Proper etiquette on the poker table (cash)?

You'll be fine, you can leave whenever you want and no one will mind. The only time someone might care is if you recently won a lot of chips. But you're not a regular plus you'll have a legit excuse, your tournament will be starting. I don't see people get mad unless the same person tries to sit at the table half an hour later with less chips. If it's that short a time you have to buy in for what you had before. If it's a few hours then you're in the clear, but out of courtesy you can buy in for the max allowed (if it's the same people sitting), that way no one will get the wrong idea that you won a pot and wanted to immediately bank their chips.

The only important poker etiquette is this:

- Never slowroll

- Resist talking about the current hand when you have more than one opponent (or aren't in the hand at all).

- Don't be distracted/asleep too often when it's your turn to act.

- Don't call the clock on someone too soon if it's a fairly big decision.

- If it comes to a showdown and your opponent mucks, don't ask what he had or for the dealer to turn his cards over.

- If you win a hand and show the person next to you your cards, you gotta show everyone.

(Mostly common sense / golden rule stuff.)

DivideBy touched on some good rules on etiquette. As far as leaving the table, if you leave your chips at the table and leave for awhile, there is usually a time limit depending on the house. Some rooms let you miss two rounds of blinds before your chips are picked up (if you haven't returned). This is especially true if there is a waiting list. Other rooms have time limits, such as a half-hour. It all depends on the house rules and sometimes they are not even enforced if no one is waiting to sit at your table.

If you pick up your chips and leave, most places won't let you come back to the same table unless you bring in the same amount that you left with. This is akin to taking money off the table. Some places WILL let you come back with less chips but only if a certain amount of time has gone by. It can be an hour, two hours, the whole day...depends on the house. Where I worked we wouldn't let a person come back to that table for the rest of the day. My advice is that if you do leave with chips, don't go back to that same table again with less than you left with, even if you are allowed to. It creates ill-will towards you from the others. If you cash out from one table, it's okay to go to a different table with the minimum amount of chips. As for winning a huge pot and then leaving...this is called "hit and run". Technically you can do it but it DOES create ill-will. The thing is that some players will play until they win a certain amount. If you win it all in one hand and want to quit, personally I see no problem in it. I remember one guy, a doctor, used to do it every day at my casino and I would get a ton of complaints from the players. The doctor would win a ton on one table, cash out, and then go to another table and do the same thing. I couldn't do anything because the doctor did nothing wrong. You can't force someone to play. So the players came up with their own solution: when the doctor would sit down to play, everyone would get up and leave! The whole casino was in collusion! And there was nothing I could do. But the doctor DID change his ways.

A large amount of casinos and poker card rooms have their own rules. An example being my local casino where if you leave the cash table and you are profiting you cannot return for 90 minutes. This is something you will have to ask the dealer. In my casino you must give a 15 minute warning that you are leaving so time it around the button so you have no obligation to play any hands before the blind comes around. 9 out of 10 places would not let you leave if you suddenly announce last hand under the gun but I wish you luck!

At a cash game, you're free to come and go as you please, altho it's considered poor etiquette by some if you do so right after winning a big pot...leaving just before you're due to post blinds is unlikely to garner much comment.

If you are leaving the table for just a short period, the dealer may hold your seat and watch your chips, but you will be help accountable for at least one rounds worth of missed blinds and few places will hold the seat for much more than half an hour or so (in which case the pit boss will gather your chips and hold them for you...never seen anywhere that would hold a seat open for more than an hour.)

They are all right. Ask the pit boss or dealer what protocol is at your casino. But for the bills on the table, if he won $200 in cash from you in a pot and then just put it in his pocket, you could not win it back. Then you get upset and don't want to play with anyone who takes their stack out of the line of fire. Super nit! Gotta leave it in fair play. If he/she's any good, they'll still have it at the end of the night. And good players want the biggest stack so that they have all the stacks covered anyway.