was playing a home game with some people
was heads up with someone on the river, I re-raised his bet and he starts thinking about it for little while. I'm leaning back on my chair just waiting. an he reaches for my cards and picks them and looks at them, and then says he folds. now obviously i was not happy about what he did. he then says that like he was folding anyway and he did it as a joke.

and this person has a sort of against the rules sort of approach outside poker. but what am I entitled to here? can it be treated like a call? if i had a worse and i'm pretty sure i would be entitled to the pot anyway. this guy would be kicked out of a casino right? is it my responsiblity to protect my cards? I probably won't be playing with this guy anymore

1. You broke the cardinal rule. ALWAYS protect your hand. If you hadn't, this never would have happened.
2. In this case, I would rule a dead hand on your opponent the moment he touched your cards. The pot is yours.

The Big K said it all. It's up to you to protect your hand and the pot is yours once he commits the breach.

Nothing. You're not entitled to anything.

No. It's treated like a fold.

Correct.

Probably not, unless it was a repeat incident. He would probably get a reprimand and a warning. It would depend on the casino floor manager.

Yes.

Good choice. All the same, you have to see the humor in this outrageous act.

Buzz

Well just about anything can and will happen at a home game. Depending how strict the host is about the rules, it could be grounds to toss him from the game. More likely a verbal reprimand is enough for a first offence. It nothing happens , and there is more off the wall stuff, I would re evaluate my playing with this crew. Don't think it would be a good move to pull in a casino unless , unless you were a very well connected reg.

It can't be treated as a call. Touching someone else's cards isn't a bet, and you can't force people to bet money that they didn't agree to bet. His hand, however, would be stone dead the moment he touched the cards.

In a casino, I think the player would be reprimanded. Personally, I'd prefer to temp-ban him, because touching/exposing another player's cards is a really serious offense.

In a home game, the best recourse is to simply not invite the player back—especially if he has already earned a reputation as an "outside the rules" type of player.

While we're here, what else has he done that's "outside the rules"?

all above is good advice

cards are dead moment he touches yours

you should protect hand anyways - though in this scenario I doubt it would have helped much barring you holding them in your hand

give a stern warning, I hope this game has a floor of sorts - someone who can kick him out if necessary

what did the other players say about this?

It would be able to trust the people you play with, unfortunately not always the case.

I don't know the dynamic of this game, and how friendly people are. I've seen this same move as a joke, but it wasn't that funny, and came off as a jerk move. The players who do this are the sort who might also consider letting go a loud fart as humorous.

What would have been better is if he'd seen he had a better hand than yours, tried to call, and been declared folded. Now that would be funny.

I play with some characters, and this is no big deal. Yes, it's a fold when he looks at your cards. Maybe it's a fold if he reaches for them and touches them, but probably a fold 90% and maybe a boot 10%,

It's not treated like a big deal if you are HU against the dealer and they peek at the next board card, and then declare their intentions. It's a fold 100% of the time and they are trying to be funny.

Some players would go ape-**** if another player looked, as they "didn't pay to see" the cards. If that's the type of home game, then feel free to rant and/or lecture. But generally that's not the type of home game I enjoy playing in.

I guess it's all in the delivery. The right person might pull it off and make it funny. With another, it might fall flat.

Exactly! ...though it's such an outrageous act it's hard for me to imagine anyone doing it except as an act of humor... kind of like lifting a woman's skirt to peek underneath.

Buzz

We have a very familiar and mostly laid back core group and a bunch of "occasionals" that understand the dynamics well. If we had somebody do what the OP posted about it would not be taken as a joke at all. I don't consider myself or our crew even close to a group of strict "rules nits. This particular bit of behavior , however, would simply be not allowed to occur without mild reprimand by all of us. In fact I can't really imagine any one in our group doing it anyway, so I guess it is kind of up to what the OPs crews attitude about it is.

One of my best friends has a saying, "You deserve what you tolerate."

Perma-ban.


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Perma-ban for a friendly home game seems a little much.

His hand is dead. Ask politely he not do such a thing again.

I would generally agree but this is what swayed me:

I don't need this kinda crap in MY home game. He can go to the casino (in my case 11 miles away) and play his act there.

The guy is a jerk for looking at your hand. The whole table should be speaking up against this, but then again, it depends on the group.

Interesting analogy. And of course, you can't blame the woman for not seeing the humor in it. It doesn't matter what the rest of the crowd thinks. If it's not funny to her, it's inappropriate.

Good point.

I did not mean to imply either handling the cards of someone else or lifting a woman's skirt is appropriate.

Both acts are so inappropriate as to be outrageous. And therein lies the humor.

When I first read the opening post, I was struck with a sense of outrage. On reflection I could see the humor.

On further reflection, harm was done. And that's not funny.

Buzz