A Poker Taboo

During my many years of playing poker, I have often witnessed husbands and wives or fathers and sons playing at the same table. I have often seen best friends playing against each other for cash.

Excuse me for saying this...

...but I think it's a poor idea and I never do it.

Most people play poker for blood. That means you do everything legal to win the pot. This sometimes requires check-raising or using other devious devices to secure the chips in the middle of the table. How can you do that with a clear conscience when the person competing with you for the prize is a member of your family or a best friend?

I can see doing it in a friendly game where cash isn't involved. Then you are just playing for fun and not for money.

Most poker players are very serious about winning and will do just about anything to scoop the pot. There are some, of course, who are different.

I wrote about this some time ago:

but it bears repeating. I played against two brothers who were sugar cane workers on the island of St. Maarten. We were playing at the Atlantis Casino next to the French side of the island. One brother had pocket aces, the other pocket queens.

The younger brother with the aces won the pot. His brother glowered at him and got up from the table, promising to be back. He returned with a machete and chased his brother around the table while the other players howled with laughter. I was new to St. Maarten and ducked beneath the table, fearing bloodshed.

The brothers turned out to be joking and collapsed in each other's arms with the older brother praising his sibling for having the winning hand. If there had been bad blood between them, it could, of course, have turned into a much more serious matter.

When I enter a casino...

...with a relative or best friend, I go to the poker room manager and insist that he put us at different tables. My request is always granted and we do not have to play against one another.

Now if you are in a tournament, all that changes. Hopefully, the two of you will both make the final table and then you play for blood and show no mercy as you battle for the prize. That is poker at its very best and it is being played in the proper manner.

I was once playing in a game at the Union Plaza. A young player was in the game and he check-raised an older woman sitting across the table from him. As he raked in the pot, I said, 'You would check-raise your own grandmother.'

The woman smiled. 'How did you know that? I am his grandmother and he's a stinker.'

There is another side to this:

of course, and that is collusion. If two best friends or relatives are sitting at the same table, it is easy for them to send hidden signals to each other when one of them has the nut hand. That can cost an unwitting player a lot of money. For this reason, I don't think it's a good idea for poker room managers to allow relatives to play at the same table.

In the long run

I just don't think it's a good idea to have two close relatives playing in the same game. While it can be fun, it has the potential to be dangerous for some of the players.

Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.

(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).