Your hand is declared dead if:
- You fold or announce that you are folding when facing a bet or a raise.
- You throw your hand away in a forward motion causing another player to act behind you (even if not facing a bet).
- In stud, when facing a bet, you pick your upcards off the table, turn your upcards facedown, or mix your upcards and downcards together.
- The hand does not contain the proper number of cards for that particular game (except at stud a hand missing the final card may be ruled live, and at lowball and draw high a hand with too few cards before the draw is live). [See Section 16 – “Explanations,” discussion #4, for more information on the stud portion of this rule.]
- You act on a hand with a joker as a holecard in a game not using a joker. (A player who acts on a hand without looking at a card assumes the liability of finding an improper card, as given in Irregularities, rule #8.)
- You have the clock on you when facing a bet or raise and exceed the specified time limit.
Cards thrown into the muck may be ruled dead. However, a hand that is clearly identifiable may be retrieved at management’s discretion if doing so is in the best interest of the game. We will make an extra effort to rule a hand retrievable if it was folded as a result of false information given to the player.
Cards thrown into another player’s hand are dead, whether they are faceup or facedown.
