Player A bets 100$, player B shoves for 142$.
Player C asks the dealer "if i call, can A raise?"
Can the dealer answer that?

Player C would be better served by asking "does player B's raise open the action?" since then he's asking what he options he personally has rather than what Player A can or can't do. Seems to me like it should be OK, but I'm not sure.

This question will be more easily answered in the Live Casino Poker forum, there are a bunch of dealers and some floor personnel in there. It might be one of those things that's room dependant, I don't know.

I'd word it the way WereBeer put it. This is a procedural question and the dealer should answer it. However, there are many rooms in the world and I'm sure at least one room will have a rule preventing the dealer from answering any questions.

FWIW, the answer is no, player A can't raise in almost all rooms because player B didn't make a full raise. I'm sure there is some room out there that would allow a raise though.

The better option is "Dealer, is the all-in considered a (full) raise?"

It's a bit nitty, but using the phrase 'open the action' without specifically identifying a player is a bit open-ended in itself. Of course action is 'open' ... as Player C and any other player behind C have not acted as of yet. GL

I know some rooms won't comment on the hand in progress, but would any room not be able to answer the question "Dealer, is a full raise required to reopen action, or is it a smaller fraction of a raise?"

What am I missing, why on earth wouldn't you want the dealer to answer?

I mean, lets see how this goes down.


Me: "Dealer, can he raise if I call?"
Dealer: "I can't answer that sir"
Me: "You can't tell me what the rule is here?"
Dealer: "I can't answer that sir"
Me: "You don't know the rule, or you can't say?"
Dealer: "Can't say"
Me: "Who CAN say?"
Dealer: "We can call the floor"
Me: "Ok"
Dealer: "Want to call the floor?"
Me: "Well, just want answer to my question, but if that is what it takes, lets roll"

Or....Dealer could just answer and we get on with our lives.

Some of you must be a real hoot to play with.

Some rooms consider it a form of violating OPTAH.

This may be the case in some rooms, since it is a question about another player's potential future action. That's why the focus of the question should be on the all-in player. Another sneaky way of asking is asking the Dealer what is the minimum raise amount.

As far as a Dealer being handcuffed by explanation of rules questions? Not so sure about that either, but there may be some restrictions per room. GL


PS .. After the break, we will discuss the merits of "I put you all-in" v "Everything you got"

Some people want poker to be a variant of the game Gotcha where new players suddenly find themselves in violation of rules they never knew existed.

You aren't missing anything. Most people at the table feel the way you do.

I think the dealer should be allowed to answer, but I don't think it is usually a good idea to ask, because if the answer is yes, it will inform player 1 he is allowed to raise. Even if he already knew it was allowed, it may make him more likely to raise, because he thinks you don't want him to, or just by reminding him that it is an option.

Always try to know the important rules where you play before you need to know them. Ask this question of a floorperson the first time you play in a room, and remember the answer.

Not as easy as it sounds.

I once had a player ask me before his first hand, "Any special rules in this place I should know?" I couldn't think of any of any consequence, off the top of my head.

Over the course of the down, we learned that this player had never heard of basic things like string bets, OPTAH, IWTSTH, etc. He felt foolish for not knowing these things (he shouldn't, we all had to learn them the same way), and blamed ME for embarrassing him this way: "I *asked* if there were any special rules!"

compared to his nickel-dime home game, I guess he meant?

While we're on the subject of what a dealer can answer, I once again angered a player recently when I, as usual, refused to answer the question, "Was that a dark bet?" Folks feel entitled to a full recap of what they may have missed, I guess.

A better tweak to the OP is B shoves for $151 (ie >50% but < 100% raise)

I think I actually did once hear a dealer say "I can't answer that" to this exact question. I've also seen a dealer refuse to answer when seat 1 bets, seat 2 is thinking and seat 3 asks "how much is the bet". I've also seen a spot like OP where A bet, B shoves for less than a raise, C calls and A silently starts cutting out a raise and the dealer says nothing until they move it forward.

They're all kinda nitty interpretations of the rules but not entirely unreasonable. What sucks though is that I suspect if you ask a general rules question "Does an all-in of less than a full raise re-open betting to a player that has already bet" you can get an answer. If you ask the easier more "If I call can he raise" you might not.

It would have been funnier if you had said that you have short term memory loss and the room can't fire you due to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

I've read the full rulebooks for several rooms and never seen an answer to this. I've asked many floors and gotten different answers. A few dealers feel very strongly that we shouldn't answer, most either don't see a problem or like me found it more expedient to simply answer.

I've gotten yelled at for answering and for not answering. Not answering has a much higher chance of generating grief and slowing the game down, though, so I've gone back to always answering.

I have a related "can the dealer answer this" question.

The game is Limit Omaha/8. I'm in late position in seat 8 of 10. An EP player raises. A few players call, and I call. I'm distracted by the player to my right, who's telling me a story. I hear the dealer say, "three bets, cap." The action gets back to me, and before I call, I say, "Who made it 3 bets?" I'm not asking the dealer specifically, though I wouldn't mind if he told me. I also wouldn't mind if the player who made it 3 bets raised his hand or said something.

All the players to my left already have 4 bets in front of them. The dealer says, "I'm not supposed to answer that; I'm supposed to let the chips speak, which they're not doing in this case." He then reaches out and pushes back 2 of the 4 bets that are in front of seat 1, and 1 of the 4 bets that are in front of seat 2. So now it's clear that seat 2 (in the BB) made it 3 bets and the original raiser capped it.

But now seats 1 and 2 are upset that their calls got pushed back. The attitude is, it's been capped, everyone's going to call anyway, why waste time by acting in turn? So they're giving the dealer a hard time about what he just did. He tries to explain that someone at the other end of the table needed to see where the 3-bet came from. Then seat 2 says, "Oh, it came from me," and makes a big show of waving sarcastically. He's clearly pissed at the dealer, who burns a card and is about to spread the flop when seat 2 stops him and abruptly says, "Can I call the cap now?" With all the arguing, he still had only 3 bets in front of him.

My assumption is I have a right to know who raised before I act (actually, before the action on that street is complete; but as soon as the flop comes out, it's too late to ask). Why couldn't the dealer just answer my question and save the whole table time and frustration?

the dealer should answer those type of questions. meaning questions about procedures and rules that are needed to know during the game.
never answer a question of what happened on a prior street, unless there is now a problem that a mistake was made. but then the dealer should call the floor over and also anytime he isnt sure what to do. never should he wing it. that isnt his job.

think in advance what to say to get your results on rulings.
for instance if they wont tell you( but you have the right to know) who raised, and its your turn say i believe the pot is short and want the bets put back out where they came from.

Dealers should feel free to answer questions concerning rules or action that affect the current street of betting ... that come from the player who is facing action (only). GL

another good reason for that is the dealer needs to follow the action at all times. if he is looking away to answer questions things happen.

And sometimes it is a form of violating OPTAH ..... I don't mind a player who when facing action asks because they don't understand the rule ... but sometimes its clear that the player knows the answer and is trying to signal to a third player to influence the action (they ask when the action is on the other player .... or they are a regular who you know understands the rule).

I don;t like blanket refusals to answer the question. I was playing in a room once when a player asked and the floor person refused to answer (to make matters worse the player who asked specifically claimed that he had seen the rule applied differently in this room once using a half bet and once using a full bet and wanted clarification of which rule the room was using)

he has every right to an answer. it really doesnt affect the action. a person can conjure up all sorts of reasons for that to happen though.

Youtalkfunny answered this but I'll add this: given the region-specific, heterogeneous set of rulings that we see here in B&M, you should realize that this is opening a huge can of worms.

People may not even realize that their unusual rules are unusual, much less grasp the importance.

In some parts of the world, 2AKQJ is a straight. So it's not surprising that a certain number of people show up at an American casino with zero concept that it may not be.

I think he absolutely has a right to a correct answer. We don't play gotcha with new poker players.

My general experience is that most players who ask are not asking becuasee they know that different rooms use different rules (and in this case I think its a small minority that don't use the standard rule) they ask because they never really understood the rule (this is a large number of players) or because they don't want to do the math themselves....

if he's asking that question, he's basically telling everyone he's just a casual recreational player. I mean the bet is 100 and the all-in is 142. How can he think there is any possibility player A can re-raise (not to mention he's portraying how weak his hand is)... yes the dealer should definitely answer a basic question about rules, especially to a player unfamiliar with the game.

If everyone says "NO, we can't tell you, naa na naa na naaa naaaaa", then the recreational player might just stay in pit games next time.