NOT JUST POKER

Quarterly, Phil has been hosting no-limit Hold ‘Em tournaments at his house for the last three years. He manages to squeeze  two, nine-player poker tables into his basement rec room . His tournaments are popular.  He has no trouble getting players to pony-up $300 each for participation, receiving $1,500 in tournament chips. In addition, each player pays $20 for refreshment and tourney management. Phil does not play. When tourney gets down to three or four players, Phil usually deals. As players are eliminated, they wait for others to join them, so they can start a cash game when one table frees-up. Phil has a yappy, five-year old Beagle he purposely named Ranch,  just so that every-so-often, when he is in a game at his house and has a great hand,  he can jokingly use the expression, “I bet the Ranch” and call his dog to the table.

The payouts are 1st place, $2,700 ; 2nd, $1,350;  3rd,  $900 ; 4th, $450. The tourney table is down to three players:   Tim, the small blind, in the 1 seat with $10,240;  Don, the big blind, in the 5 seat  with $10,880; and Ray in the 6 seat with $2,880.   Ranch is yapping as two parting players leave and slam the door. Phil is mediating a  ruckus going on at the cash game. Seth, who finished 4th, sits-in to deal the tourney for Phil. Seth makes an aside statement to Tim, that with the blinds still being so low and with two players having the bulk of chips almost evenly distributed between them combined with the constant bickering at the cash game, he could be stuck dealing for a long time. To Seth, Tim responds, “If I go all-in most of the time, it might speed things up.”  Hearing Tim say, “All-in,” Don says, “I call.” Ray folds, mucking his cards.

Tim says that he did not go all-in and that he was just chatting with Seth. Seth, who heard most of what Tim said to him, agreed.  Don insisted that since the action was to Tim, Tim was bound by his commitment. Furthermore, Ray also thought he heard Tim say that he was all-in.

For sure, at any casino cardroom, with the action on Tim, his statement–intentional or unintentional– would be construed as a commitment. Players at casinos are bound by actions. Players could say things like, “I think I’ll go all-in…” and a few seconds later “…but not now.” Players could test reactions of other players.  That being said, Phil needs to make a decision. This is a house game and house guidelines, whatever they are, need to be in effect.  For sure, if there were only two players left, Phil’s decision would be simpler. However, the decision also drastically effects Ray.