We had a scenario come up recently in our home game. It's a NL Hold'em tourney, and the pot was between the SB and the BB. On the river, the BB bet, and was called by the SB. The BB, assuming he was beat, proceeded to muck his cards while saying "I guess you have Ace high beat". Following this, the SB immediately mucked his cards and took in the pot. So, the questions from this scenario are as follows:

1) Does the SB have to show his cards to win the hand, or is he automatically the winner once the BB mucked his hand?

2) I know this one is more subjective, and consequently more difficult to perhaps answer, but in the above scenario, would it ever be considered bad etiquette for the BB to ask to see the cards of the SB.

Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated, and I thank you in advance. Also, if anyone can point me to another site, or set of rules posted online, that would be of immeasurable help as well. I already went through "Robert's Rules of Poker, and couldn't find a definitive answer.

Cheers,

Selena

If you muck your hand at any point you cant get your hand back so the big blind lost the pot as soon as he threw his hole cards in the deck. So making the small blind winner by default. Small blind has the choice of showing his cards or not.

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Hi.

And I'm sure it could be considered bad etiquette for some but in a home game, who cares? We don't really care about etiquette in our home game, we're all just there to have a good time. Hell, I wouldnt even care if some stranger in a casino asked to see my cards. I may not show them, but I wouldnt get mad either. Just seems stupid to me.

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Definitely not bad etiquette to ask to see the cards, he doesn't have to show them though.

And yeah when the bb throws in his cards he effectively folds, sb wins. someone should tell the bb that if he's declaring what he has he should really hold on to the cards just in case!

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Although I think intuitively I'd be inclined to agree, I took this from "Robert's Rules of Poker", which is probably the most cited set of Rules on the Internet. It Came from Chapter 3 - General Rules of Poker, under the Showdown section, point #1:

"1. To win any part of a pot, a player must show all of his cards faceup on the table, whether they were used in the final hand played or not. "

So, in remembering that the question is not who wins the pot, but instead, whether the SB has a requirement to show his cards in order to win the pot, doesn't the answer seem that he indeed does. I went through the whole set of rules and found nothing that contradicts this, and in fact there are instances where mucked cards can be retrieved so that the person who had mucked them can be declared the winner, so this would seem to lend more weight to the fact that the SB must show his cards.

If anyone can answer definitely it would be great, and again, thanks for those who have already responded.

Selena

not really, you can win the pot by betting and everyone else folds. you don't have to show your cards then