Quote Originally Posted by Warpe
Only the winner has to show. Losing hands may muck without showing.

THE SHOWDOWN

2. Cards speak (cards read for themselves). The dealer assists in reading hands, but players are responsible for holding onto their cards until the winner is declared. Although verbal declarations as to the contents of a hand are not binding, deliberately miscalling a hand with the intent of causing another player to discard a winning hand is unethical and may result in forfeiture of the pot. (For more information on miscalling a hand see “Section 11 - Lowball,” Rule 15 and Rule 16.)

3. Any player, dealer, or floorperson who sees an incorrect amount of chips put into the pot, or an error about to be made in awarding a pot, has an ethical obligation to point out the error. Please help us keep mistakes of this nature to a minimum.
In home games (and some B&M casinos), there are two ways to evaluate hands: "cards speak" as described above, and player "declare." "Cards speak" means that the dealer (or even another player) compare the hands that are turned face up at showdown and say which is the winner.

The traditional gamblers hated this (which is becoming ever more common thanks to tournaments and online poker), enjoying the luxury of raking pots when less experienced players misread their hands (like Gator's example, above).

Example, hero has TT and villain has AKs on a KT862 board with the 2 completing the flush. Suppose villain turns his hand up and says "top pair, ace kicker." When playing "declare," that's his hand, and then hero says "set of tens," shows the cards and takes down the pot. In "declare," having another player say something about the flush would be a violation of the rules.

The common advice for noobies in B&M casinos is turn their cards face up at EVERY showdown they're in and sit quietly. 99% of the time, the dealer or another player will say what the hand is and whether or not it wins. The "cards speak" tradition will generally win out in a Vegas casino, and an inexperienced player won't be penalized for their inability to read every hand correctly. This is obviously what the two Aces players in Gator's story should have done.

I HATE "declare" since, imo, it victimizes inexperienced players and DISCOURAGES them from wanting to play more, especially if they find out what happened.

BTW, there are myriad examples of pros mucking the best hand. Phil Helmuth caught a slip like this in a tournament, and the pro who initially raked the pot was outraged when he was forced to split it.