showing hands

[kuma1212]

What's the correct order of showing your hands?
Is anyone REQUIRED to show 1st since the remaining players could just muck their hands?

[Sundance]

The last player to 'bet' or 'raise' the pot (not call) is required to show his/her hand first. The 'callers' are allowed to muck their hand if it is not a winner.

[schrek]

I believe that if the player to the left of the button (small blind) is still in, they show first... Then it goes round the table back to the button player. Obviously if you're not in, then the next person in that 'Clock-Wise' direction shows in order. Also, i believe that if you see that you've been beat, (by virtue of not having to show first) you can muck (fold) your cards without anyone else seeing. (* Make sure you lost first before you muck! *)

I may very well be off (as far as betting and position goes)

[schrek]

The last player to 'bet' or 'raise' the pot (not call) is required to show his/her hand first. The 'callers' are allowed to muck their hand if it is not a winner.

So if the button player (say its you) Bets 100 on the last round and everyone calls... is the button player (you) required to show first???

[mindgame]

Absolutely. You are called, you must show. At a casino you should show first, then, technically, all the other players show down (or muck their hands) in clockwise order. In practice people show out of turn, and it's not considered any breach of ettiquette. But if you call and the bettor asks you to show your hand without exposing his own you may insist he show first (and you should insist).

If you actually read any book of rules on the game of poker you will see it written that in the showdown all players who called (or placed) the last bet must expose their hands. In practice this almost never happens...and although you MAY insist that someone calling you expose his hand (in fact you can ask to see the hand of any caller even if you are out of the hand)...the casinos frown deeply on this. Most will limit you to one such request an hour (and you better be damn quck with the request, because the dealers are trained to put those cards in the deck as soon a possible to minimize any arguments).

[JimTheBullet]

In every game I have ever played in - casino, home, online - the rule has always been that only the player who was called last is obliged to show his hand. If you get called you cannot insist on seeing any caller's cards. The exception of course is when all ins mean that there is no more betting on the hand before the river has come - in this case (in tournaments though not cash games) all players still in the hand expose their cards before the remaining board cards come off.

I think this may be a relatively new convention because a couple of years ago I saw a heat of Late Night Poker (UK program) in which "Crazy" Korosh insisted that he had the right to see Joe "The Elegance" Beevers' hand after Joe had called him but the tournament director told him that he did not have the right to see Joe's cards as he had mucked them upon seeing Korosh's too strong hand. As I recall, Korosh was most put out and said something like "When did this new rule come in?"

[mindgame]

FYI You should actually check the rules of the casinos where you play. At both Harrah's in East Chicago and Trump in Gary the written rules state that any player may ask to see the hand of any player who called (or made) the last bet--however it limits all players to one such request per hour. Some poker writers have even suggested that doing this (making the request) is bad form, although I repectfully disagree.