I Raise Back

by Mike O Malley | Published: Dec 06, 2002

Not too long ago I returned from a Card Player Cruises poker vacation through Europe, where I visited Italy, Spain, Greece, France, Croatia, and Sicily. What an unbelievable time I had! Not only did I get to visit some of the most amazing places on earth (like Venice, Italy), I got to spend three weeks seeing these places while I played poker.

Each night while we sailed from port to port, we played poker. It was a small group of players, and the same people took the same seats night after night. We played $20-$40 half Omaha eight-or-better and half hold'em. We also played with overs of $40-$80 and $100-$200. It was a good game with lots of action; unfortunately, I wasn't able to take advantage of it, and ended up breaking even over the course of 13 days.

There were some colorful characters on the cruise, and one in particular really made me laugh. His name is R.A., or at least that is what he goes by. I had actually heard of him prior to the cruise, and had played with him on a previous occasion in a pot-limit game at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. He is a surly old vet with a Southern drawl who plays poker as if he were driving a freight train. R.A. loves to play both no-limit and pot-limit, and told me that he had never really played limit poker. In this particular game, R.A. was doing a lot of calling and a lot of raising, and was putting on quite a show. The problem was that I sensed he actually knew more than he was pretending to know, and I tried to adjust to his style of play.

R.A. sat out about every four rounds to go smoke, and he usually did it on the Omaha rounds. He had missed his blinds and had posted behind the button during a hold'em round when the following happened:

I was in the big blind. The player under the gun raised and four players called. The action was now on R.A. He grabbed a stack of chips and stated, "I raise back" as he put $40 out in front of him. The player behind him put in $60 (calling the reraise), at which point the dealer pointed out to R.A. that he needed to put in $20 more, as he had reraised. It was now my turn to act and I was curious, because R.A. was now telling the dealer that he didn't say raise. After it was pointed out to him that he indeed did say "I raise back," R.A. started to chuckle and stated that he had actually said, "R.A. is back." The problem was that with his Southern drawl, it sounded as though he had said, "I raise back," and everyone at the table thought that was what he had said! As soon as he explained, I realized that this was in fact what he had said. But because he had no problem with putting in the additional $20, the bet stood as a reraise and the hand played out.

After this incident occurred, I started to think about what actually should have happened. Because the game was in "gambling mode" anyway, and because everyone heard the same thing, no decision had to be made in this case. But what if this same situation had come up under different circumstances?

In the past, I have often warned players to watch what they say, as it could be misconstrued as something else. This usually happens in cases in which someone is questioning a play and says a word that is heard as an action. In the case I just described, I would have ruled that the player didn't actually raise and would have allowed the bet to stand as a call. However, I would have warned him to be careful what he said, as it could be heard as something else.