I was playing $1/$3 at my local casino (Crown Casino in Melbourne). For those who've played at Crown, you'll know that these cash games are "turbo" format, which means you only get 20 seconds to make a decision on each street until your hand is dead.

So we're heads up on the river, this other guy has a straight and I have King high. He makes a small river bet (which I interpret as weak) and I decide to throw out $600 in chips as a bluff, which effectively puts him all-in.

The other guy doesn't see my bet and doesn't realise that it's his turn to act. The dealer starts the clock. The dealer later says "you have 10 seconds to act or else your hand is dead". The dealer counts down and eventually the timer hits zero. The dealer then says "your hand's dead" and starts taking the other guy's hole cards away. The other guy quickly stops the dealer from taking his cards and says "what?!" The dealer tells the other guy that his hand is dead because he didn't act in time. The other guy says "I didn't even know it was my turn! I was waiting for him to act!" The dealer then says "okay, I'll give you 10 more seconds to act". The other guy quickly says "I call" and I flip over my King high, knowing that I've lost. He flips over the straight and wins the pot. The dealer says "sorry" to me afterwards and I just say "that's alright" because I don't want to make a big deal out of it, since the other guy is a recreational player and I don't want to enforce all these harsh technicalities on a recreational player.

What do you think of this whole situation? Was the dealer correct in giving him an extra 10 seconds to act? Should I have won the pot? Should I have contested this or was it right of me to just let it go and allow the recreational player to win the pot?

It is a terrible rule. That said, the dealer warned the other player he had 10 seconds to act. Under these rules, he folds. The dealer shouldn't have given him another 10 seconds.

You should have called the floor immediately to have it reversed, if for no other reason to start the process of getting rid of the rule. I'd tell the floor if he doesn't immediately reverse the ruling, "Look, I think it is a bull**** rule, but your management put it in place. Either enforce uniformly or get rid of it."

It seems appropriate to give him more time since he didn't know it was on him. But the floor, not the dealer, should count time, and the floor, not the dealer, should be able to kill the hand after the minute has elapsed.

My casino has two variants of NLHE: it has regular NLHE and it has "turbo" NLHE. All NLHE games $2/$4 and above are regular and all $1/$2 and $1/$3 NLHE games are "turbo" format.

In regular formats, the games play just like how they would in Vegas. The player can think for as long as possible, but if they take an unreasonable amount of time to think, then another player can call the clock and the floor will come over with a timer. Once the floor man comes over, the thinking player now has 60 seconds to act until his hand is dead.

In turbo formats, the players get 20 seconds to act per street. There is no such thing as calling the clock on another player because the dealers will automatically do it. The dealers will count 10 seconds in their head and then they will put the timer on the player for the remaining 10 seconds. At $1/$3 live, you have the option of "buying time" by throwing out a $1 chip which gives you an extra 30 seconds to think.

The reason we have these turbo formats is because recreational players want to play a quick game. They don't want to have to wait 2 minutes for a hand they're not involved in. So this game format is much more friendly for recreational players. It's the same reason why the buyins are so small (the min/max BI at $1/$3 is $50 to $200, so that poor recreational players can just buy in for 17bb if they wish, whilst the regs can buy in for 67bb).

Did you toss chips out, or did you verbally announce? Did the dealer use his hand or some other way to indicate to the player that action was on him? When issuing the warning, did the dealer face the other player and speak directly to him? I assume you were heads up.

It happens all the time that a player doesn't know action is to him, so some leeway should be applied if the situation could have been confusing. If it was clear and the player was just not paying attention (not sure how you do that heads up), then you should have the rule enforced.

Umm, no. The reason that the casino has this rule is so that more hands per hour are being dealt. More hands per hour means that more rake is being generated.

Allowing dealers to kill unmucked hands is a terrible policy. Is there an actual timer that went off, or did the dealer silently count to 10 again (after his first warning)? The player should be given more time, IMO. This whole 'turbo format' is ridiculous and bad for the game.

Who did this guy think the dealer was talking to? Unless you had 'insta-shoved' and he missed it then certainly a good amount of time had gone by where your hand would've been dead.

I think this policy really puts a lot of pressure on the dealer to keep the action going ... and the players need to pay attention themselves when they have cards.

What to do? It's up to each Hero how they handle this ... What's the room's policy on warnings? If they have been handed out before, then it's probably better to let this one go. If the policy lets the dealers run their table or is strictly enforced then you deal with it that way. I can't imagine the increased number of floor calls that might happen in this 'kind' of room!!

Personally I would want the floor to come over and back up his dealer, just so the rec really knows he's getting a huge break here. When it comes from 'only' the dealer it may not sink in. If the floor rules in Hero's favor, then Hero can 'comp' the player something if he wants to.

There are numerous posts about players not paying attention and mucking winning hands. This is a similar case but, perhaps, not solely on the player since the dealer may 'need' to alert the player action is on him per room rules. We don't know .. GL

I'm going to presume that you misread or misunderstood the OP because it would be ridiculous to suggest that floors should be responsible for counting down every action at every table. This was not a situation where someone called clock putting a player on notice that he had a minute to act. This is a "turbo" game where every player has a maximum of 20 seconds whenever it is his turn to act.

We have one room in South Florida that has (or had, I haven't been there in awhile) the turbo concept, although the time to act is 30 seconds, not 20. But when I played in that room I found that the 30 seconds was never strictly enforced; it was more about putting players on notice that they had to act relatively quickly. I never saw a dealer kill a hand when I was there; at most, a player was warned that he needed to act quicker.

Haven't played turbo cash format...sounds great.

Anyone watching the Super High Roller Bowl past few days may have noticed they capped time on hands at 40 seconds. WPT Championship had 30 second clock. Each had some reserve time you could use when needed. An actual clock on the table is best way for it to be counted.

As far as OP: bad ruling. If the rule exists then enforce it.
As far as the ethical side he obviously was calling. (Surprised he wasn't raising.) That said you can't feel bad for someone in poker if they aren't able to win the pot within the rules. If you have a made straight on the river, and have already acted, then you should be paying attention. Tough beat, but not OP's fault.

I'm not particularly a fan of electronic tables, but this is one case where one might have helped.

As is, unless there is some history of the player not paying attention, it isn't unreasonable to assume "other guy" didn't realize action was on him, didn't realize that "You have 10 seconds" directed at him and not OP. I approve of how the dealer actually handled it. Perhaps Floor might have gotten involved but I don't think it's necessary until a player calls.

Kind of reminds me of a hand where Chris Moneymaker called the clock and the response was "I've been waiting and was about to call the clock on you?"

What if the dealer was just staring straight ahead or down at the board when they said "you have 10 seconds to act."? Or what if the guy was not looking at the dealers face when they said it? Clearly he thought the dealer was talking to the OP. Especially if OP verbally said All-in and the guy didn't even hear it.

I think you did the right thing OP. I would have done the same. It's nice to know there are still some honest people in poker today and not greedy donks who looking for any angle to win a buck.

This is a terrible rule, but if you're going to have this rule you have to enforce it strictly, or else everyone will just claim they didn't know it was on them.

I'm usually a huge proponent of letting it go, but in this case there appears to be a turbo game and a regular game and both OP and Villain chose the turbo game. I suspect at game speed I would have done exactly what the OP did, but if I had a time machine, I would go back and immediately contest the extra 10 seconds (before Villain announced "call" ).

Before starting the 10 second countdown, the dealer should make sure the player knows action is on him.

That's how shot clock games work. Time up - hand dead.

I wish they had more cash games like that. But maybe 30 seconds instead of 20.

I would think that room which regularly ran games with this rule set should have frequently run into this problem and had a standard way to deal with it.

Dealer should not be making the decision to give the player more time. The floor should have been called.

If you're going to have this rule (which is terrible, imo), I think you should enforce it strictly.

If this was the "only game in town" I would play in it certainly. Otherwise I would pass.
If you are going to have this concept it should be longer than 20 seconds. With rec players this is just asking for trouble.

it's a great rule. maybe a little too little time but i wish every casino i played in had this rule

It literally is the only game in town. They have a complete monopoly. The rake is also super high (10% to $15 last I checked) and the buy-in is ****house (67bb).

This.
And this.

There have been multiple comments about whether I actually threw out chips or whether I just announced it verbally. There was also a comment about someone being surprised that the villain just called and didn't raise. This was all explained in the OP. I will repeat it again for clarification:

- I threw the chips out. It was not announced verbally.
- The villain had far less than $600 in his stack. Raising was not an option.

There was also another comment about choosing a different game. I will explain this one:

In my country (Australia), we are only allowed 1 casino per state, so there is essentially a monopoly. The casino in my state is known as Crown Melbourne. There are only 4 NLHE games at Crown Melbourne that run daily:
Game 1: $1/$2 NLHE "turbo" with no option to buy time. Min/Max BI = $40/$80. Rake = 10% capped at $20.
Game 2: $1/$3 NLHE "turbo" with option to buy time up to twice per hand (costs $1 to buy 30 seconds time). Min/Max BI = $50/$200. Rake = 10% capped at $15.
Game 3: $2/$4 NLHE normal. Min/Max BI = $200/$400. Rake = 10% capped at $15.
Game 4: $5/$5 NLHE normal. Min/Max BI = $400/$1000. Rake = 10% capped at $15 (only played with $5+ chips and all rake divisible by $5).
A few times each week, the $5/$10/$20 game will open up with a Min/Max BI of $600/$2000. Higher games usually only run during big events like the Aussie Millions.

In summary, the games are ****, the rake is ****, the buyin is ****, you have to pay for food/drinks and everything being **** is a direct result of the monopoly (no alternative casinos to go to). The plus side though is that tipping casino dealers is illegal (which essentially means less rake) and we are not required to pay tax on gambling winnings.