I often play at a local lounge. Generally a few hours on a weekday afternoon, or some longer sessions on a free Saturday or football Sunday.

The crowd varies, the game does as well. It's usually a $5-$20 buy-in for Pineapple Open Face Chinese, quarter-fifty NL, and now nickel-dime PLO.

I get a text from a player, regarding some humor/drama. The following day, I hear it from others, multiple times.

Both players involved have played NL in the casinos. The game was NL, and the final pot was $26.

Not sure that it matters, but the action to the river is:
Player A raises pre, gets 2 callers.
Flop (AT6) checks around.
Turn (AT6-3) Player A bets, player B folds, player C calls.
River (AT6-3-6) Player A checks, player C bets.

Player A asks "Do you have a 6?"
Player C responds with ".... I do not have A 6" (emphasis on A).

Player A calls the bet with a big Ace (AK or AQ).
Player C naturally shows quads (having not a single 6, but a pair of 6s in the hole).


I see some of the guys the following day, and I'm shocked at the opinions expressed.

I'm 100% in the "Don't ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies." and have no sympathy for Player A. I'm expecting that most of the people on the forum are in that camp, think it's silly to ask AND expect an honest straightforward answer.

My question is about the rest of the players. The ones that aren't into it enough to read 2+2, much less register, post and participate. What do you think the rest of your home poker players would think about asking questions and expecting honest answers.

Also, as soon as I hear the emphasis on "A" I knew what was coming, and the 'better' players have started laughing when I get to that part of the story. There was a surprising debate if the response was a lie.

It is fun, but there is a reason that my real regular game doesn't include either of those players.

The amount of table talk in my games is huge. No one has any expectations that poker players will tell the truth about the contents of their hands either during the hand or after the hand is over.

Even so there are rare cases where someone gets snookered by table talk and then gets mad about it. It is mostly a situation where the anger is derived from being humiliated, not because a card player told an "outrageous" lie.

Table talk seems beneficial to me. Home games should be fun, social events. If I wanted to sit for hours at a mostly silent table with a bunch of guys in hoodies, shiny sunglasses with earbuds, I could go to the local underground games or an Indian casino.

I've played with people who think you should not lie amoung friends in a friendly poker game. Surprisingly, they are the biggest talkers, dancing along the edge of what they define as that moral boundary.

I say poker is one game where anything anyone says outside of the normal parameters of calling your action ("call," "bet," "I raise $20 more," etc) is just playing mind games. It may be true, it may be false, you decide.

I don't say much, because I often find people who like to engage in this sort of thing reparte boring. It just delays the game, get on with it. But I try to be tolerant, because some people like to do it.

I think saying "a 6" is actually quite funny. He spoke the total truth. Emphasizing the "a" implies he has two and exactly two. If he said that and shows no 6, I'd be fine with that. Even if he said, "there is no 6 in my hand" and he had one or two, so it goes. I wouldn't do that, but it's the chance you take if you ask and believe the answer.

eneely

Yes some folks like to do it certainly. In fact at our weekly cash game everybody likes to do it, including me the host. It is a part of our game culture. It helps that we are mostly very long term poker friends, and some of us have relationships outside of the game. Also our stakes are low so the game is only semi serious most of the time. Everyone hates to lose and everyone hates the winners each hand until the seesion is over. Then it's clean up , go home and come back next week to do it again.

In a case like the OP, the winner would get a chorus of F yous , DB, Dick Head, and the finger from most of the table. He would then pull in the pot and we would deal the next hand. NOW if the group was a bunch of semi or total strangers and if the stakes were higher this kind of table dynamic would need to be toned down a lot certainly.

But he told the truth, didn't he? Can you curse someone for telling you exactly what he has?

In some of my examples, the talker would deserve some grief.

LOL Well at our table you can get mildly cursed for a lot of stuff. A thin skin is a definite liabilty. Likely in something like the OPs case the round of obcenities would be due LESS to the fact of lying or slowrolling and more to the over used cliche he utilized to describe his quads.

I think this also applies to, "Can you believe that a-hole slowrolled me?" Usually the complaint is more about the fact that their dumbass bluff got called.

In OP, wtf is some guy asking a question like that for in a poker game, and expecting an honest response? F'real.

the question itself is NOT friendly. it is pretty much like saying
"please tell me honestly whether I have the best Hand or not. if you have no 6 I will call your bet and win your money, and if you have a 6 I will fold, because I don't want to give you even more money"

people who ask questions like that under the cloak of "friendship" and expect and honest answer are just trying to use any angle for profit

I'm a little surprised at people who think that saying "I don't have A 6" makes it a true statement. He does have a 6. The fact that he has 2 doesn't mean he doesn't have one.

That said, if you are going to allow people to talk in a headsup pot (and I think you should), then who cares if he tells the truth or not. If anyone had done this in our game, the reaction would have been "holy crap, he has quads", and people would have been laughing about the whole thing.

The guy is probably never folding AK there anyway, and so if he is willing to fold based on what someone tells him, he is just a bad player. What does he do if the guy says "yes I have a 6" and folds - and the guy shows A5? Is he going to complain that he was lied to? If you believe that you can garner information by asking questions you have to be prepared to be wrong in your interpretation.

I think the game should be social, and talking about anything but the current hand permitted. It seems to amplify the 'humiliation' of the loser, either by not properly sorting out the talk, or talking and being unable to cause the opponent to make a mistake.

I'm also not a fan of showing cards, especially during a hand, but including holding them to show after. Do you really think you are the only one that raises with KK only to see an ace on the flop?


I'm expecting an attempt to mislead, but mostly I see them as attention whores. One more chance to be in the spotlight, while you try to justify making a call you shouldn't make.

Mostly I think it slows the game down, and it's one of my top pet peeves.

Yes, to me too, the "A 6" means quads.



We will 'crack wise' all game, but it's a social event. I'm guilty of calling "Two pair" when I get quads, and expect to get grief for the 'undercall' from those that don't recognize it instantly. the newbies that wander in pick up pretty quickly on the banter.

Whether it's the truth is another issue, although the 'offender' did take serious offense to being lied to in the past. (more later).

Cursing is pretty standard, as are politically incorrect jokes. The 'offender' happens to be a guy who rarely curses though.

Yes, I wonder WTF he was expecting in response.

The offended party kept tossing around "angle shooter" when describing the other player. It was all I could do not to slap him back into reality (think Airplane movie). I'm sure I explained that there were no angles being shot multiple times, but not sure he was listening.


Yes, the debate over whether it was a lie continued. Neither side was going to concede. We might as well have talked religion or politics.

No way AK/AQ is folding. He'll pay extra to avoid being bluffed.




So onto our offenders history. Playing in a dealers choice $5 limit game, with many of the same guys I currently play with. On the river/last street, Player M bets the $5 and announces "with a warning", as he's prone to do from time to time. With at least 10 Big bets in the pot, players fold until action is back to our "A 6" guy. He looks at Player M, and makes a 'big laydown'. Player M scoops the uncontested pot, shows a hand not worthy of a warning and "A 6" guy gets very upset. Is incensed that someone would lie at the poker table. Rants for a few more sessions. He is no longer welcome at the current DC game, but every now and then is referenced (Player M is a part of the game).



Thanks for the feedback.

He does have "a 6." But what he said was, "I don't have A 6." The emphasis is everything in this communcation.