Quote:
Originally Posted by sharkem
I was playing a poker cash game on a cruise ship casino (where many passengers may not be familiar with typical poker etiquette.) I was using some poker apps on my phone and taking notes. It looks a little less natural to use your phone on a ship because there is no Internet and you can't text anyone.
After I had been playing for a while, an observer behind me said, "Is that an odds calculator?" I said, "Yeah," thinking he was just going to say it was cool or something. Then he said, "Do you think it's fair for you to use that?"
Before I could respond, the guy next to me said, "It's not. I already warned him." I did not realize he warned me. Earlier he said that you could get beat up in a real casino for doing that. But I thought he was talking about the dealer getting beat up because the dealer had just tabled my losing hand without permission.
Since they seemed bothered by it, I set my phone face down on my lap for a few minutes. Then between hands I picked it up for a second, and the observer behind me said, "That's it! No one else has an app that can calculate odds and percentages for them. If you keep using that, I'm going to tell the pit boss!" (There was no floor person.) I reminded him that I wasn't using my phone in the last hand I played, and then he said, "OK!" and stormed off.
Is there any validity to their arguments? My understanding was that you could use any electronic device for any reason in a cash game. Is that right? Is there really any significant risk of getting beat up for using an electronic device at a cash game in high stakes or otherwise?
In my opinion, using your phone at a table WHILE YOURE NOT IN A HAND is totally fine. But if you are using it DURING A HAND, it is a major etiquette problem and is arguably cheating (if you need an odds calculator, you need to practice poker math) and I would be pissed as well.
At the rooms I play in, they are lax on phone use, but will call you out if you are on your phone during action.
If you were using the notes portion of the app, I would just show them that you are recording hand histories, not odds. But if you are using an Odds calculator, you are in the wrong.
I would have left the game too. I dont mind texting or note taking, but using an odds calculator? *** that.