Taj MTT Sunday - showing aces preflop?
 

Sunday morning at the Taj AC, and I'm playing in the $100 buy-in MTT.

Seat 1 raises, and Seat 7 reraises all-in. Seat 1 is thinking about it, playing with his chips, looking at his cards.

While this guy is thinking about it, Seat 7 nonchalantly shows his pocket aces to Seat 1. For a moment I thought I had missed a call or fold, but no. One of the players says that results in a penalty, and the floor is called over.

Meantime, pocket aces says "I didn't want him to catch a flush or something."

Floor comes over, and says that it's a 10-minute penalty if he's called. Otherwise there's no penalty. One guy at the table said that the hand should be mucked, but that wasn't the ruling.

So Seat 1 folds his pocket 9s.

First of all, this guy actually didn't want to take the odds to double up in the first hour of a tournament with pocket aces. I was talking to someone at the table after we both busted out, and he said he didn't want to take that chance either.

WTF? How many people don't want to "take a chance" with pocket aces in an MTT? Especially if you're getting in preflop?

It also seems like a strange rule - you are only penalized for showing your cards if you're called. I didn't ask if this is the case for ring games, but since there isn't a 10-minute penalty in ring games I wonder what the ruling would be.

I'm a relative B&M newbie, but that is the strangest thing I've seen so far.

And my god is the Taj a fishtank. I've been playing the Trop and that was our first visit to the Taj.

Re: Taj MTT Sunday - showing aces preflop?
 

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It also seems like a strange rule - you are only penalized for showing your cards if you're called.

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Yeah...double reinforcement the wrong way with either result. You get what you want and no penalty, or you get what you don't want and get penalized. Seems like it can't possibly be a ruling based on a rule. If there's a penalty for exposing your hand, then once you've exposed your hand you get the penalty, no matter what action ensues.

Re: Taj MTT Sunday - showing aces preflop?
 

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It also seems like a strange ruling

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FYP

Re: Taj MTT Sunday - showing aces preflop?
 

Wonderful.... let's try to propagate the rumor that aces need to drive everyone out of the pot preflop so one draws out! File that one with the beloved Foxwoods refrain, "Aces never win." (I should let it go, but I invariably feel obliged to reply, "OK, let me have aces every hand since they never win."

Re: Taj MTT Sunday - showing aces preflop?
 

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It also seems like a strange ruling

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FYP

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What should the correct rule be? The floor person had to come back to the table later for something else, and said he had verified that their ruling was correct.

Re: Taj MTT Sunday - showing aces preflop?
 

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Wonderful.... let's try to propagate the rumor that aces need to drive everyone out of the pot preflop so one draws out! File that one with the beloved Foxwoods refrain, "Aces never win." (I should let it go, but I invariably feel obliged to reply, "OK, let me have aces every hand since they never win."

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Yeah I know what you mean. When I talked to one of our table mates after the tourney, I started to argue with him when he said he didn't want to take a chance on getting out drawn with aces either. I was able to stop myself midway through my explanation - "yeah I can see what you're saying".

I'm sure people have a lot of reactions when they look down to see pocket aces, but nervousness is not one I would expect.

Re: Taj MTT Sunday - showing aces preflop?
 

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It also seems like a strange ruling

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FYP

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What should the correct rule be? The floor person had to come back to the table later for something else, and said he had verified that their ruling was correct.

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I think the floor got confused here and misapplied a common ruling from a similiar situation. It is my understanding that some rooms will apply the rule in this way. If a player who is facing an all-in bet (with no further action to come) exposes his hand "to get a read" no penlaty will be imposed if he folds (essentially they are folding face up which never gets a penalty) but will impose a penalty if the player calls. Notice the difference between this where the player who exposed his cards is the one who decides if he calls or folds, and the situation posed by the OP in that the decision to call or fold was to be made by another player.

Re: Taj MTT Sunday - showing aces preflop?
 

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It also seems like a strange ruling

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FYP

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What should the correct rule be? The floor person had to come back to the table later for something else, and said he had verified that their ruling was correct.

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I think the floor got confused here and misapplied a common ruling from a similiar situation. It is my understanding that some rooms will apply the rule in this way. If a player who is facing an all-in bet (with no further action to come) exposes his hand "to get a read" no penlaty will be imposed if he folds (essentially they are folding face up which never gets a penalty) but will impose a penalty if the player calls. Notice the difference between this where the player who exposed his cards is the one who decides if he calls or folds, and the situation posed by the OP in that the decision to call or fold was to be made by another player.

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This makes total sense, and come to think of it, I'm not sure the dealer explained the situation well enough to the floor.