Faster Play

Having a poker game move along in a speedy manner is desirable for both management and players. The management makes more money, and the players have more fun. (Some of us also make more money.) I have examined this subject before, discussing some things that management and the dealers could do to speed up the pace of play. This column looks at the subject in terms of what the players themselves can do to help move things along.

"Time equals money" is the well-known Ben Franklin saying. For a professional player, or even someone who is a winning player, moving the game along is measurable in relation to your pocketbook. If you have an hourly earn, this is increased if more hands are able to be dealt. Furthermore, a professional player wants to enjoy his work, and a proper pace helps. For the casual player, there is nothing worse than a game that drags. For the big loser, a slow pace causes a lot of stress. Regardless of skill level, every poker player prefers a game that keeps moving along. Even so, too many players do not take the proper actions to make sure that this occurs.

The No. 1 thing a player can do to keep the game moving is to pay attention. Know when your turn is imminent. When it comes, everything except a medical emergency or an earthquake has to take a backseat. If you are ordering from the beverage person or food server, say "Excuse me" to them, act on your hand, and then go back to finishing your conversation. Are the Lakers in overtime? Tear those eyes away from the TV for a moment to act on your hand. To have a seat in a poker game is to put the game ahead of everything else. You owe this to both your competitors and yourself.

There is a relationship between poker skill and paying attention. Intense focus may well be my own best asset; ask anyone who has played a lot with me. I do not know of any top player who has a problem concentrating on the game – with the exception of one of my pot-limit Omaha buddies, who plays such long sessions that he sometimes falls asleep at the table from sheer exhaustion. When a player does reach that point, management should tell him to cash out.

If the dealer has to make change to get the wager size correct, this both slows up the game and breaks the dealer's concentration. The house plays a big role in assisting here. Chips used in the game should be of the right denomination. Anyone who has played $30-$60 hold'em with both the inferior method of using $5 and $25 chips and the superior method of $10 chips (using blinds of $20 and $30 rather than $15 and $30) appreciates the value of an intelligent structure. But players themselves can help to reduce the making of change.

Suppose that a player is getting a buy-in from the cage to play in a $5-$5-$10 blind pot-limit game. To get all $25 chips means that change will constantly have to be made by the dealer. To get all $5 chips means that it takes longer to cut them into the pot. The dealer may have to count down a huge mass of chips to be sure that a wager is the size stated. And split pots are always fun with hundreds of $5 chips to be divided. So, a player has the responsibility of knowing the proper appropriate mix of chips when buying in for his particular game. Later on, if he runs out of little guys for anteing or small wagers, he should convert a quantity of chips at once, rather than force the dealer to continually make change.

A player should not only strive to have the right change for a wager, he should make his intentions clear when he does not. Yes, we know that when betting a large chip, if you do not say "raise," it is only a call. But does the rookie player who acts next know this? Did the player say something that was drowned out by the typically noisy background casino noise? If you are not sure, ask, and only then act on your hand. So, a player should always say "call" when putting an oversize chip into the pot, even though the legal meaning of silence is defined. To put a big chip in without comment – then when asked its meaning, to snarl, "If you don't say anything, it's a call," as if the inquirer were a dolt who did not know poker rules – is neither polite nor good for the pace of the game.

We pot-limit players run into a special kind of time-wasting offender whom you fixed-limit players are fortunate to escape having to deal with. When the amount of the bet is flexible, it is proper poker etiquette not to act until the amount of the wager is defined. If you fold when the player on your right says "bet" or "raise" without stating a specific amount, and there are other players in the pot, the person making the wager can take advantage of the information you have improperly provided to adjust the amount of the bet accordingly. For example, if you have a big stack and the third person in the pot does not, the bettor can perhaps put the third player all in without undue worry, since you were the only opponent who had enough money to knock him out of the tournament. This, of course, is only one of practically limitless possibilities when knowing a player's action before your wager amount is complete.

I remember watching the following incident: A player bet in a multihanded pot, and the next person was a newcomer to poker. The newbie said, "Raise," and started to cut checks into the pot. I have seen people with fumbleitis, but this guy was one of the worst. He cut chips with painstaking slowness, and made sure to get each stack lined up and looking pretty. More than once, he accidentally knocked a stack over when attempting to straighten it. (Aside from everything else, the guy was trembling so much with excitement about his big hand that you'd need a straight flush to consider calling.) Meanwhile, I could see that everyone else in the pot had his hand cocked ready to muck, and was simply observing poker etiquette in retaining his cards. After more than a minute of this nonsense, the guy managed to get the last of his $1,325 wager into the pot. About two seconds later, all players had folded (nearly simultaneously), and the man gathered in the pot. He wasted a good minute of everyone's time by not simply saying, "I'm going all in" before he started to cut checks. In a pot-limit game, you should always say how much you are betting unless you can put your entire wager in at once. Then, people can act and keep the game moving.

Every player, pro or amateur, winner or loser, should be conscious of a game's pace and try to keep the action moving. To do otherwise is rude, unprofitable, and simply bad for poker.

Editor's note: Bob Ciaffone is available for poker lessons. He may be reached at (989) 792-0884. His website is www.diamondcs.net/~thecoach. His books Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Hold'em Poker, Millennium Edition are available through Card Player.