"Check out"

[The Armchair]

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checking out is illegal in all cardrooms (that I have ever heard of), but is virtually never enforced, except perhaps at the very highest level games.


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I fail to see why it would be illegal. If you check out on the flop you are at best speeding up the game.

Please explain?

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You are acting out of turn, which gives an unfair advantage to some others.

Imagine that you are in Seat 1, Opponent in in Seat 2, and Checkout Guy is in Seat 3. You bet. Opponent now can call without fear of a raise. Usually, Opponent would not be closing the betting -- advantage, opponent.

That said, I think the call of nature is a reasonable justification for checking out.

[neotope]

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You are acting out of turn, which gives an unfair advantage to some others.


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I can see why acting out of turn would be bad. But it seems like it would be possible to check out in turn and that should certainly be legal.

[Glurfle]

No. Suppose you're first to act with two players behind you. You check out, player 2 checks. Now player 3 can bet knowing that you will neither call nor check-raise him, giving him an advantage that he wouldn't have if you had just checked.

[SNOWBALL138]

I've never heard this term, but folding when there is no action to you is pretty dumb. Maybe the board causes a split. Maybe u can bluff. Maybe u catch runner runner. Maybe u make a pair, and no one else has a pair and you get a free showdown. I don't really care how long a shot I'm facing. If I can get any kind of free draw, I'm taking it.

OTOH, this is probably less of a mistake in omaha.

[Chimp]

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I've never heard this term, but folding when there is no action to you is pretty dumb.

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Some guy at the Wynn a few weeks ago would occasionally fold preflop in the big blind....in an unraised pot. Some nit asked him why he would do that and the guy said "even if I hit the flop, I'm probably outkicked." I nodded my head and told him I sometimes did that too..."keeps me out of trouble." [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[wslee00]

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No. Suppose you're first to act with two players behind you. You check out, player 2 checks. Now player 3 can bet knowing that you will neither call nor check-raise him, giving him an advantage that he wouldn't have if you had just checked.

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but everyone has the advantage to use this new information - player 2 could have easily bet using this information to know that he was only up against one opponent instead of two

[MrDannimal]

I'll sometimes do it if the next dealer is standing behind, and I'm in position to take bathroom break (middle position, usually). Never hurts to have the extra minute or so. It happens so rarely for me anyway.

It does get a little irritating when someone will "fold" out of turn and then say "Deal me in next hand" as they bolt off to suck down a smoke quickly, mostly because it seems to happen frequently.

[Aces McGee]

here's a clearer example:

3 way pot on the flop. You're the big blind, and the small blind and the button are in.

SB checks, and you check out. Now the button can choose his action knowing that the pot is heads up.

This isn't fair to the SB, who might've chosen to bet out if you he knew you were going to fold.

-McGee

[neotope]

That's a good example and makes sense, thanks.

[Aces McGee]

I probably shouldn't say that it's "unfair" because it can be chalked up to positional disadvantage, but the expectation is quite clearly that no one is going to fold when there's no bet to them, so it does give extra information to the button.

-McGee