had a situation arise in a tournament game at the time declared the hand dead but later looked for a correct answer. During a tournament A player got up out of respect to smoke a ciggarette during the game a player who's wife was still in the tournament showed her husband her hand and at that moment the player turned around and saw her cards. The play was three handed and she was first to act and made the call he was the sb and made the statement that he had seen her cards he made the call and the bb who was now at a disadvantage checked. At that point it seemed unfair to the bb the small blind was being honest and could have said nothing. It would have been one thing if the player who had seen the cards had been in his seat. I had no house rules for something like this. At first thought was to make the sb hand dead for not being in his seat even though he was doing so out of respect to the other players as he was smoking. What do you think about this, is there a rule.

Eh, it's hard to say what the deal is with the smoker because that depends on how you guys run your game. If the table is non-smoking and the guy wants to go off and smoke, fine, but he should choose one or the other.

In this case, if the SB can identify the cards correctly (confirm w/ dealer that they're correct), then the lady's cards are dead (since it's a tournament) and should be exposed to the other player.

dude, how about using some punctuation and proper paragraphing structure. You'll get better responses.

Anyway, from what I can make out it. Player 1 shows her cards to her husband. First rule is protect your hand. Her mistake.

Next, unless you have some rule in effect about a player needing to be in his seat or at his seat when either he gets cards or it's his turn to act then his hand should play. Sounds like he was right there to act on his turn so I'd say his hand is live.

Next, he was nice enough to let the player know he had seen her cards. No need for him to do this. Player can choose how she wants to continue now that he has told her. BB also knows SB knows buttons hand so he can act accordingly also.

I don't see any reason for this hand to be declared dead and it should play out. Player A needs to be more careful about flashing her cards. There are rules about needing to be in your seat. My house rule is you need to be able to act when it's your turn, or we kill your hand. I'll give a little leway if a player is within a few steps. Sounds like the smoker fit my rule.

Thanks for the input, and sorry about the punctuation and proper paragraphing structure problem. The was my first post on here, and I will try to pay more attention to that.

There is no rule against smoking in our setup. I have exhaust fans installed just for this reason, he was just being considerate.

I thought about declaring his hand dead also but like you said, he was within 7' of the table. Also the action was still on the players wife who was sharing her cards with her husband.

On another topic does anyone know of a thread on this forum designated for the discussion of rules of the game? Again thanks for the responses on my first question.

I looked around and could not find a rules section, but I have a resource for you. You might check out The Rules Of Poker by Lou Krieger and Sheree Bykofsky. It lists for $13.95.

It covers basic rules for a number of games as well as answers to a lot of situations that might come up in the running of a poker tournament.

I hope this helps.