Thank you Andy Fox...

[onegymrat]

...for straightening me out about ethics. A while ago, I had posted a hand in which I comically told about how I could see one of my neighbor's cards each time. He was a terrible player and I tried to take advantage of it, only to have it backfire on me, as his other card (which I could NOT see) matched the one I could. I lost a big pot. While most others joined me in my self-ridicule about how I called him down like a fool, Andy suggested that I tell the opponent that he wasn't protecting his cards properly. By doing so, other opponents won't be able to take advantage of him either, and that would be an edge against you (aside from the ethics issue).

This past weekend, I sat down at the Commerce 20/40, and while I was waiting for the button to past to post, I noticed that the player to my right checks her cards indiscriminately. There were a few limpers and she raised preflop with AA. She played the hand horribly, but did not get a showdown and took it down anyway. Immediately after she raked it in, I whispered to her, "Be careful checking your cards, I can see you had aces." She nodded and looked at me with a real puzzled look. She then began to protect her cards better.

A short while later after she had mulled it over, she told me quitely that no one had ever told her that before and thanked me profusely. She said that I'm such a nice guy for being that honest. I told her, "Well, if I was doing that, I would want someone to tell me also. It just wouldn't be fair." She agreed and thanked me again. I then added, "Don't get me wrong, I still want to beat you, but I want to do it fair. So don't think I won't be three-betting you!" She shared in my humor.

Two hands later, on a flop in which she raised a bettor, I three-betted without hesitation. All folded back to her. She gave me the same puzzled look from before, rechecked her cards, looked back at me and then surrendered like a good little girl.