Yes, this actually happened.

Double board plo bomb pot. Player A is facing a $500 bet to call.

He claims this is big money to him and doesn't know what to do and has to ask the floor a question. The whole table is dumbfounded. Dealer finally rules he can call the floor.

Floor comes over and Player A leaves his seat (action is still on him), and walks away so he can have a "private" conversation with the floor. Claims he can't ask the question in front of everyone at the table, because it pertains to the hand.

Everyone is having an uproar, "wtf he can't get advice on the hand" "wtf you can't do this, etc etc"

Player comes back, calls the $500, a few other players fold, and he ends up chopping the pot with the orginal bettor.

There were 4 's on one board, and he claimed he didn't know if his lone K gave him a flush, so wanted to ask the floor the rule, but had to do it away from the table so no one would know his hand. Claims he had anxiety and forgot the rule.

He explained this to the table after, and too my surprise everyone acted very understanding and was cool with it. No, they weren't acting to keep the fish happy. People were genuinely ok with it.

I wasn't in the hand so I kept my mouth shut, but if I was, I'd be going ****** nuts. If you don't know the rules of the game, that's on you, or you can ask in between hands. People make mistakes all the time, it's part of the game, you can't go get help on your action.

For this guy to leave the table while the action was on him, and the floor actually clarified an answer, to me, was ****** egregious.

There is absolutely no problem asking the floor a rules question during the hand. Do you not want guys who don’t even know the rules of the game to feel comfortable sitting in your game?

Having said that, as a rule the floor should not allow the player to walk far away from the table. But if it was a controlled departure, as directed by floor, then whatever.

I don't care, he's checking the game rules with the floor not phoning a friend.

I'd maybe entertain a concern that you can't be sure whether the conversation was limited to a rules question and a direct answer, but that's not your gripe. Your gripe is lame.

Dealer was OK with calling the floor. Probably reluctant, but don't players always have the right to call the floor????

To assume that the player received advice about how to play the hand is (as every TV trial lawyer has objected) assuming facts not in evidence. If you think the floor should not be explaining the rules to a player then how do you feel about asking the floor/dealer about your options about an out-of-turn action?

In bridge tournaments it is normal to question the director about the rules away from the table. In many cases it is, in fact, encouraged. I don't know what the rules are about that in poker but I suspect that if it is improper, then the floor would not have allowed the player to do so.

I tend to trust Dealers/Floors to give the right rulings. If I suspect they have acted improperly, then my remedy is to rack up and avoid the game completely

Also quite weird that he asks if he has a flush. Is told no you don't have a flush but calls anyway. If he was going to call even if he doesn't have a flush he surely didn't need to clarify during the hand!

Maybe he was going to raise.

Seems fine, who cares, don't be a life nit.

A very strange and uncommon situation to be sure. If this is generally a game that is no limit where PLO bomb pots are done on occasion, then these are already very strange circumstances. If you can’t trust a floor to not know what he can or cannot answer, then you have bigger problems.

I think he was trying to make sure he didn’t ask a question about the board in a multiway pot that might violate optah, or didn’t want to reveal he has the Kd in his hand.

I would just let this one go unless the player did something funny like this again.

Walking away from the table is fine under these conditions. It was made very clear that he still wished to be in the hand and it was done with the blessing of the floor. No problem with the floor allowing it to happen, assuming it's not a player who's constantly pulling angles or slowing the game down.

The only question is whether the floor can answer that specific question. I'm fine with a generic response like "You must play two of your hole cards and three from the board" or somesuch, but I'm sure some will argue even that is too much.

Some people will always argue but that’s a pretty black and white issue. Two hole cards and three cards from the board is part of the rules of the game. As a player in a casino you should always have the right to ask questions regarding the rules.

Floor could hand the player a rule book and let him figure it out himself but that might take a while.

Fair point.

I'd like to add from the time this guy started freaking out, until a decision was made was a good 6 mins.

Also, how would you feel if this was the Dealer's Choice event in the WSOP and someone did this because they didn't know the chosen game?

Also, we were playing plo for hours, this wasn't an NL game with a random plo bomb pot.

I would feel the same way. It's very simple - players should be permitted to ask rules questions at any time. Generally they will ask them of the dealer or other players, but in some edge cases they may feel the need to ask them of a floor.

As long as it's not happening repeatedly, abusively, or in a way the floor thinks might be an attempt at angling, then let him ask.

Again, don't you *want* to be playing against people who don't even know the rules of the game you're playing?

It sucks that it took 6 minutes, but (1) it probably wasn't really that long, people generally have a very hard time estimating how long they've been waiting, and (2) that's life when you need to wait for a floor sometimes. Part of the game.

Title sounds like he got up and went to look for the floor, abandoning his hand.
Calling for the floor and getting permission to privately ask a rules question is much different.

No foul, next hand please.

You didn't mention this in the op. Please elaborate.

I was dealing the $50k PPC 8 game mix several years ago and the Kings Casino owner asked me during a hand if an ace was a good card in the current game. I offered to call the floor but he declined and folded. After seeing him play, I put the odds at 50/50 that he was kidding.

What do you prefer, a player who enters the event without knowing some games because he knows that people will clarify the rules if he asks or a player who stays home because he knows nobody will help him?

Sucks that it took 6 minutes to proceed with the hand but stuff like that happens sometimes.

Similar situation. During a hand in a NL game, a guy asked me if a flush beat a straight. Had I been in the hand, I would have answered immediately, but referred him to the dealer. To my surprise, the dealer called the floor.

The floor informed him that a hand ranking question violated the "one player to a hand" rule. Further, if he pulled out his phone to look it up, his hand would be declared dead.

I tried to argue that any rule-based question should be allowed, but was shut down. Later, with the Casino manager, I argued it again, pointing out that answering such questions was good for inexperienced players and therefore good for the game. No luck.

Frankly, I do not understand the objections to people asking this type of question. So many of us have spent thousands, if not tens of thousands of hours studying the game. When someone asks a rules-based question, it only confirms that he doesn't really know how to play the game and should be welcomed, not pissed on.

He had like a miniature panic attack. Started saying this is a lot of money, he doesn't know what to do, he has a question but can't ask infront of everyone, he doesn't know what to do, and he kept rambling like he was having a panic attack.

And yes it was a good 6 mins.

To be fair. With the rumors about that guy's connections I wouldn't chance it and do whatever he asks.

I disagree. I don't want to win money off of people that don't even understand how the game is played.

I don't know what the floor said, but something along the lines of "in Omaha, you must play exactly two cards in your hand and exactly three cards on the board" would be fine. Telling him that he doesn't have a flush is borderline, but do you really think this player is cheating you?

I know he called anyway and it went OK for him, but imagine he called with only his "flush" and then had to be told he only has king high and everyone laughs at him. Do you think he's coming back? If we keep chasing away new players like this, there won't be anyone left.

On one hand, I understand how asking a question can be seen as an angle, or can indirectly violate OPTAH (for example, if you ask a question in such a way that suggests possible actions to other players in the hand)

On the other hand, there are cardroom specific rules (for example, what size of a raise reopens action to the original better, how does a room handle OOT action) that are relevant, but not necessarily reasonable that you would automatically know(especially if you are new in a room).

Where I play, the floors will not answer specific situational questions ('Is action reopened to the opener?'), and are inconsistent on answering general questions('What size raise is required to reopen action to an open bet?'). i always feel like the floor or dealer should be able to answer room specific rule questions.

Yes .. if there was ever a time for 'lawyer mode' it would be here. Unfortunately it was 'in chambers' so we don't know the exact wording of any questions or responses. I've said many times before in threads that there's pretty much always a way to get to the answer a Player may be looking for, it's just a matter of how you get there. There are many cases where we should just cut to the chase and provide the information.

While it does seem odd that this would come up well into a session, you never know how people will react in a stressful situation (for them). When my sister found our mother passed away in her bed she gave 911 the wrong house number (right street) .. the house number was from where my parents had lived 6 years previously.

Certainly this one is going to have a mixed bag of opinion attached to it and I'm fine with how it went down.

With so many versions of Blackjack out there are you going to restrict questions about the rules to 'only' between hands? Yes, poker is a little different since the casino is only a facilitator of the game .. but by coming into the casino to play you are, by default, allowing them to administer as they see fit 'in the moment'. GL

Is this a PLO GAME or a HE game with an occasional PLO bomb pot?

KITN in either case to player.

Why? Player did nothing wrong. There are other ways he could have acted that would be far worse. Even if floor response was he could not answer, there was no harm simply from asking.

I am certain the range of responses across rooms will be everything from ‘stay seated, I can’t answer’ to ‘come over here…no you don’t have a flush’. But simply asking for the floor and then subsequently following floor’s lead is not an issue.