Phone use at the tales.

The "step away from the table" is for people who are talking on the phone, since it slows down the game.

How exactly do you think that some rando playing 1-3 is going to cheat while looking at their phone?

By reading the 2P2 strategy threads, obviously.

There is a lot of depends here.

As gross generalizations, in tournament play, a player cannot be talking on his phone while having a live hand. Obviously there is some leeway, saying "I am playing poker, gotta go, and then hanging up is generally acceptable."

In cash games there is more flexibility. In the last two rooms I have dealt in, the rule was that a cash game player could not slow down the game by being on the phone. Obviously subjective.

That said, I have seen it go both ways. I have dealt cash games where a player was on the phone and I have pounded the table in front of them multiple times and they haven't responded, so I have loudly declared their hand dead because I could not reach it because they were holding it tightly in their hand right along the rail.

I have also seen a player negotiate child custody in a divorce with their lawyer on the phone while not missing any of the action at the table and not slowing the game down.

Holy **** lol.

played in a lot of rooms around the world, situation is handled differently everywhere.
but i'm guessing with the use of assisting software getting easier all the time, there will be new rules (binding) necessary in the near future (cash + tourneys both)

At the places I play most, the rule is that you can't be on your phone when you have an active hand.

Enforcement is spotty at best.

I think most rooms that have a "get off your phone" rule are concerned about slowing the game down rather than using their phone as a GTO cheat. I'm fine with someone spending as much time as possible talking or watching a movie as they aren't slowing the game. If you're doing that, you're not paying attention.

As for the cheating. a solo operator isn't going to be able to enter the data quickly enough to not be obvious and a team isn't going to find it worthwhile at low stakes.

Venetian lets you talk on the phone while in a hand. When I asked the floor they really couldn't answer why

I'm surprised about the Venetian. When I have played there phone use during a hand was not allowed (people were asked to leave the table and not play the hand they were in - typically they hadn't yet looked at their cards and just put the phone down and folded).

In all rooms I've played in the US phone use during a hand was not allowed (you had to get away from the table or put the phone down). Those rooms include Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, Borgata, Commerce, Bike, Bay 101, and a bunch of Vegas rooms: Aria, Bellagio, Planet Hollywood (no longer in existence), the Venetian, WSOP (Rio and Horseshoe/Paris), Orleans, MGM, etc.

For me there are several reasons to not allow phone use during a hand. The most important one is that there are now apps and likely some of them can do poker calculations (the simplest would be the odds of improving your own hand). I don't know about GTO/Solvers but it could be there are apps for that already and if not there will be soon. The other important one is that two or more people at the table could be talking to each other (using non poker related code) and cheating/colluding could be happening.

The wasting other people's time is valid as well and I've seen it happen.

I've also seen the rule be catastrophic. At Foxwoods about 15 years ago a whale was playing in the 20/40 LHE game. He typically lost thousands of dollars a session. He was in the 10 seat and was on his phone during a hand. The dealer told him to get off his phone and he didn't. The dealer told him again and again got waved off. Finally the dealer mucked his live hand. The guy, who was Greek, then threatened to kill the dealer who called the Floor over. The Floor talked to the dealer and then told the player he was banned for a year. I then told the Floor the whale was Greek and didn't speak much English and that the Greek words for being angry were about violence and threats. The floor then asked the player if he seriously meant that he wanted to kill the Dealer and the player said "Yes". Banned for a year and never came back to the 20/40 LHE game.

The other very strange one happened to a woman who was playing latish in a two day tournament. We were all men at the table including the dealer and she got a call and was told she had to leave the table which she did. While she was gone the dealer turned over her cards after the hand was over and she had KK. It was a huge pot and she would have won it with a boat. When she came back to the table she told us a close family member (like a cousin) had just died. She was young and so was he. Incredibly not one of us told her what hand she would have had if she could have stayed at the table. The other incredible thing was she made it to the final table.

When I was in Prague I played tournaments at Rebuy Stars Casino Luka which had a no phone use rule. One time a woman player was basically on her phone the whole time even during hands. She was not talking but watching the screen and sometimes typing. So I went to a Floor (who spoke English) and asked if it was OK for the woman to be on her phone. The Floor came by and stood behind the woman (not close) for a few minutes and just shrugged and left. Apparently she was watching a movie or streaming music and it was no big deal because it didn't affect her playing.

In practice I have seen people play games on their phones and it was allowed even though they were doing it during hands. One guy was playing chess. Another guy was in an online poker tournament. Another person was doing Sudoku. I didn't say anything because it really had nothing to do with the game and as far as tells were concerned they weren't going to be bluffing in position against me. They were only playing good hands.

probably not relevant for this "us-centric-forum" (as i've found out in another thread), but in case some aliens read this, here's some info:

Holland Casino (all casinos in the Netherlands) just changed their policy, phone can not (!) be at the table as soon as the dealer starts to deal a hand, that means, it has to be physically removed and put on a side table or in your pocket, can only take it back after you looked at your hand and folded.

super annoying, every player hates it, and they are about to destroy their games

In Helsinki there are some phones at the table, mostly temporarily. Don't know about the rules, nobody has ever said anything.

Players on a call should push back .. but then you get the @#@(#U who use blue tooth buds and pretend they are talking to themselves.

Players should set their phone down if they have a live hand.

A Room saying 'no phones' at the table is just asking to lose a lot of their Player Pool.

This is pretty easy stuff. GL