Rules of Poker · Chapter 9 · 2026 edition
Conduct rules cover table talk, showing cards, fair play, and settling disputes.
Rules on phones, table language, and rabbit hunting differ by room and between cash games and tournaments. The TDA rules apply to tournaments; Robert's Rules of Poker covers cash games and has a separate tournament section.
Only the player in the seat plays the hand, and only with their own chips. Nobody else may make the decisions, and you may not show your cards to, or discuss the hand with, a friend, a spectator or another player while it is being played.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 2, "Procedures" rules 1 and 2; TDA 2026, Rule 69; Mount Airy Casino poker room house rules (2020), rule 10.
Other players may not advise you on how to play, criticize how you played, or read your hand out before you've tabled it. Robert's Rules also lists telling someone to turn their hand face up at the showdown as improper. In a cash game you may have a guest sit behind you if nobody objects, but the guest may not look at any other hand.
Source: TDA 2026, Rule 69; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 1, "Poker Etiquette"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 2, "Procedures" rule 27.
While a hand is in progress, nobody at the table should say what they hold, what they folded, or what someone else might have. That includes players who aren't in the hand: a player who folded the 7 of hearts and says so can change the odds for everyone still betting. Robert's Rules says not to reveal a folded hand during a deal even to another player who's out of it, in case it reaches someone still in. The TDA's version covers everyone in the tournament, and also forbids talking about mucked hands.
Source: TDA 2026, Rule 69; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 1, "Poker Etiquette"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 15, "Tournaments" introduction; Mount Airy Casino poker room house rules (2020), rule 18.
Talk is part of poker, and rules about it differ between cash games and tournaments. Robert's Rules, for cash games, bans revealing what you hold only in a multihanded pot while the betting is still going on, so once a pot is heads-up, talking about your own hand is allowed. Tournaments are stricter, because every player left in the event has a stake: Robert's tournament section forbids showing cards during a hand even heads-up, unless only two players are left in the event or it's winner-take-all, and allows a penalty for stating your hand. Under the TDA, exposing cards with action pending can bring a penalty (9.8).
Whatever the game, statements meant to mislead about the rules or the action, rather than about your cards, are not table talk but angle shooting (9.12).
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 1, "Poker Etiquette"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 15, "Tournaments" rule 22; TDA 2026, Rule 70.
A table needs one language everyone can follow, so nobody can pass information in a language others don't understand. The TDA leaves the choice to the house, which must post and announce the languages allowed. Robert's Rules bans speaking a foreign language during a deal, and some American rooms post an English-only rule while cards are in play, as Mount Airy does.
Source: TDA 2026, Rule 6; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 2, "Procedures" rule 28; Mount Airy Casino poker room house rules (2020), rule 11.
Rules on phones run from strict to relaxed. The TDA bans phone calls at the table, wants devices silent and off the table, forbids using any device while you have a live hand, and bans strategy apps, charts and outside help, as well as AI tools and wearables unless the director allows them. Robert's Rules lists using a phone at the table as improper. Some card rooms are looser: Mount Airy's posted house rules allow phones at the table. Ask, or post your own rule.
Source: TDA 2026, Rule 5; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 1, "Poker Etiquette"; Mount Airy Casino poker room house rules (2020), rule 15.
Every player is entitled to the same information about another player's hand. If you show your cards to one player, every player at the table has the right to see them. Robert's Rules sets out when:
If you showed only part of your hand, you don't have to show the rest. During a tournament hand, showing your cards to anyone is against the TDA's one-player-to-a-hand rule in the first place.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 3, "The Showdown" rule 6; TDA 2026, Rule 69.
Turning up your cards while others still have to act gives information to some players and not others. Under the TDA it can bring a penalty, even if you're the last to act, but it doesn't kill your hand, and the penalty starts after the hand. Robert's Rules treats it the same way in tournaments; in cash games it lists revealing a live hand in a multihanded pot as improper.
Source: TDA 2026, Rule 70; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 15, "Tournaments" rule 22; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 1, "Poker Etiquette".
Soft play is going easy on a particular opponent, a friend or a partner, by never betting or bluffing against them when it's just the two of you. Robert's Rules calls it a form of collusion, whatever the motive. The TDA penalizes it, up to forfeiting chips or disqualification, though it leaves to the director whether checking an unbeatable hand on the river counts.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Glossary, "Softplay"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 1, "Poker Etiquette"; TDA 2026, Rule 71.
Collusion is two or more players working together against the others: sharing what they hold, signalling, raising back and forth to trap a third player between them, or passing chips to each other on purpose (chip dumping). Robert's Rules lists it first in its code of conduct, with other cheating, and allows the room to bar the offender. In a tournament the TDA disqualifies for both collusion and chip dumping.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 1, "Conduct Code"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 16, "Explanations" discussion 6; TDA 2026, Rule 71; TDA 2026, Rule 73.
When one player is all-in and two others are still betting on the side, it can suit both of them to stop betting and give themselves the best chance of knocking the all-in player out. Agreeing to do that is improper under Robert's Rules and a form of collusion under the TDA. Each player may still check on their own judgment; what's forbidden is the agreement.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 1, "Poker Etiquette"; TDA 2026, Rule 73.
Angle shooting is an action that may not break a written rule outright but is meant to deceive other players about the action, the rules or the cards on the table, as distinct from bluffing with your bets, which is part of the game. Neither rulebook uses the term, but both forbid the common examples:
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 1, "Poker Etiquette"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 3, "Betting and Raising" rules 8 and 11; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 3, "The Showdown" rule 2; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 2, "Procedures" rule 19; TDA 2026, Rule 73.
The same action can be an honest slip or a deliberate angle. Robert's Rules tells the decision-maker to consider the likely intent, including how experienced the player is and their past record, and both books let the person in charge put fairness ahead of a strict reading of the rules. A beginner who acts out of turn by mistake gets a reminder; a regular who keeps doing it gets a penalty (9.19).
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 2, "Decision-Making" rules 1 and 8; TDA 2026, Rule 1.
Put your bet in front of you, in a neat stack the dealer can reach and count. Throwing chips into the pile, splashing the pot, makes it impossible to tell how much you bet. Both Robert's Rules and the TDA list deliberate splashing as improper; the TDA also asks that bets be placed within the dealer's reach.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 1, "Poker Etiquette"; TDA 2026, Rule 73.
In a cash game you may not take part of your stack off the table and keep playing with the rest. Doing so is called going south, or ratholing: it protects a win from the players who'd like a chance to win it back. Card rooms let you cash out and leave, and may set a time before you can come back with a smaller stack: under Robert's Rules, if you return to the same game within an hour of cashing out, you must buy in for what you took away. Chips taken off for safekeeping while you step away must all come back.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 2, "Procedures" rules 6, 7 and 8; PokerNews, Robert Woolley, "Casino Poker for Beginners: Talking 'Table Stakes'" (2020).
When everyone folds to the two blinds, many cash games let the small blind and big blind each take their blind back instead of playing the hand. This is chopping, and it needs both blinds to agree. Robert's Rules allows it in button games; it's the one exception to its ban on splitting a pot by agreement (8.17). Because it takes both, either blind may insist on playing the hand.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 2, "Procedures" rule 15; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Glossary, "Splitting blinds".
A rabbit hunt is turning over the cards that would have come if the hand had gone on, after it ended early, just to see. It changes nothing about the hand, but rooms treat it differently. The TDA bans it in tournaments. Robert's Rules asks dealers not to show the card that would have been dealt, and some card rooms, Mount Airy among them, post a flat ban. PokerStrategy's guide describes most casinos as discouraging or banning it, with dealers doing it only when a floor manager says so. In a home game it's the host's call.
Source: TDA 2026, Rule 30; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 2, "Procedures" rule 24; Mount Airy Casino poker room house rules (2020), rule 23; PokerStrategy, Glossary, "Rabbit Hunt" (commentary).
Rooms don't tolerate abusive behavior toward players or staff. The TDA's list includes insults, threats, harassment and hate speech, taunting and intimidation, throwing cards or chips, mocking another player's play, and shouting or other disruption. Robert's Rules' code of conduct bans threats, profanity, creating a disturbance and damaging the cards.
Source: TDA 2026, Rule 72; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 1, "Conduct Code"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 15, "Tournaments" rule 28.
Breaking these rules brings a penalty that fits the offense and grows with repeats. In tournaments the TDA's scale runs from a verbal warning, through sitting out a number of hands or whole rounds while your blinds and antes are still taken, to losing chips and disqualification. A card room running a cash game can warn, suspend or bar a player.
Source: TDA 2026, Rule 74; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 1, "Poker Etiquette"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 15, "Tournaments" introduction.
A dispute is settled by the person in charge: the floor supervisor in a card room, the tournament director in a tournament, the host in a home game. Both books let that person rule in the spirit of fairness even where a strict reading of the rules points the other way, and both make the decision final. While a ruling is pending, Robert's Rules allows the pot, or part of it, to be held aside so the game can go on.
Source: TDA 2026, Rule 1; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 2, "Decision-Making" rules 1, 2 and 7.
The time to speak up about an error is the moment you notice it. Robert's Rules warns that a delay may affect the ruling, and both books ask every player, not just those in the hand, to point out mistakes such as a wrong bet or a pot about to be misawarded.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 2, "Decision-Making" rule 3; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 3, "The Showdown" rule 3; TDA 2026, Rule 2.
The TDA sets out what it expects of every player. In plain terms:
Source: TDA 2026, Rule 2; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 2, "Procedures" rules 18 and 19.
The dealer runs the hand: deals, reads and announces the hands at the showdown, kills the losing hands and pushes the pot. In stud the dealer announces the low card, the high hand, raises and pairs. The dealer enforces obvious string raises without being asked. A player about to act may ask whether a hand is still live or whether a bet is big enough to reopen the betting, and is entitled to an answer. In draw games, until there has been action after the draw, the dealer must say how many cards a player drew if asked. Some rooms limit what the dealer says about the action to the player whose turn it is, as Mount Airy's house rules do.
Source: TDA 2026, Rule 13; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 2, "Decision-Making" rule 9; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 3, "The Showdown" rules 2 and 4, and "Betting and Raising" rule 14; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 8, "Seven-card Stud" rule 12; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 11, "Rules of Lowball" rule 13; Mount Airy Casino poker room house rules (2020), rule 8.
Rules of Poker, 2026 edition, by MyHomeGame. Free to copy and reuse with credit under CC BY 4.0. How to cite and reuse.