Online Texas Holdem Etiquette Tips

If you’ve ever sat down at a crowded poker table to play Texas holdem live
and in person, you were probably given a quick crash course in the game’s
specialized etiquette. Physically playing the game involves several unspoken
rules of conduct, designed to keep tensions in check and avoid unnecessary
disputes.

Keeping track of every etiquette essential at the poker table can be a bother
for some players, and more still simply don’t give a hoot about catering to
their competition’s sensitivities. For these players, the “wild west” of online
poker provides the perfect antidote, offering a virtual realm where you never
have to sit next to somebody, handle chips and cards, vocalize your bets, or
even be polite.

Playing the game of Texas holdem through an online poker room is an
inherently singular experience, and even though you’ll be connected to your
opponents on the digital level, it’s really just you and the computer screen in
all actuality.

For this reason, many poker players tend to think of the online game as an
etiquette free zone – a place where you can be free to slow roll opponents and
talk smack to your heart’s content. And indeed, you can expect to find a much
more liberalized view of poker etiquette when playing online, with many ironclad
norms of the live game simply abandoned altogether.

But even so, playing Texas holdem online still involves several points of
etiquette that you may consider adhering to during your own sessions. Of course,
the pressure to keep yourself “in line” with the game’s unwritten code of
conduct will be drastically reduced on the virtual tables, as you won’t have any
dirty looks or muttered comments to contend with. With that in mind, consider
the following etiquette advice from the perspective of fellow players, and try
to live by the Golden Rule whenever possible.

Online Etiquette Essentials

Breaking the Time Bank

Generally speaking, online poker tables offer a place where people can hang
loose and let their freak flag fly, but one behavior will draw the universal ire
of your tablemates: letting
your time bank tick away while everybody else sits
and waits.

One of the more infamous taunts one can send through the chat box is
“zzzzzzz” – as in, stop sleeping and wake up.

Whether an opponent has to use the restroom, steps away to attend to a family
matter, or they just can’t look away from that dramatic fourth quarter drive on
TV, you’ll find yourself sitting in poker purgatory from time to time. This
occurs when a player at the table appears to simply freeze up, as all action
stops pending their decision. But rather than fold, call, raise, or check, the
player just sits there with a live hand, doing nothing as their initial time
bank ticks down to double zero.

Even then though, most online poker sites equip players with an extended time
bank for emergencies or particularly tricky spots. So after the player burns
through 15 seconds, their extended time bank kicks in – ticking down for 90
seconds or more until the player realizes they still have a hand, or their cards
are automatically folded.

While this may seem like a rarity, you’ll soon come to learn that time bank
snafus like this are all too common at the online poker table. Players just
don’t have the same attention span when clicking through web browsers and music
platforms, so they wind up spacing out for a hand or two.

And when they do, the impact on the game can be enormous.

For cash game players, the delay is merely an inconvenience, as skilled
players see their precious hands per hour rate chopped down to size.
Recreational players hate all the waiting around, which is one of the aspects of
live poker they hoped to avoid by hopping onboard an online poker room.

For tournament specialists, on the other hand, losing 90 seconds of valuable
playing time during the latter stages of an event can be disastrous. Imagine
yourself sitting on a short stack, patiently biding your time to find a great
hand or a good spot, all the while keeping your eyes squarely on the tournament
clock displaying the current blind level – and the pending blind increase.

In this situation, time is of the essence, and waiting around for another
player to finish their dishes can cause those blinds to climb before the usual
amount of hands are dealt. For a short stacked player desperate to find the
right hand to make a move, sitting and watching 90 seconds drip away into the
ether can be nothing short of torture.

So with that in mind, do your very best to avoid becoming a time bank terror.
The first step towards that goal involves nothing more than discipline. Wait for
a scheduled break to leave the computer when you’re playing; don’t drink copious
amounts of liquid during a long tournament, and avoid distractions like TV or
web browsing.

Most sites have a standard setting that
activates your secondary time bank whenever the first 15 seconds have elapsed,
but you can turn this off manually to ensure that even when you are away from
the computer for a moment, that moment won’t stretch out over several minutes.

Loose Lips Sink Chips

Most online poker rooms today make their chat box functions an optional
feature, so you can simply turn the talk off if you prefer to play in virtual
silence.

But where’s the fun in that, right? With a chat box running underneath your
online poker table, you can communicate with players before, during, and after
each hand.

The word “during” is the problem here. You’ll soon discover that some players
relish playing the role of spoiler, hitting the chat box as soon as the flop
drops down to offer one comment or another.

“Man, every time I fold hearts there they come!”
“Damn, I would’ve flopped trip 6s there…”
“Why can’t I ever flop a set with 99, this is so sick!!”

In each case, these comments violate a central tenet of poker protocol: don’t
offer any information about your cards while a hand is ongoing.

By doing so, you inevitably offer the players still competing for the pot
with added information – data points about the hand that they never should have
heard.

Picture yourself playing a decent pre flop pot against three players holding
J J. One player puts some chips in the pot with a call, but then folds when the
action intensifies on a three bet.

The flop rains down 4 4 A, and your aggression is obviously a bit chastened
by the presence of an ace on board, along with two fours. Your opponent makes a
feeler bet, and you go for the gusto with big all in raise, hoping to force
better hands like Q Q or K K into the muck for fear of the ace. But before they
can fold, that third player in the hand before the flop types out a comment
about making a full house had they called.

Immediately, your opponent processes that additional information, realizing
that they must have folded either A 4 or A A. In either case, that takes one or
two aces out of the equation, so your opponent begins to become a nonbeliever.
They call your all in bet with exactly the hand you hoped to fold out, Q Q, and
your J J bluff attempt goes down in flames.

Then, just to rub it in, the winning player types their own assessment of the
hand into the chat box:

“I was hovering over the FOLD button, but then that guy said he folded a
boat, so I had to call and look you up.”

As you can imagine, chatting about your own cards – or any element of a live
hand – while players are engaged in poker combat can unduly influence the
action. The point of poker is to approach a partial information puzzle and hope
to make the best possible decisions given that limited set of data. By
introducing variables like your own hole cards, possible draws, or anything else
that should remain private by rule, you threaten to undermine the integrity of
the game.

Do your best to bite your tongue until the pot is being pushed to one player
or another. From there, with new cards being dealt out, feel free to make any
comment you want about the previous hand – because at that point your input
can’t impact the game in any way.

And if you find other players at the table aren’t so accommodating, just
search through your Options or Settings menu and deactivate the chat function
entirely.

Keep It Classy

Staying on the chat box topic for a moment, the ability to communicate
directly with other human beings trying to take your money can create a whole
host of temptations.

Add in the anonymous nature of the internet, and many online poker players
can adopt an entirely new persona when the virtual cards start flying. And
unfortunately, for many folks, that persona is vicious and uncouth.

Whether they’re losing and simmering in the associated anger, or they just
enjoy heckling crestfallen opponents after cracking their monsters, these
players take things a step or two over the line with their chat box battles.
Spouting racist or sexist invective should never be acceptable, online or not,
but every online poker table seems to have that special someone swearing up a
storm, calling people names, and generally making things miserable for their
tablemates.

Some of these chat box warriors claim that their virtual verbal abuse is
merely a tactic, used to “tilt” an opponent and cause them to play emotionally
rather than logically. And to be sure, plenty of players do succumb to chat
conversations, letting their pride play tricks on them after a talkative
opponent touches the wrong nerve.

Table talk definitely has a role in Texas holdem, even when played online,
but the rule of thumb here should be this:

Cursing, slurs, and similar forms of harassment have no place in a civilized
game of poker, so do your part to clean up the collective conversation and keep
things classy while chatting.

Optional Online Etiquette

Glass Tappers Just Don’t Get It

In any form of Texas holdem, online or otherwise, this etiquette item should
be considered a hard and fast rule.

The term “glass tapping” is used to describe any abusive behavior or berating
directed at lesser skilled players. By tapping on the glass – code for telling a
player off, commenting on their poor play, or generally being an ass – you
threaten to scare away the game’s “fish.”

Fish are the lifeblood of the poker economy, and for every player out there
who has the skills to play the role of shark, hundreds more simply think they do
while playing substandard poker the whole time. These players generally lose
more than they win, although a lucky run of cards can give them the impression
that they’re playing well. But by the end of the night, more often than not, a
fish will find themselves re buying into the game or cashing out for far less
than they sat down with.

Obviously, nobody wants to be a fish, but we all want fish at the table
playing alongside us. When a fish is happy and content, they tend to care less
about losses, using poker as a vehicle for entertainment and enjoyment rather
than the pursuit of profit. And a happy fish means happier sharks, because the
skilled players present will have an extended opportunity to take advantage of
mistakes while collecting big pots.

But skill level aside, some players are just sore losers – or even sore
winners. These players can’t resist the urge to critique the play of opponents,
usually after that opponent drags a big pot. Typical glass tapping exchanges go
something like this:

“Can you believe what this idiot just called the flop with? Attention
@$$hole, top pair isn’t always good!!!”
“What a dolt… this dude put in half his stack with a pocket pair?!”
“You keep raising 3x preflop like it’s 1998 again, get with the times dummy.”

For the most part, glass tappers respond out of rage when their strong hands
are inevitably ran down by ragged cards and lackluster draws. When pocket aces
can’t prevail over the lowly 5 6 suited, many players take to the chat box in
righteous indignation, accusing the winning player of being unskilled,
incompetent, or downright ignorant.

And while many fish can dish it out right back, sending out chat missives of
their own, many beginners find this hostile environment to be very off putting.
After all, why should they sit and subject themselves to losing money if the
game isn’t even fun to play?

Fish tend to recognize that they won’t win every time out, and they’re fine
with that fact for the most part – but when their intelligence is insulted
repeatedly, or they are disrespected in vulgar terms, it can be easy to take
that discretionary income and spend it on something less painful.

Glass tapping has been widely criticized within the realm of live poker, as
the struggling industry looks to grow the game, not scare new players off for
good. But for online poker players, glass tapping is much more prevalent, as the
anonymous nature of the internet spawns the same kind of trolls that occupy
social media and comments sections all across the web.

As a player, it’s up to you whether or not to respect the fish in your tank,
or to tap the glass until they flee from the scene entirely. By all means,
needle a competitor when the occasion calls, or engage in constructive dialogue
about previous hands with informed opponents.

But when you cross the line to crass, unprovoked attacks on a fellow poker
player simply because they beat you out of a pot, you’re failing to respect the
principles that make poker the great game it’s always been.

Panic at the Disconnect

From time to time during your online Texas holdem days, you’ll be faced with
a particularly tough etiquette dilemma that borders on an ethical quandary.

Picture yourself playing a hard fought Sit and Go tournament table, surviving
from nine players down to the final four. Only the final three will earn a
payout, and along with the two big stacks at the table, you and one opponent are
relatively short.

It’s a battle of attrition at this point, as you both wait for the other to
go bust and burst the money bubble.

But suddenly, the fellow short stack player’s avatar fades out and their last
hand is auto folded away. They’ve been disconnected from the server, leaving you
and two other players with a moral conundrum: play fast and steal every last one
of their blinds before they get back online, or kick back and use your time bank
to give them a chance.

This may seem like an abstract scenario, but you’d be surprised how often a
player will get disconnected during a long session. When they do, you’ll have to
choose between pillaging their undefended chip stack with blind steals – each
time seeing their hand auto fold and chips added to your stack – or pausing your
own action to let them sort through the technical issues.

Sometimes you’ll even be presented with the “dream” scenario – sitting heads
up for a tournament or Sit and Go win on the line, and only a disconnected
opponent standing between you and glory. In this spot, simply clicking the RAISE
button over and over again, while your frozen opponent can do nothing at all,
will quickly claim most of their chips through blinds and antes. It may not be
the most honest path to victory, but you can be sure that plenty of opponents
will show no compunction about crippling your chip stack while you struggle with
disconnection problems.

Typically, a disconnected player can reset their modem or restart their
laptop within a few minutes, before logging back into the game.

Honor and poker haven’t always mixed though, and if you’re ever disconnected,
be prepared to see your stack dwindled and depleted in short order. That’s just
part of the game, an unfortunate part to be sure, but one which will occur far
more frequently than you might imagine.

Once you’ve felt the seething frustration and helplessness that comes with a
disconnection during a meaningful online poker situation, it’ll be up to your
own moral compass to decide how to handle things when the shoe is on the other
foot.

Slow Down on the Slow Roll

In live poker you’ll find few greater violations of etiquette than the
dreaded slow roll.

By acting as if they’ve been beaten upon show down, only to flip up the best
hand once their opponent goes to drag the pot, slow rollers are the bane of
every poker table. This crass and crude maneuver is nothing more than a
senseless needle, and almost every poker you’ll meet considers the slow roller
to be persona non grata.

But when you take your game online, you’ll notice that slow rolls seem to
happen far more often than in the flesh. Once again, this stems from the
protection offered by anonymity, as nobody can lecture or otherwise take the
slow roller to task regarding their bad behavior.

Many online players love to turn a simple poker hand into something more
sinister, so slow rolling is a prime piece of their arsenal. They believe that
arousing an opponent’s anger, or even that of the entire table, is a great way
to generate action against tilting players.

You’ll have to decide for yourself whether slow rolling is something you’re
willing to do, but aside from the sadistic pleasure of adding insult to injury,
there’s really no reason to justify this play in any format. Nobody will ever
think you’re cool for wasting 10 seconds before tabling the best hand, and for
the most part, using this move will mark you as a fish in the eyes of skilled
players.

Summary

Live game and online Texas holdem etiquette are clearly two different animals.
Use the tips included on this page to learn the proper etiquette for online play.
Once you understand the common practices it’s up to you to decide if you want to
use them or not.