Live Hand Review

What Is a Live Hand?

When a stake in a pot is retained it is known as a live hand. This hand must not have been folded or fouled. It also can’t be the hand of any player that is active in the game. A live hand is one that may give a player the chance of winning the pot’s value.

Failure to muck or fold a hand classifies it as live. Someone participating in a gaming tournament with multiple tables may play a live hand. They will often do this if the game is not going well for them. This is especially true if they are running low on Poker chips. Hands fold due to the action of the game at this point. Players may find a big blind covering them. If one player flips pocket Jacks over and the other flips an offsuit of Q and K they are dealing with a live hand. In this case, they also have many outs of Kings and Queens.

Live Hand Explained

Active players in a game can always request that a hand be held. The hand can be in the muck pile and this can happen anyway. Players who abuse the privilege of holding a live hand can have it revoked. If a losing player requests that a hand be folded, the hand is then considered to have died.

Revealing a hand with the potential to win is something that any active player is allowed to ask for. The request will never lead to a railbird. A player can request a winning hand to be showed off freely. When the hand is shown in the game, it becomes a live hand. The hand may have been mucked, but even if it has it is still considered to be live. This hand may even still end up being a winner.

The live hand rule is not always used. It can only be used when at least two of a table’s players may be cheating. However, it is also used if there is collusion during a game. The rule cannot be used simply to allow one player to get the details of another player’s hand.