Protect Your Hand
One of the cardinal rules of poker is that a player is responsible for protecting their own hand. This is why you see players cupping their hands around their hole cards when they peek at them. Should you lift your cards high enough for another player you see what you are playing, it is your fault. Another player is not liable for seeing your cards and using that information; you have the duty to keep your down cards hidden.
Another aspect of protecting your hand has to do with the dealer. The dealers are paid to work fast and sometimes they will scoop up cards that are just laying on the table. Particularly if you are seated immediately to the dealer’s left or right, you should always protect your cards by putting a “card cap” on them. Use a chip, use your grandmother’s keepsake glass penguin, use your petrified dung beetle from Madagascar but protect your hand. You have no recourse is your cards are scooped, your hand is dead.
Also unprotected cards could have random cards tossed into them. A player throws his cards into the muck but they hit the chips in the pot and richoquet over and land on your hole cards, if there is any doubt which (uncapped) cards are yours and which were the other players….your hand is dead. Capped cards are protected.
Protect your hand, play your hand, win with your hand.
Now here is a guarantee, many new players who read this warning will not “get” it until they have their pocket aces mucked by the dealer and only then learn the costly lesson that a player must protect their hand.
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #62
