Misunderstanding the Amount Bet

I took a trip down to Tunica, Mississippi, in late July to play in the Horseshoe's summer tournament. Even though this one is not as big as the Jack Binion World Poker Open that is held in January, it is still a good-size tournament. In fact, attendance was so far beyond expectations this time that not enough tables and dealers were available. It is not just the World Series of Poker championship event that is booming in attendance these days.

The first event was a $200 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament, which I entered. They had room for a little more than 500 players – and sold out all the available seats the day before the tournament. Poker Room Manager Kenny Lambert, a man who will do everything he can for you, tried to handle the overflow. He set up a registration desk for a hundred standby players that was to open at 7 a.m. the day of the event. By the time 7 o'clock came, there were close to a hundred people already in line! (I thought poker players were late risers.) He also put an extra chair at each table, so we played 11-handed for quite a while. Even with all of this, not everyone who wanted to enter was able to be accommodated.

During this no-limit event, I won a big pot because I misunderstood the amount of a raise, and was forced to call when I did not want to do so. Here is a blow-by-blow account:

To set the stage for the hand I won, let me give you the prelude hand (as best as I can remember it). The structure was $100-$200 blinds with a $25 ante. A player two seats to the right of the button opened for $500. 2003 World Champion Chris Moneymaker was in the big blind and raised to $2,000. The original raiser instantly moved all in for $700 more, and of course Chris called. When the hands were shown, I could not believe my eyes. Chris had been bluffing with an ace and some small kicker like a 6 or 7, and it was offsuit, to boot. However, his opponent had only K-J, so Moneymaker was bluffing with the best hand. How Chris' opponent decided to play K-J for all of his money against a world champion is a mystery to me, as I'm sure it was to all the other people observing this incident. However, the K-J made a pair and the ace did not, so Moneymaker got drawn out on and knocked down to short money, setting the stage for the incident that occurred a few hands later.

I was in the big blind with the K J. The short stack three seats to my left opened with an all-in raise of $600. Moneymaker made a small reraise all in. The action came back to me with those two all-in players my only opponents. I asked the dealer, "How much is the total bet?" The dealer, speaking in a thick foreign accent, said what sounded to me, "$725." (My hearing over background noise is poor.) I thought that even though I did not have the best hand going in, the pot odds were attractive enough to play, so I put the needed $525 more into the pot. Nobody said anything, and the dealer took $600 off each of the three stacks and put the money into the center for the main pot. At this point, he counted Moneymaker's chips and told me I needed to put in another $400 to call the full amount.

I said, "When I asked how much the bet was, you told me $725."

"No," replied the dealer tersely, "I said eleven twenty-five." A couple of the other players spoke up and confirmed that the dealer had said "eleven twenty-five" ($1,125).

I know that on television you have seen Moneymaker simply wave his hand and say, "I'm all in." But on this occasion, having only a short stack, he actually put the chips into the middle. I looked at those chips and thought they totaled $725. Maybe my mind played a trick on me because I thought I had heard $725. Maybe one of the chips was $500 and I had counted it only as $100. The bottom line is that I thought I had both heard and seen a wager of $725.

I showed my hand and said, "If I had known it was $1,125, I wouldn't have called." I then said to the dealer, "You should have told me right away that the amount was incorrect, instead of scooping the money into the middle before telling me I was short." Obviously, I could not get any money back out of the pot after it had been scooped into the middle and the players were starting to show their hands. In fact, I am required to put the right amount in, as it would be wrong to give me the option of folding and leaving the money in the pot.

The original all-in player showed an ace-rag. Moneymaker had the best hand with A-Q. The flop was 10-9-8, giving me a straight draw. Some little card came on the turn, but the river was a queen to give me a straight, which was the nuts. I'm sure that some of the players were not pleased to see "the crybaby" win, but I felt my annoyance had been justified because the dealer did not inform me immediately of the error, enabling me to possibly get a ruling that I could withdraw my money and fold.

After the hand was over, some of us discussed the rules governing the situation that had occurred. A couple of the players said that the dealer's taking in the money did not affect the situation, because once I put the money into the pot, I am not allowed to take it back out. I do not agree.

You can take money back out of the pot under certain circumstances. For example, in limit poker, if you put in an amount to call and it turns out that the pot had been raised, you have the right to withdraw your wager and reconsider your action. This same rule applies in no-limit play. I believe you should also have the right to withdraw your money if there is a meaningful misunderstanding as to the amount of the wager you face – and I have explicitly stated this in every poker rulebook I have written in the last 20 years. This right to take money back comes with several provisos. First, your putting chips into the pot has not caused action to take place behind you. Second, you have not obtained improper information as a result of your action. Third, the amount has to be significant.

A player who methodically counts out $1,300 and puts it into the pot to call a $1,400 bet should not be believed if he claims he does not wish to call the extra $100 and tries to snatch his money back. The amount involved with my misunderstanding was not huge, although it was enough to make me prefer a fold to a call. But there could be a lot of money involved.

I have heard of an incident in which a player put $1,700 into the pot and said, "Call." He actually faced an all-in bet of 17 thousand dollars! The tournament director ruled that he had to put the full amount of that wager into the pot, stating that verbal statements are binding. I believe this ruling was too literal-minded, and an effrontery to common sense.

Being able to correct a misunderstanding about the amount of a bet is even more important today than it was in years past. I am used to a player who moves all in actually putting the chips into the pot. (Watching how he cuts the chips may give you a feel for whether he is strong or bluffing.) These days, players wager immense sums with verbal statements alone, or accompanied by only a flick of the wrist gesture. I also note that many poker tournaments are held in an area where there is a lounge band playing, and modern music is far from being soft and sweet. Even people with normal hearing can easily misunderstand what someone has said, and have no view of the wager to help correct the error. It is not hard to envision a dreadful misunderstanding about how much was bet.

There is now millions of dollars at stake in the biggest tournaments. Let's handle each situation with fairness of mind, instead of being mechanical in thinking. The television audience will recognize if someone is getting the shaft by a bad ruling, and this will not be good for poker.

Editor's note: Bob Ciaffone's latest book is Middle Limit Holdem Poker, (332 pages, $25 plus $9.95 shipping and handling), co-authored with Jim Brier. MLHP and his other poker books, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Holdem Poker, can be ordered from Card Player. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons. E-mail [email protected] or call (989) 792-0884. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get Robert's Rules of Poker for free. He is an "expert" on the RoyalVegasPoker website and an advisor for the ChecknRaisePoker website (opening soon).