Proper Tournament Etiquette
By Susie Isaacs

While participating in the Winter Pot of Gold at the Reno Hilton, some of my pet peeves raised their ugly heads. I realized how often tournament players make improper moves, effecting the outcome of hands. One of my biggest pet peeves happens regularly in no-limit and pot-limit hold'em tournaments. That is, when players fold immediately after the player to their right announces a raise without knowing how much the raise will be. It is extremely important, in no-limit and pot-limit, not to act until the raiser has, at least verbally committed to the amount he wishes to raise. Let me explain why. If a player announces, "Raise," and players react by tossing their hands in prior to knowing what the actual amount the raiser intends to raise, he now has the opportunity to change the amount he intended to raise in the first place. Having this information before the raiser actually commits a figure amount is a huge advantage. One, he can now raise more than he had intended to, to protect a weak hand, or possibly lower the amount of his intended raise, in hopes of trapping someone with a strong hand. Two, it isn't fair to other players behind you who might have a big hand and are hoping someone will raise the pot. What it comes down to is simple, protecting other player's hands with proper tournament etiquette.

Another concern I have is, players who raise the pot when one or more players are all-in before the flop. The object in tournament play is to be the last player in the tournament and to do that you must eliminate players along the way. The proper way to play all-in players, unless you have a huge hand, is to let as many players as possible play before the flop, so that the odds are against the all-in player winning the pot. There is power in numbers. It is more likely that the all-in player will be eliminated if more players are involved in the pot. There is really no advantage to getting it heads up before the flop with an all-in player, again, unless you have a big hand. Tournament play sometimes involves unspoken team play. Everyone is playing for themselves, but there are times when you have to play as a team to better your position in the ranks, and this is one of those times. I know it sounds as if you are ganging up on one player but in tournament play it is absolutely proper and very much appreciated by all tournament players.

And one more thing while I've got your attention. Try not to indicate what your action is going to be before you do it. If you are going to fold, don't hold your cards up off the table allowing the entire table to know that you are going to fold before the action gets to you. Another big no-no is having your chips ready to call or raise prior to your turn to act. Also, don't start counting your chips to raise or reraise until the action is on you. That's a lot of information to be giving away to players that have to act before you. If players know what you are planning to do before they act it can have a big influence on what they decide to do. If they see that you are going to call, they may raise hoping to get you to fold your hand. If they notice that you are prepared to raise, they may fold instead of making a marginal call. In any case, you lose in both circumstances by giving away valuable information. I hope this helped some of the more inexperienced players and maybe enlightened some of the players who just don't think before acting.

Now I'd like to address a recurring problem I see in every seven-card stud tournament I play. Seven-card stud is a visual game involving up to as many as four up-cards dealt to each player in the hand. It is critical in seven-card stud to know what each players first up card (door card) was when the play began. It is also imperative to have each of the next three cards dealt be placed in the order they are dealt. This information is extremely important to all players involved in the hand. Experienced stud players use this information to know exactly what took place at each round of play. Most seasoned stud players make an attempt to keep their cards in the order they are dealt, but some players unaware of the importance don't. This is where my problem comes, It is partially the responsibility of the dealer to try and deal the cards with some control as to where they fall. I see time and again dealers slinging cards all over the place with no intent whatsoever to keep the cards in the order they should be. About one out of five dealers seem to know or even care where they toss the cards; This is unacceptable. If players would make a polite effort to point this out to the dealers, maybe we can get them to deal seven-card stud properly.