Have hands played (called down) to the river shown as they would be IRL

As an example of what I mean, in this hand Hand #749235333 · Replay Poker the big blind calls an all in bet on the river and loses, but his cards are not shown to the table at the time (i.e. without using the replay feature) despite the fact that in a regular cardroom the BB would show his cards first and everyone at the table would see them right then and there.

I haven’t played on enough other sites to know if this is standard programming for online sites or not, but it seems to me that the standard IRL rules would be more logical and generally better for players overall, especially with the relative slowness of the replay feature on this site.

Is this hiding of cards at the table the norm online? Would others here like to see the standard IRL ruleset implemented on this site as I would (maybe I can get some +1/agree or -1/disagree comments as a de facto poll of the userbase here)?

You are obliged to show your hand (as a caller) only if you have to prove that you are the winner.

In hand 749235333 TonyLoroRuiz makes the last raise on the river and htoivonen calls.

There follows the ‘Showdown’

  • If there are no river bets the first player to act shows their cards.
  • If there was a river bet, the last player to make a bet or raise shows their cards first.

Once a player has revealed their cards, the next player in a clockwise direction shows their hand if they win (automatically in an online game) or they may have the option to ‘Muck’.

TonyLoroRuiz shows their hand and htoivonen cannot beat it, therefore they have the option to Muck. Depending on their personal settings, they could have Auto Muck turned on, or they could have the choice to Muck or Show at the time of the showdown. They do not have to be all-in to be able to Muck.

For fairness / transparency, since this is a Showdown, all the showdown cards are visible in the Replayer to the players who were dealt in the hand.
If a player folds or mucks their cards (to no bet) during the hand, their cards are not revealed in the Replay.

So, yes it is normal for a hand to not be revealed to all when they call and do not win.

In Real Life, the losing hand in a showdown could toss their cards towards the Muck and concede the pot.
It is allowed, but bad etiquette, for another player in the hand to ask to see the Mucked cards ‘I want to see that hand’ (IWTSTH). Players have been known to ask to see hands which turn out to win the pot, through a misread by the caller. The hand might be considered dead if it touched the Muck pile of folded cards, but some venues allow the player to now claim the pot. Not relevant here, but FYI.

Rob.

2 Likes

Thanks for the reply, didn’t realize the second bullet point was the norm.