I play with a group every couple months. One guy does this when he deals: when he lays out the turn and river cards, he rearranges the whole set according to either their value or suit. The first time he did this I said “what are you doing??”, he replied that he was arranging them according to what was “most bet-able”. For instance, the flop was a jack of spades, 10 of spades, 3 of diamonds, left to right. Turn was a jack of hearts which he placed next to the jack of spades on the far left. River was a ten of clubs which he placed next to the ten of spades in the middle of the set.
I argued with him but he threw out the ‘nowhere in the rules is that not allowed’ line.
Since your not playing in a tournament with laid out rules, I would say its up to your poker group to decide. Is it normal or how its done in the major tournaments not that I know of.
Never read a rule on this, but dealers at tournaments never do this, so pretty sure it’s not appropriate. And if someone is too unobservant to be able to notice that they have a straight or a flush with the cards laid out as they’re dealt, then they deserve to lose the hand.
I wouldn’t sweat it though - probably not worth an argument over at a social game, and a couple of people I play with occasionally do the same, though more usually only when some unusual cards are dealt.
I have no idea what the official rules say but this sounds stupid.
Basically he is showing everyone what is on the board. If someone isn’t paying attention he’s hitting them on the head with a hammer and getting their attention.
At this point why not just announce all the options that are showing and what their odds are of hitting?
That’s totally no cool, it is the same as telling someone what is going on with the board. If there are 4 hearts out there, you are not supposed to be yelling to the table that looks like a flush is going to win it!! His actions are working for those that are not picking up on what is going on, and that is not allowed.
Sounds like he has some OCD. But of course it is a home game, and you all have to decide what is enforced or not. I have a pretty big home game, and we try and stick to regular tourney rules, but with new folks we cut some slack on throwing in one chip and then saying raise afterwards, and some other common missteps…
Thanks everyone. Think I’m gonna fight this harder next time. We are somewhat experienced and know how to assess the board but when it comes to calling/raising, order matters.
It’s also annoying if you’re tracking who bet what on the flop / turn / river because now you also have to remember the out of order card.
Excellent point trying to go back in your mind, to who raised what when, gets a lot more difficult if the cards are not in the right order. Thinking this through, might screw you up enough, to where I wouldn’t even play or if I really liked the group, just fold everytime he dealt.
Thats just terrible poker etiquette. Its also really strange that someone would continue to willingly annoy others after being called out. Reminds me of a guy I work with. He interrupts people and students constantly and wonders why his marriage is failing and why everyone hates him. He is trying to organize a 90’s theme birthday party for himself in a couple days, and no one is attending. I guess some people are just not self-aware.