here you go:

My intention was to point out if they're regs, and they think their punishment is nothing, or a dealer scolding them, what do they care? If they think the floor could end their night or week, they'll think twice.

grumbling a bit:
Ive had to resort to changing my vernacular to avoid the inevitable confusion when i say its "$X to call" to its "$X additional to call".

If you have $50 in the pot and it has been raised to $200(but you don't know the total amount,even if you do), when the action returns to you and i say, "$150 to call", this does not mean the total bet is $150 and it it costs you $100 more because you already have $50 in the pot.
It means you need to place $150 in addition to the $50.

A Call is an ADDITIONAL amount to be added to the amount you already have in the pot.

^^^ To be safe/consistent I always say "Raise. Total of $X" and if people can't do math I'll say "it's $X more, total of $Y"

I always use the "$150 on top"

The best expression is "$xxx to go..." where $xxx is the total.

maybe im old school, in the "day" all you had to say to a player was "$x to call" and they understood it had been raised, and it costs them and ADDITIONAL $X continue.
It just seems like you are over-complicating the explanation of what is happening, and you've done that because, players just don't understand/ process what the term "To Call" means.

Would you rather say "150 to call" and have the player place and additional 150 in the pot
OR
"Raise. Total of $X"
wait to see if they understand and then say:
"it's $X more, total of $Y"


"on top" in a newish term that really, doesn't "fit" into the standard vernacular.
"raise, 150 on top", why not just say , "raise, 150 to call".

CALL is standard poker terminology, "on top" is not.




In either of the above cases, It feels "dumbed" down, that we are overly explaining/clarifying things that shouldn't need to be.

One I learned from playing craps: "Make it look like $xxx," where xxx is the total.

It's good to get out of the habit of saying the same way every time, and to mix it up, because when you say it the same way every time, the players start to tune you out after a while.

Where I work I would say 97% of people respond to the total bet size and get really confused if you tell them how the raise amount as opposed to the total regardless of how clearly you TELL

Player A bets $50
Player B raises to $200
Player A asks how much

Dealer: It is $150 more to call. By that I mean if you put out an additional $150 on top of the $50 you have already bet you will have called .......

Player: Puts out $100.

Dealer: Its still another $50 sir

Player: Well you said its $150 ..... thats $150. I wouldn;t have called if I knew it was that much.

I use this phrase all the time.

But even this is not understood by all small stakes players.

They have 3 chips out. They need 12. You say "12 to go." They interpret this as "12 left to go. I need to put 12 more chips out."


"X total" never seems to fail at any level.






I remember a special case where the bet was 12. A player had one stack of 4 dollar chips out. Action was back to him. He started trying to put out ships.
"How much?"
"8 more to you. 12 dollars to go. 3 stacks of 4."
*fumbling of chips*
"How much is it?"
"8 more to you. 12 dollars total. Make it look like 3 stacks of 4."
*more chips fumbling and attempts to count chips*
"How much?"
"I'm all out of ideas."

I just say "Total bet is xxx; you need an additional xxx to call."

In many cases I will pull in the calls. I realize this bugs some people but they are a minority and it speeds the game up and causes confusion with the above type of situation to be significantly reduced, if not totally removed, since I will at that point say "I pulled in the call; xxx to you."

WHY is it necessarily to indicate, first, the total bet prior to telling them: "its xxx amount to call."
My point exactly is that all you should have to say is:
"xxx to call"
it should be assumed that the amount is in addition to what has already be placed.

I think what you meant to say is "i pulled in the original bet, xxx to you"
I know it as "equalizing"

Pretty sure this will just confuse them more.

And I've seen players come unglued when the person who is all-in for just the main doesn't show, and the main is $1000 while the side pot is $100. "SLOW ROLL! WHAT A SLOW ROLL! HE KNEW HE HAD THE WINNER AND HE LET US THINK WE HAD IT!" We try to explain that this is not a slow roll, that the player was behaving 100% properly in complying with the dealer's request and the dealer was 100% correct to ask him to wait, but the sore loser never wants to hear it. He's just sure he's been treatly terribly rudely.

I have tried to ameliorate this response sometimes by saying outloud, as I keep my hand face down, "I'm pretty sure I've got the main". Dunno if that's a good compromise, but it seems to work. Folks don't muck when they hear that--they wait for the cards to be shown so I'm not screwing up someone being awarded the side pot. But it's letting 'em know not to get their hopes up.

I've gotten in the habit of telling them this anytime I'm directly asked "How much more do I need". Funny, because I started using this when dealing craps, then found use for it at the poker table.

Generally, I am in the "XXX total" group. I find if you tack on "total" or "all together" people tend to understand better.

Expect to hear me repeating the amount a lot, then, just because for some reason this one cracks me up every time: It's an entirely different kind of flying altogether

Hasn't to date.

Alright, I'm gonna put this in here.

I'm sick of rake nits. Both the ones in card rooms and the ones on this board.

The cardroom nits, we all know who they are. The ones who snap ask for half-rake the nanosecond a person stands from a table every - single - time.

And the ones on here... look, this is a board for the players, but I can't stand players not understanding that the general public, the fish, the people you want to win the money off of, don't give two ****s about the rake as long as the room is not gouging them.

A person who lives 5 minutes from Room A, where the rake is $5, and where they know they can get the game they want, isn't going to drive to Room B, which is 25 minutes away, just for $1 less rake per hand. The average player doesn't care about that. They will go to the room that's close by, and as long as they are not brutally mistreated, will continue to go there.

/minirant

I think some rooms could offer a $1 max rake and still not see an increase in business.

Too bad. I consume a service that you're employed to provide. When practical, I negotiate a price for that service that is the best available, without taking money out of your pocket. If that bugs you, perhaps you need to reflect on why rather than blaming your customer.

Now, if you want to blame room management for training me to ask every time the 7th player stands up from the table because I don't trust them to give me the best available rake (even if I asked for it earlier that session), blame them all you want. Some places the short rake is automatic, but unfortunately I don't always recall where those places are.

Yeah I think it's silly to call somebody a nit for liking a game with more rake. If my tale is 7-handed, and I see somebody go to the bathroom, I generally won't bother the floor to get reduced rake for 1-2 hands tops. But if that person racks up or goes somewhere unknown, I'm definitely asking. How does that make somebody a nit?

Let's say you roll up to your local gas station an it's 2.99/gal, and somebody tells you if you go inside and ask for a discount, they'll make it 2.49/gal. Am I a nit because I would choose to go inside and ask for the reduced price?

There is a middle ground here but some card rooms are too greedy to reduce the rake reasonably to keep the game going (CAZ). Their policy is keep taking full rake no matter how short the game gets. I play time game mostly but I sure don't balance the 8-16 players for leaving/walking. Short sighted greedy policy IMO

Blame not balance. Typo

No Freerolls!

I worked in a room that offered just that for an entire summer.

No effect on business.

Oh, except losing money of course.