Poker Muck Hand
River makes the board 9 6 3 3 3, checked to me, I table my hand and saw 'I flopped the flush'. Now here is where it gets interesting. 4 seat mucks looks at the table, 3 diamonds pushed forward and muck hand. His hand is pulled into the muck and he turns away to eat or read a paper (he was distracted and needed to be prompted to act on each street). Standard poker rules dictate that you must show your hand if you win, but you don’t have to show your hand if you lose. However, at many competitive tournaments, all players in an all-in situation typically need to show their cards. I believe in cash games (and this may depend on the casino), a player can muck their hand once called. But if player 1 is called and tries to muck, any other player can ask to see the hand. However, if the hand touches the muck then it is dead and not able to be shown.
Mucking is an often misunderstood part of poker. Knowing the definition and when it is both appropriate and strategically correct to muck is an important part of the game. I have researched every angle of the subject of mucking and decided to pass along my findings to you.
What is a muck in poker? The word muck can be used as a noun or a verb. As a noun, the muck refers to the pile of discarded cards lying on the table. As a verb, mucking means to fold your hand. Most often, the word is used at the end of a hand when a player is faced with a decision on whether to show his cards or “muck” them.
Simply understanding the concept of mucking in poker is one thing. Knowing how to use that information is another. To learn more about how to use the poker muck rules to your advantage at the table, read on.
Poker Muck Rules
At face value, mucking poker hands seems like a fairly straightforward concept. Even so, there are a few rules about mucking that every poker player should know:
- The muck is a one-way street: Once your cards even touch the muck, your hand is dead and cannot win. Make sure you are 100% sure you are folding before you throw those cards into the muck. Never EVER reach your hand into the muck to try to retrieve cards. This is a serious breach of the rules.
- Muck your hand correctly: The correct way to muck is to place your cards down in front of the dealer, not chuck them across the table haphazardly. Eventually, you will turn one or more cards up and annoy everyone at the table.
- Do not muck your hand out of turn: or let anyone know you plan to fold since this is a breach of both the rules and etiquette. We don’t want to unfairly give one or more players this type of information. Make sure you learn the showdown rules of poker so you know when to muck.
- Beginners should never muck their hand on the river: Even experienced players sometimes misread their cards. Throwing away the winning hand, even in a small pot, is extremely frustrating.
What Is Considered a Muck in Poker?
Mucking is the same as folding. If you place your cards on the discard pile or slide your cards toward the dealer, your hand is said to be mucked and is dead for the rest of the current hand.
Your hand can also be mucked automatically if your time bank runs out in online poker or someone calls the clock on you and you run out of time in live poker.
Can I Set My Cards down Again Once I Pick Them Up?
If you pick your cards up and then place them in front of you, that is not considered a muck. In fact, you can pick your cards up and set them down as many times as you like, as long as you do not verbally declare that you are folding or touch your cards to the discard pile.
If the Dealer Deals One of My Cards to the Wrong Person, Is It Mucked?
If the dealer accidentally gives your card to the wrong player, you should announce it immediately. If it is obvious which card was dealt to the other player, a correction can be made and the card shifted to you. However, if the other player mixed it with his other card or cards or took a look at it, the card is dead.
If you are in the blinds a misdeal would be declared and the hand restarted. If you are not in the blinds and your card is declared dead, then it would be given back to the dealer and used as the burn card for the flop.
When Can You Muck Your Hand in Poker
On every betting round you must follow the correct order of play and wait until the action is on you before you can fold or muck your hand. Showdown is the only time that a player may muck his or her hand out of turn.
When Are Your Cards Considered Mucked
There are three instances that your cards can be considered automatically mucked:
- You push your hand to the dealer
- Your cards touch the discards already mucked
- You verbally announce that you fold
Always remember, if you are in doubt about the local muck rules it is okay to ask the dealer or even the floor.
What If Someone Mucks out of Turn
If someone mucks out of turn there is no automatic penalty given to that player. However, except for at showdown, it is still a breach of poker etiquette to either muck your hand or telegraph that you are folding before the action is on you.
Players who continuously fold out of turn and become disruptive to the table for doing so, may be given a penalty by the dealer or floor at their discretion.
Can You Ever Ask to See Mucked Cards?
At showdown, any player who was dealt into a particular hand can ask to be shown any hand that was called, even if was thrown into the muck. However, this is known to be in bad form and is looked at as being extremely bad etiquette.
The only time you should ever remotely consider asking the dealer to flip over a mucked hand is if it was a huge pot and you suspect cheating or collusion.
Mucking Strategy – Deciding When to Muck or Show
First off, if you are a beginner you should always flip your hand over at showdown. Staying involved mentally all the way until the completion of the hand is important in the learning process. Always showing also prevents you from ever misreading your hand and folding the winner.
Poker Muck Your Hand
On the other hand, advanced players should never show losing cards without a very good reason. Poker is a game of information and the less you can give away for free, the better.
Look Before You Muck
To avoid silly errors, I advise getting in the habit of taking one last peek at your cards before folding. This prevents you from ever accidentally folding the winner. Even the best misread their cards from time to time.
How to Muck Your Hand Properly
Folding your cards is no time to get fancy. Just about every so-called “serious” player out there seems to want to impress everyone with their fancy mucking technique. Don’t be that person.
Fold your cards correctly by placing them face down in a neat little stack and quickly sliding them to the dealer. Dramatic, time-consuming, folding techniques will only slow down the action and actually hurt your hourly rate
Protecting Your Hand
If your intention is to keep your hand live then you should always protect your hand. Either purchase a decent card protector or place a low denomination chip on top of your cards. Otherwise, the dealer might accidentally muck your cards. This happened in a huge WSOP hand a few years ago, as shown in the following video.
Mucked Cards Shown in Online Poker
Some poker sites allow for mucked cards to be shown in the hand histories of the site whether you have “auto muck” clicked or not. This is a feature added to combat issues with cheating or collusion
I recommend using this information to your advantage when reviewing your play in your preferred tracking software program. You can see exactly what your opponents do in particular situations and gain and, as a result, optimize your lines.
Related Questions
In Online Poker What Is Auto Muck? Many online poker sites have a feature where you can automatically muck losing hands at showdown. I recommend using this feature if the site you play on offers it. Not only does it speed up play, but it ensures that your hand gets mucked without giving away unnecessary information.
What is a dead hand in poker? A player’s hand is considered dead when it can no longer win the current hand. Numerous actions can lead to hand being declared dead.
What are the nuts in poker? The nuts in poker means the best hand possible on the current street. Quite often, the nuts on the flop will be different than the nuts on the turn or river.
Final Thoughts
Just like any other part of learning poker, understanding mucking rules is just one small piece of the puzzle towards making a person a complete player. While mastering strategy and tactics lead to profit, mastering the basics of gameplay is also important
Every little thing you do in poker leads to maximizing your profit. Isn’t that what
We're strongly considering removing this feature.
The History:
1. Online was like live poker, and a player could muck their hand at showdown and no one knew what they had.
2. Sites put mucked showdown hands in text hand histories on the player's computer. Players enjoy this data both for hand-reading as well as ensuring no collusion is taking place.
Poker Muck Hand
3. Sites put mucked showdown hands in the replayer.
4. 3rd-party software read the hand histories and displayed the mucked showdown hands on the table a second after showdown.
ACR currently has mucked hands in the text file and in the replayer. However, many players (mostly recreational players) do not know this exists.
We're strongly considering displaying all showdown hands at the table at the moment of showdown. There would no longer be a muck showdown hand feature.
What are your thoughts?