Anybody who has ever sat in front of the television, shoving crisps into their face while watching poker players like Phil Hellmuth blow-up on the set of a poker show may be getting the wrong idea about what qualifies as proper poker table etiquette. While I think common sense tells us that an aggressive haranguing of our opponents is way off base, there may be some confusion when it comes to what the unwritten rules of poker have to say about talking at the table. This is especially true of poker players coming from North America to play in Europe.
Most people are aware of what “coffee housing” at the poker table refers to. It is the act of conversation during a hand. American players will actively talk, speculate about a hand, and basically make conversation while they are deciding what to do next during a hand of Texas Hold’em. In the United States this is a perfectly legitimate strategy. The player doing the talking is hoping that their opponent will reveal something during the monologue; maybe an unguarded facial expression or other such tell. In other words this is well within the poker rules over there. Not so much in Europe. While I don’t think there are actual poker rules in the books that curtail somebody’s freedom of speech, the rules of poker etiquette make coffee housing bad form when done within the borders of Europe.
Players coming from the United States to play across the pond should be aware of this subtle difference in the rules, and respect the European way, and practice restraint during a hand of Texas Hold’em.
