[Zetack]

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If this dealer is a regular player with this group, you better believe he is an interested party in this. If this were a dedicated dealer that never played, I would not care if he looked at mucked cards. While this person is no longer in THIS tournament, he CAN gain knowledge about a future opponent by looking at mucked cards, all this without the others gaining the same info. No way, I don't like it.

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I agree. Our home game is similar to the OP--we try to strike a balance between fun and "professional." Guys who bust out sometimes will sit next to their friends and look at their hands while playing--stuff like that happens. We have the "show one show all" rule, but it's not "enforced."

However, if the OP doesn't think that just because the dealer is no longer in that tournament he isn't gaining an advantage over the other players, the OP is mistaken. If one player gets to observe how other player's hands are played, how they bet, what they fold, etc., and no other players get this info, it's not fair to the table. That's info that the players still playing have to pay to see, for one thing. It's strategic info that only the dealer gets to see, and he'll use it from that point forward: i.e., in all future tournaments.

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So what? The question isn't weather the dealer is getting some hypothetical advantage in a future game. The game could break up, the dealer and player A could head to a bar, and player A could spill his guts for two hours about how he plays and the tells he just can't quite control but luckily nobody has seemed to notice yet. Dealer isn't required to share this information with the other players.

Here's the rule from Robert's Rules of Poker:

6. Show one, show all. Players are entitled to receive equal access to information about the contents of another player’s hand. After a deal, if cards are shown to another player, every player at the table has a right to see those cards. During a deal, cards that were shown to an active player who might have a further wagering decision on that betting round must immediately be shown to all the other players. If the player who saw the cards is not involved in the deal, or cannot use the information in wagering, the information should be withheld until the betting is over, so it does not affect the normal outcome of the deal. Cards shown to a person who has no more wagering decisions on that betting round, but might use the information on a later betting round, should be shown to the other players at the conclusion of that betting round. If only a portion of the hand has been shown, there is no requirement to show any of the unseen cards. The shown cards are treated as given in the preceding part of this rule.


Look at that first sentence: "Players are entitled to receive equal access to....another player's..." The dealer simply isn't a player. He's a past player, and may be a future player, but he isn't a current player.

You don't like that rule, fine, make whatever rule you want for your own game. But in most games you aren't going to get to see the cards if a non-player got to see them.

--Zetack