How should Muck be handled?

[norbertdragan]

There is an action in poker called Muck. It is essentially the same as a Folding, but it happens during the showdown and allows a player to not show their cards, therefore signaling that they have a worse hand and loose the pot.

Consider the following scenario:

River

1. Player A bets 1000
2. Player B calls 1000

Showdown

1. Board reveals AKT23
2. Player A shows AA and has three of a kind (set)
3. Player B has `KT and has two pair and chooses to muck the hand

In this scenario, Player A has to act first and must show their cards. Player B has a worse combination of cards with two pair, therefore he can just "fold" their cards, which is called muck in this case. Note that he has the option to either muck or show, default setting usually being muck. PokerStars even has a Show/muck hand preferences option.

Had Player B had a better hand, they would have to show it in order to win the pot.

In live poker, a mucked hand is never shown, and although technichally could be requested to be shown, it is considered to be a huge briech of etiquette. In online poker, many of the poviders show mucked hand during replay or hand histroy, but not during the actual game.

How should the muck be handled?

My suggestion is to not to show mucked hands by default, but provide a hand history text file, where it will be available.