This has been troubling me for some time now and I think I finally dug up the reason why poker rooms insist that a player have their hole cards covered, be it by use of poker card protectors or a poker chip. The reason is simple, it protects the poker room from collusion on the part of poker players. Think about it, let’s say that there are two players working together at the table. If player one folds his cards on top of player two’s cards then player two can quickly switch out one of player one’s cards with his own giving him a stronger hand.