From RROP:
12. To retain the right to act, a player must stop the action by calling “time” (or an equivalent word). Failure to stop the action before three or more players have acted behind you may cause you to lose the right to act. You cannot forfeit your right to act if any player in front of you has not acted, only if you fail to act when it legally becomes your turn. Therefore, if you wait for someone whose turn comes before you, and three or more players act behind you, this still does not hinder your right to act.


I thought only 2 players acted (checked).

I thought you were responding to the post immediately before yours.

I agree with the above, but has anyone ever had dealer tell them "you checked" when you didn't?

Don't mean to hijack, but along the same lines, I was playing 10-20 OE this summer under-the-gun, and bet on the flop. Dealer said, "You checked." I said ,"No, I didn't." But she insisted that I had checked. Player to my right said, "I didn't see him check."

Anyway, my hand was a check or a bet type of hand, so I didn't make a big deal of it, but just wondered what would have happened if I pushed it.

I was out-of-town, and dealer had just started her down. I had no history with the dealer or players. Wasn't trying to angle or anything like that.

Maybe you tapped the table before making the bet. Maybe you didn't even realize that you did it. Did you bother to ask the dealer what she saw?

I think you have a tough case if the dealer says that she clearly saw you check and action has passed you. The thing you have that might allow you to better your case, is the one player who also said that he didn't see you check either. But, that might not be enough to overrule the dealer. Depends.

If you made an unintentional motion that was taken as a check and caused players to act behind you... you have checked. Be careful.

If the dealer thought you checked and directed the action past you and you speak up before anyone acts you can bet.

Be careful tapping or waving a hand while thinking. It looks like a check and if acted upon it is a check.

Good points. Thanks for the input.

Just this week, in the big blind, I woke up with a hand after a middle position raised and it came around to me.

Wanting to convey my desire to take a moment to contemplate my action (calculating my raise), I said, "Time".

Neither the dealer nor any of the players had any idea what I meant. The dealer thought I was saying he'd pressured me.

So I'm now curious, in what venues is "time" commonly used? Cause it isn't MD Live.

I think you might be asking rhetorically or tongue in cheek, but in case, not, TIME is the standard in every room I've ever played in. It is also codified in RRoP:

No, I'm not being rhetorical OR tongue in cheek.

You know it's in RRoP. *I* know it's in RRoP.

But nobody at the table, not even the dealer, had any notion what I meant by "time"... so apparently THEY don't know it's in RRoP.

I'm in the UK and I have never heard 'TIME' or any such variant used in my local casinos.

I like the idea but I reckon I would look too geeky using 'time' so I plan to just look the dealer in the eye and say 'Is it on me?' to which he will obv say yes and then wait until I declare my action as it is obv to him that i KNOW it is on me.

It's a bit confusing when a player says "time" the second the action gets to them.
Thinking for a few seconds (or longer) and then announcing "time" makes it much more clear.

But definitely pay attention and speak up immediately if someone starts to act after you.

So say "time out" or "I need some time".

You're probably right. Typically when playing live, when action comes around to me, I don't react right away, because I'm one of those guys that waits for action to get to me before thinking about what to do next, so as to try to be aware (sometimes even effectively) of everything that happens as the action comes around to me.

This frequently leads to me taking a few seconds before I do anything, so then the dealers think they need to tell me the action is on me (and sometimes they do, if I've lost focus), so I thought that I'd say "time" right away to indicate that I knew that the action was on me.

Going forward I think I'll just say, 'on me?' when it comes around to me if I don't already know what I'm going to do.

I disagree. He could have been looking down at his chips and counting out a bet which according to the OP he probably was which was the reason why he didn't see the checked action after him.

Make eye contact with the dealer. Say "check", "bet", or "raise".

I think it's more like he checked his phone at the red light, looked up, it was green, but the traffic on the cross street was ignoring the light...