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So I ask to see the original raisers cards because now I am all sorts of confused and the dealer says no, only the players who call the river can see the losing hand.
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Asking to see cards is one of the worse things you can do as a player.
As McMelchior mentioned below, it has been frequently discussed on these forums (perhaps serch on IWTSTH and look at the older archive server).
Might as well post a link to
Tommy Angelo's Article on IWTSTH from his web site.
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Then I look in their poker guide and it says that the only players who can request to see a losing hand with called action on the river are players who are dealt cards in the hand. So now I am really pissed and I take it to the floor away from the table and the floor tells me that the rules are WRONG, and that only people who called the river can request to see losing hands.
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Sounds like HOB is moving in the right direction by resticting the "right" to see others hands. Note that it's common to have published rules (generally re-published every few years) modified and noted in the floormen's daily log.
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So whatever then a little while later comes another whacked out situation. The small blind gets up without posting, so the button gets moved to the SB, who post, then TWO BB's get posted. Which is weird, but the best part is the SB/button is first to act???
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Sounds like the HOB is using the method used in Los Angeles ring games. Two blinds are always posted clockwise from (to the right of) the button, and players must take all blinds every round. This sort of thing causes some confusion when other nearby cardrooms do it diferently (i.e., dead button style), but innovation and improvements comes from doing things differently. That said, I don't have a strong opinion regarding which method is better.
~ Rick