Dealing an Omaha-8 tournament. Final board is K9742. 3 people reach showdown. First player tables KJT9. I say " i see kings and nines". Second player tables 8654. I say "I see sixty-five for low". Third player studies his hand and board for 10 seconds and mucks.

Afterward, a player who I know knows mix games pretty well says that I shouldn't announce the hands until all the hands are tabled. He says it is "less bad" but still wrong to do so in a cash game.

What say you?

He is wrong. And you'd still be there waiting if you didn't do it.

The poll frames this as a matter of opinion, so far giving one person the confidence to vote wrongly.

For what it's worth, you're doing it the way I'd like. Especially in a hi low game.

This player does not "know mix games pretty well."

He's a ****ing idiot.

Yes you read the hands as they are tabled.

We've got a few dealers chiming in here about what the proper rules/procedures are as opposed to what players think the rules are. This is the sort of thing that happens daily in a cardroom and it's just one of those examples of why dealers and floors do go through training and are kept abreast of any issues so that all of the employees are consistent about running the game right.

Case in point: 2-5 NL. UTG in seat 8 throws out a $25 chip. UTG+1 throws out a $25 chip. Folds around to seat 4 who calls with a $5 chip. Everyone else folds to the blinds who both check their option. Dealer starts making change for the $25 chips when UTG says, "I said raise!" Dealer says "I didn't hear your raise and I never announced raise. Everyone else at the table thought it was $5 and acted accordingly. UTG +1 says, "Well I heard him say raise and I called with a $25 chip."

Floor is called over and rules that the dealer never heard the raise and that none of the other players, except UTG +1 heard anything. And therefore it's $5.

UTG and UTG +1 are in disbelief. How could this happen?

There's a procedure for this. It's a very common ruling. It happens all the time. It's just one difference between a trained dealer with a little bit of experience and a player who thinks he knows everything.


Here's another example:

Player A tables his hand. The dealer frames it and announces what the hand is. Player B hears the dealer read the hand and then re-checks his own hand and discovers he actually has a winner. Player A says, "Dealer, you shouldn't read any hands until they're all tabled or in the muck."

The dealer knows the rules, knows procedures, and is acting as he has been trained. Player A is biased and operating from some imaginary rulebook that seems fair in his own head based on the situation that's occurring in front of him in that moment and which may or may not have cost him a chance at winning the pot with the 2nd best hand.



TLDR: The dealer should read every hand as soon as it's tabled.

LOL Omaha players. He's wrong. He just wants to see everyone's cards and wants to convince you to help him get what he wants. Whether he knows he's wrong or not, who knows/cares. Good job.

Maybe.... But I thought it was more likely he wants the chance to win a hand due to players misreading the tabled hand and mucking a winner.

Have seen players get upset if a dealer calls attention to a bluff by announcing the hand but they’re usually crybabies anyways. If you announce the wrong hand I’ve seen players get upset as well. Personally I love a dealer trying to help players see cards that aren’t always visible to us blind people and speed up the game by doing this. Just always read the cards like “king jack” instead of pair of kings and I think it’s perfect.

This happened to me before. The dealer was talking to a player instead of paying attention to the action. This is not something you should be proud of if you ran your game well an error like this shouldn’t happen as you’d see the player say something when it was his action and clarify even if he didn’t announce it loud enough to be heard over surrounding noise to the entire table. In my situation ironically only the dealer and the player he was conversing with seemed to not hear the action. Floor ruled I was at fault for not interrupting his conversation and clarifying with the dealer so everyone had a chance to hear the action even though I corrected the player immediately when he called the wrong amount. Go figure.

You announce the rank of the hand. You don't say which cards a player is holding.

Jesus Christ this isn't that hard.

Actually you don’t it technically violates optah and causes lots of issues. Player tables a flush but other player thinks it’s a pair until you yell out flush. Now he realizes he has a flush too and tables his hand instead of mucking..... you can’t incentive a player to table a hand even as a dealer. What if you announce the wrong rank and player mucks a winning hand?

This is what poker has come to in 2018. There are people out there who think a dealer announcing "Set of deuces" as a player tables his cards is violating one player to a hand.

Good ****ing grief this is sad.

Why would you even want to say set of deuces instead of pocket deuces? It’s really condescending that you think the player isn’t going to figure out pocket deuces is trip deuces on a board anywaysand you have to rank the hand for him.

You are 100% wrong. I'm sorry.

This is 100% incorrect. Please don't spread this any further. I'm not sure where you heard this and it is unfortunate that anyone actually believes it. The reality is that the dealer is supposed to assist with reading hands. Imagine how much slower some games would be if we waited for all hands to be tabled so that we could let the players determine who has the best hand as they, one at a time, stare at the tabled hand(s) and try to determine if they are beat before deciding to show their own hand.

I'm pretty sure at this point he's never been in a pokerroom. Oh well, was good for a laugh.

That doesn't violate OPTAH because once a hand is tabled at showdown OPTAH doesn't apply to it anymore.

As to what if the dealer makes a mistake? That's not a reason for the dealer not to announce a hand anymore than the possibility that a dealer makes a mistake pitching cards is a reason for dealers to not pitch cards.

I was playing when a dealer got pulled from the box for announcing ranks in baduecey.... mix game players are a weird bunch and maybe she was missannouncing hands prior so they asked her not to anymore. Doubt that’s only a chop pot game rule though. People in high low get really upset if u announce lows too but idk if they’re just miserable people or what

Yup

So for Omaha specifically the dealer should announce the rank (hi) but never the lo if its hi/lo

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Why would the dealer announce the high but not the low? Low hands also have a rank.

Well there are several related reasons, among them, there will not always be a qualifying lo hand, reading just the high will be quicker and avoid potential announcement errors ... the dealer should not prompt players to table their hand.. standard protocol shared across all forms of poker

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No. Announce both if they are first or ahead. Just don't announce a low if the player doesn't have one.

A low should be announced, but not the absence of the low. But all lows share the same rank (a high card) when playing 8/b.

It often makes more sense to announce the cards the player is using for low as that is what is most easily understood.

Announcing 4 duece for low usually is better understood than announcing 6 5 4 duece ace for low. The exception is the wheel.

I remember President Bartlet telling a young man, "Morton, I can't pardon a turkey. If you think I can pardon a turkey, then you have got to go back to your school and insist that you be better prepared to go out in the world."

If smoothcriminal99 is a poker dealer, he should go back to his trainers and do the same. They have done him a disservice.