Quote:
Originally Posted by L.C.C
Well I guess I am also being considered one of the 'Euros' here. Usually if a bettor said 'ten-high' and if he looks like he knows what he's talking about, I would take his word for it.
I can share a bad experience why sometimes we 'Euros' would rather the bettor 'show or muck'. Once when it came to showdown there was this old man who flipped over one card Ace - normally that represents Ace high so I then showed my overpair. After seeing my hand the guy flipped over the second card which was a 5 so he won with a straight.
I wouldnt be surprised sometimes people verbally announce 10-high and later on showed a set of tens and still got to win the pot. It doesn't happen often at all, but when you have this experience once you would be affected by it psychologically for quite a while.
Having many friends in the UK, I don't lump you in with the Euros, generally, but to the extent the poker etiquette more closely resembles the Euros than the 'Muricans, yeah, you're probably close enough.
What you're describing would generally fall under the headings of angling or slow-rolling.
The rules for showdown / scooping differ from place to place, apparently, even within the US.
In my local card room, if we bet and get called, we can't just show one card and scoop. We're allowed to muck if we don't want to show, but we can't show just one and win. Likewise, even if we get called and muck, our opponent who called still has to show his cards to scoop.
Most players who understand this rule will hold onto their cards until they see their opponents' cards, whether they bet and got called, or called. It can and does create some awkward situations, and increases the likelihood of someone looking like a jacka$$.
So, in the example I gave, if the player who bet and got called didn't want to show if he didn't have to, he'd say, "I missed, ten high" (but hold onto his cards), at which point the other player would just roll his cards over to show the winner (better than ten high).
The player who called can wait and force his opponent to show, but it's generally considered bad etiquette, and tantamount to a slow-roll, because it's extremely unusual for someone to say "ten high" with a better hand. Forcing the man to show his hand is just adding insult to injury.
Likewise, it would be extremely bad etiquette for the player who said "ten high" to show a better hand, if he were to do it deliberately, rather than being a mistake, like mis-reading or mis-remembering his cards.
There again, it isn't too uncommon for someone to claim a better hand, but this is more commonly done as an angle - the intent is to trick an opponent into mucking the winning hand. No one would say "ten high" in that scenario, but rather "two pair" or some such.
Other places in the US, if a player bets and gets called, and he mucks his cards without showing, the player who called does NOT have to show any cards, and is just awarded the pot.