My problem is the player who do the cage when they don't have a hand, and then act like you're a jerk when you're like do you have cards?

"You'll know when I have cards!"

I think this is the best way to protect your cards. As long as you keep them clearly in front of you and with enough space between your fingers, it's not a problem at all. It prevents accidental dealer mucks and someone mucking their cards into yours.

Me either.

I have, however, see action flow more smoothly and with fewer people getting skipped.

How dare you suggest people simply pay attention when they're in a hand?

In all my years as a player and a dealer I have never once seen a player do the cage when they don't have a hand,

You've seen a player do this without cards?
Even if he did wouldn't be obvious that there are no cards in the cage?

You don't get to say "protect your hand at all times" then complain when someone protects their hand. Fact is that if the dealer accidentally takes my cards I'm out of luck, I'm doing the finger cage to drastically reduce the chance of that happening. I've never seen someone using the finger cage and having the cards completely covered up just by the finger cage, it's usually bad angling towards either the players or the dealers.

I've seen worse. There is a guy that I play with occasionally that keeps both his hands in front of his stack, close together (has fat hands) even when he doesn't have cards some of the time. I mean, its whatever. The only time it holds me up is if I'm on his direct left and I was interacting with the cocktail waitress and have no clue whether he folded or not yet. But as the old adage goes, if you are asking whose turn it is, its probably yours. So there is no reason for me to wait long to act. (I play limit at a level where most people pay attention, so I can recognize how it may be more of an issue at nl or small stakes)

But ya, its rare enough where it falls into my "who cares" range and I'm pretty stringent at the poker table.

That guy is a huge pain in the ass. And he should be told to keep his cards in view.

But this thread is about the "Finger Cage".

I'm not complaining, I'm presenting a topic for discussion. You'll note I gave consideration to a pro-cage stance fairly early in the thread.

It's a false dilemma to present this as the only method to secure your cards. When I say "protect your hand," I mean far more than the physical cards.

The angling of the cage is an attribute of the cage. DUCY?

I believe I am said friend, however I’m not sure I can accept the “full of beans” quote. I demand a retraction immediately!

I started doing this as more a consistent way act and set myself as the cards come out and minimize potential for throwing any sort of tell on my intended action. I receive the cards as they are dealt – cage - then watch the other players act. When the action gets to me I can quickly transition to looking at my cards and, however in general that’s where it ends. If I continue to play on preflop, I’ll normally cap or tuck my cards in front of my stack and reach for chips and play on, from that point the cage is not in play.

While I can see his argument from a dealer perspective, IMO any competent dealer will know I have cards – especially after I’ve established the same routine hand after hand and I do try to make the cage as open as possible. Also, it protects yourself from having a hand accidentally swept into the muck when in seat 9 (although consistently capping your cards SHOULD have the same effect).

Anyway, I believe the original exchange was at a homegame and went something like this:

L0QTiS: <sets, cages cards>

PFAPFAP: you shouldn’t do that

L0QTiS: what

PFAPFAP: cage your cards, your obscuring the cards from the dealer and the rest of the table

L0QTiS: FU

PFAPFAP: No, seriously…

L0QTiS: <looks at cards, open folds Q7s in CO>

PFAPFAP: !!

L0QTiS: Really? I’ve been doing this for a while and nobody ever mentioned it but U

PFAPFAP: ...

L0QTiS: U Mad?

Heh. Retracted.

I encourage everybody here to pay attention to the people who cap their cards in front of their stack and keep their hands behind their chips, or maybe one hand half-way out, but not obscuring the view from any direction.

These people usually also do many other things that assist the flow of the game and minimize the chance for confusion. If everybody did what these people do, the games would go much faster.