The rules worth knowing before you sit down

R25–26

Phones are allowed if they don't slow the game. Text only when your cards are in the muck, never to a player at your table, and keep the phone off the felt.

R27

Only English may be spoken at the table while cards are in play. That includes someone watching who talks to a player.

R15

Saying “call”, “raise”, “fold” or a bet amount is binding.

R75–76

Keep your cards above the table and your bigger chips in view; a player facing an all-in may ask for a count.

R72–73

No agreeing to split a pot and no insurance deals. Chopping the blinds when everyone else folds is allowed in button games.

R80

No rabbit hunting: the dealer will not show what the next card would have been.

R60–61

No cash on the table; only the club's own chips play.

R9

In limit games the minimum buy-in is ten times the minimum bet unless a different minimum is posted.

R63

Come back to the same game within an hour of cashing out and you must buy in for at least what you took off.

R77

Your chips can be picked up after three missed big blind buttons. Tell a supervisor first if you need a long break.

R94

When a second game of the same stakes opens, the newer one can be a must-move game that feeds the main game.

R10

A straddle is at least twice the big blind, from under the gun or the button (the button wins if both want it). The minimum raise after it is double the straddle. Nobody can be forced to straddle.

R20

Members can ask the dealer for a bomb pot on the hour and the half hour. You may opt out, and the button does not move for the next hand.

R38

No photos or recording of other members, staff, the room or its operations. Photos of your own hands and boards need management approval (rule 31).

R28–29

No smoking or vaping inside; there is a smoking area outside. Smokeless tobacco is allowed inside.

R40–41

Open carry is not permitted, and neither is brandishing a weapon.

R13, 33

The house can ask for a “standard of behavior and dress”; dealers warn about profanity, and obscene language is not tolerated.

R30

“Card Room regulations allow the use of Shills and Proposition Members. Shills and Proposition Members shall be identified by management upon request.” In card room terms these are players the room places in games to start or keep them going. If you want to know who they are at your table, ask management, as the rule says you may.

R57

Ask for a ruling before the next hand starts (the first riffle of the shuffle, or the button on a shuffle machine); after that the result stands.

R54, 56

Management may rule “in the spirit of fairness” rather than by the strict letter, and the club accepts no liability for a wrong ruling made in good faith.