceptable at a home game if they show another player their cards then muck. Show one, show all. If it happens at a casino the payers ask the dealer to reveal the cards and IME they always have. If they didn’t, I’d call the floor over to clarify what should happen.
One other case is in a tournament when everyone is all-in. OK, the biggest chip stack is not all-in but no more betting can occur. Then everyone turns over their hands to prevent collusion through chip dumping.
What is chip dumping? (really asking)
When you intentionally lose to give your compatriot more chips. Forbidden in tournaments but allowed in cash games.
I don’t think this is correct.
Since everybody checked on fifth street, the player to the left of the dealer (A) has to show their cards first.
Several sources confirm this; here’s the statement from Wiki:
Robert’s Rules of Poker state that the last player to take aggressive action by a bet or raise is the first to show the hand—unless everyone checks (or is all-in) on the last round of betting, then the first player to the left of the dealer button is the first to show the hand.
My bold.
Another source:
The showdown rules of poker state that the player who took the last aggressive action on the final betting round shows their hand first. If everyone checked during the last betting round, the normal order of play is followed and the closest player to the left of the dealer shows their cards first.
Thanks for the correction. And I apologize for everyone I’ve seen on a video that I called an idiot because YOU called THEM last round. What are you doing showing YOUR cards first?!
Isn’t it possible that the winner was bluffing even more, and that the mucker thereby threw away a win? Though I suppose there might be strategic value in taking that risk, if you don’t want to reveal the exact extent to which you were bluffing.
Sure, but people can be idiots at the poker table. They call repeated raises with their 93o and spike a 2 outer on the river beating your aces up which confirms to them that they are a poker genius
Is it allowed to show your hand (or part of your hand) before you’re required to show it?
Not if there is the possibility of more betting.
If it is a showdown and someone thinks they won they may do it as a psychological tool. Like last round, you go all-in and I call and immediately show my quad 5’s to win.
It is very much the case that some rooms maintain a “last aggressor” concept even if the final betting round sees no action. So, your mileage may vary. In rooms where this is not the case (i.e., those that proceed left of the dealer), note that players may expect otherwise, and the dealer is not likely to intervene immediately if, on a check-around, the out-of-position player says, “Hey, buddy, whaddya got?” to the prior-street aggressor.
As an aside, note that you have to show all hole cards (so, both cards in Texas hold’em) to claim a win at showdown. Showing that you have a single card that completes a straight isn’t enough, even if it already beats the two pair that another player is showing.