Disconnect protection is a term used when playing in online poker rooms. Disconnect protection is activated only when the player in the hand has internet connectivity problems with the poker room.

Poker rooms have different ways of protection from the loss of the connection. In most cases the player just have the time to reinstate the connection. As a rule, it is 60 seconds to several minutes.

In some of the poker rooms the connection loss supposes if the player put the part of his stack into the pot and lost connection to the gaming server, the hand goes on and the player automatically reaches the showdown. Here is the example of how it works: for instance, you’re on the turn in the hand. It is 40 BB in the pot. You make a bet and the opponent shoves his hand. In this moment you disconnect from the server due to Internet problems. In this case disconnect protection turns on. Your hand will not be folded, instead of this the river card will be dealt and there will be a showdown. The player with the stronger poker hand combination will win the pot.

Some players misuse this function and deliberately turn off the connection with marginal hands to be able to get to the showdown as cheap as possible. This is violation of the poker rooms’ rules and the ban is possible for doing this.