diff --git a/src/js/player.js b/src/js/player.js
index 88450b8a2e..70924c3e9e 100644
--- a/src/js/player.js
+++ b/src/js/player.js
@@ -400,9 +400,6 @@ vjs.Player.prototype.onLoadStart = function() {
   } else {
     // reset the hasStarted state
     this.hasStarted(false);
-    this.one('play', function(){
-      this.hasStarted(true);
-    });
   }
 };
 
@@ -451,6 +448,10 @@ vjs.Player.prototype.onLoadedAllData;
 vjs.Player.prototype.onPlay = function(){
   this.removeClass('vjs-paused');
   this.addClass('vjs-playing');
+
+  // hide the poster when the user hits play
+  // https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/embedded-content.html#dom-media-play
+  this.hasStarted(true);
 };
 
 /**
diff --git a/test/unit/mediafaker.js b/test/unit/mediafaker.js
index 8f422b0cf8..ded4230b91 100644
--- a/test/unit/mediafaker.js
+++ b/test/unit/mediafaker.js
@@ -41,6 +41,9 @@ vjs.MediaFaker.prototype.volume = function(){ return 0; };
 vjs.MediaFaker.prototype.muted = function(){ return false; };
 vjs.MediaFaker.prototype.pause = function(){ return false; };
 vjs.MediaFaker.prototype.paused = function(){ return true; };
+vjs.MediaFaker.prototype.play = function() {
+  this.player().trigger('play');
+};
 vjs.MediaFaker.prototype.supportsFullScreen = function(){ return false; };
 vjs.MediaFaker.prototype.buffered = function(){ return {}; };
 vjs.MediaFaker.prototype.duration = function(){ return {}; };
diff --git a/test/unit/player.js b/test/unit/player.js
index 9644cdf3ee..5229790640 100644
--- a/test/unit/player.js
+++ b/test/unit/player.js
@@ -212,6 +212,27 @@ test('should set and update the poster value', function(){
   player.dispose();
 });
 
+// hasStarted() is equivalent to the "show poster flag" in the
+// standard, for the purpose of displaying the poster image
+// https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/embedded-content.html#dom-media-play
+test('should hide the poster when play is called', function() {
+  var player = PlayerTest.makePlayer({
+    poster: 'https://example.com/poster.jpg'
+  });
+
+  equal(player.hasStarted(), false, 'the show poster flag is true before play');
+  player.play();
+  equal(player.hasStarted(), true, 'the show poster flag is false after play');
+
+  player.trigger('loadstart');
+  equal(player.hasStarted(),
+        false,
+        'the resource selection algorithm sets the show poster flag to true');
+
+  player.play();
+  equal(player.hasStarted(), true, 'the show poster flag is false after play');
+});
+
 test('should load a media controller', function(){
   var player = PlayerTest.makePlayer({
     preload: 'none',