If you want to be a good poker player, you must develop poker discipline. Here are some leading ways in which you can display some poker etiquette:
Who shows first? Often, one finds players reluctant to show their cards. Proper poker etiquette demands that the player who made the last bet should show his cards first. If the calling player wants to claim the pot as his, he must open his hand, but if he wants to fold, he can put his cards, unseen by everyone, into the pot.
Know when to fold your cards: As a poker player, you need to know when to fold your cards. If you have a big monstrous starting hand, it becomes hard to fold. If you have a dangerous starting hand such as A-9, A-10, Q-J or K-10, it can cause you to be undisciplined. If you are in such a situation, it’s best that you fold your cards because otherwise there will be several hands that can beat you.
Don’t play out of turn: It’s common for players to scan the table and miss seeing where the action is before he plays. If this happens, tell the player concerned to concentrate on the game but if it recurs, tell him to learn the rules of the game before coming to the table again. Sometimes, it’s difficult to be angry with a player if he plays out of turn because it could the fault of another player who hides his card or doesn’t put them on the table.
No drumming or nervous finger-tapping: It’s poor poker etiquette to drum your fingers on the poker table or tap your fingers as if nervously. If you do tap your fingers, in poker terms it means that you want to check and the play can pass past you to the next player. If your co-players make an issue of this, they can assume you’re angling, which again is a sign of poor etiquette.
Keep your chips on the table, not in your pocket: Perhaps you’re frightened of spending too much at the poker table and so take the chips off the table and place them in your pocket to encash later. Don’t do this as this is a sign of bad manners. Instead, leave the chips in your chip stack but don’t use them to bet. After all, before the game can end, the money could belong to anyone else, so why should it go into your pocket?
Don’t use you iphone at the table: Before you sit down to play poker, switch off your mobile phone and all other electronic devices. If you keep taking all the calls you get, there’s a break in play and people lose interest and concentration in the game. No one is interested in who called you, or what the good news you just received was. All your co-players are interested in is to beat you at poker. So, go out there armed with poker discipline and win.