Very short intro. I have minor Traumatic Brain Injury courtesy of a tour in Iraq. One of the annoying symptoms of this is very short term memory loss (I call it micro memory loss). I am the guy that looks at his cards a lot because I can't frigging remember what I have. I have a general idea, but have to look to make sure. Generally, this is just annoying more than it is debilitating. And it is embarassing and has kept me from playing live poker. I usually have no accurate idea of how many chips I have, either, other than a ballpark idea and I dread being asked how many chips I have. Bottom line, live poker is hard for me, especially when there are a$$holes at the table making comments about it.

Well, I have started playing live poker anyway, a huge thing for me, really. And I love it. Here is my main issue. How do people know how much is in in a pot? Especially if it is in a pile. I am dead serious. I try to keep track of bets made, etc., and I will forget. So, my bet sizes are often totally wrong and I am guesstimating pot odds, etc. Are there any techniques people use to know and keep track of pot size, especially after the flop? Thanks.

They count the money as it goes in and remember the amount during the whole betting round. When it changes, they update the number they are remembering.

If you want to know how much is in the pot, you have to do the same and remember how much is being bet and put into the pot. I don't see any other way that you'd be allowed this information other than by tracking it yourself. You won't be allowed to use a pen and paper nor would you be allowed to use an electronic device.

I'd recommend two things for someone with your condition. First, learn PLO. In that game, you're allowed to ask the dealer how much is in the pot when it's your turn. Second, you can avoid having to look back at your cards all the time by getting one of those poker viewing towers, so the cards are still concealed but you can easily look down and see what cards you have.

Even though I have no need for this, this intrigues me. Can you provide a link for one of these, either in thread or thru PM?

To OP, my suggestion to you would be to play larger denomination chips with more frequency. Using them won't control the times when your opponents call with smaller chips, but it cuts down on the clutter and may serve as a reminder to the previous actions you've taken in a hand.

For example, playing 2/5 NL, and you want to open for a raise to $15. Use a green chip, announcing $15. If you get 1-2 callers, the pot will be $45-50 but very easy to see. If you want to bet $35 on this flop, use 2 greens and announce $35. This not only reduces the utter mess of redbirds in the pot, but your green chips & the change you receive each street can serve as somewhat of a reminder of your previous actions as well.

So, buy in to 2/5 NL mainly with green chips, maybe some black chips in a deep game as well. If you wanted to buy in for $600, do so with 20 reds & 20 greens. If you played 1/2 NL, maybe buy 10 reds & 6 greens for a $200 buyin.

Thank you for your service, OP.

Maybe 10% of time when someone asks me this I'll actually give them a count.

But they are NOT ENTITLED to a count. Most of the time I'll just make sure my hands/arms are out of the way so they have a clear view. If they ask again I ignore them or say "I dont know, take a look"

Ignore people who are *********. The other post about using big chips to help you count the pot seems like a good idea.

As an aside, one of the biggest whuppin's I ever took (it was a low buy in daily tournament) was against a woman who had brain damage due to an extended coma. Talking to another reg who knew her, she had been a pretty sharp woman, but then lost some ability to focus and some short term memory due to her medical episode. Her doctor wanted her to find an activity to help her use these abilities, and they decided on poker.

I could get zero read on her, not even the normal 'beginner playing unpredictably' read, as she could oscillate from a very savvy move to being completely lost on a hand by hand basis. Every time I zigged, I ran into her zagging. I don't think I lasted an hour once she was at my table. I began to realize how much I depend on people acting rationally and with some underlying consistency.

Question for floor men here-I know most rooms will not spread the pot, and will definitely not give a count of the pot, in NLHE. But for a medical accommodation, would you allow the dealer to spread the pot in this situation? Would you go even further and let the dealer sort the pot in stacks of ten?

It's a bit difficult to offer advice without knowing the extent of your disability.

Nobody is entitled to a count of your stack. They are only entitled to a clear view of your stack. Knowing your stack size has strategic benefits, but you can easily get away with not knowing; there are more important things to focus on.

First I'd talk to the floor and explain the situation. Maybe they can do something to accommodate you.

If mental arithmetic is not an issue, just memory, then you just need a method to keep track of how big the pot is. I'd suggest keeping track of the pot with your own chipstack. Personally I'd use three denominations of chips to represent the pot size numerically. For example the $1 chips can represent the singles digit, the $2 chips can represent the tens digit, and the $5 chips can represent the hundreds digit. When you see five people call $12 pre-flop, you know there is $60 in the pot, so set aside six $2 chips. When there's a bet and a two calls of $35, add a $5 chip and five $1 chips. You can easily re-create the pot size of $165 this way assuming your disability does not interfere with your ability to do multiplication, otherwise I'm not sure what type of system you could use.

While that sounds good in theory, would you want everyone in the poker room to know you have that kind of medical condition? Especially if you are a winning player, that might create some chatter I wouldn’t be comfortable with.

If the casino would OK that, wouldn’t it be easier for them to allow for you to write the pot size down on a piece of paper or use the calculator on your phone?

Otherwise, browni3141’s idea of using your own chips to note the pot size sounds good to me.

Most rooms that I know of will accommodate a player's request to spread the pot out. But if you're making this request frequently then the casino might give you a hard time about slowing the game down.

I can't imagine that any room will allow a player to use a calculator or pen & paper as an aid while playing, no matter the player's disability.

As has been noted already in this thread:

- Nobody is entitled to a count of your stack. Keep your chips organized (don't mix your green and red chips together) and an opposing player is entitled to a clear view of your chip stack. If someone asks you how much you have, you don't have to answer.

- Learn to estimate pot size by sight. You should be able to closely estimate the small amount of green and black chips in a pile that is mostly red. And a pile of $200 in red will look different than a pile of $350 in red.

- The idea of using your own chips to keep track of the pot size is a really good idea, and with a little bit of practice nobody should even notice that you're doing it. Or if they do, they won't know why you're doing it.

I would definitely speak to the floor manager at whatever casino you're playing at and see what accommodation he can make for you. Given your service (thank you!) and the casino not wanting to run afoul of any ADA laws, I'm sure he'd be willing to help.

Otherwise, I think using your own chips as a counter per Browni's comment is a good idea, as is using larger denomination chips as much as possible to make it easier to count the pot when it is in the middle per Thamel.

Just do the Bart Hanson technique and use the bigger denomination chips when you bet. E.g. instead of using reds to bet sixty, use a black chip and announce "sixty".

Thank you all for some great suggestions. The one thing I wish I could do is write stuff down on a small pad. In one tournament I was in, we were not in sight of the monitor and no one cared when I looked at the structure sheet occasionally to make sure I knew what the blinds were. That said, I do not want to ask for accomodation for a lot of reasons. One is that I want to be treated like everyone else and I don't want any advantages other players do not have. Another is that it just isn't really that bad, I can do math and all that, and this memory thing is more an annoyance to me than anything else. I like the big chip and the using my own chips idea. What really kills me is when there is a huge pile of chips in a pot of all colors and I am trying to figure out a proper bet size while not taking forever to make my play. And, in my rather limited live poker experiences, most people are not jerks, the usually nice people are one of the reasons I like live poker. But, when there is a jerk, it sucks. LOL. Thank you all for the constructive responses.

What really peeves me off is when they ask the dealer how much I have. Way too many dealers will say ‘he has ABOUT $xxx’.

1. As you note they are entitled to a clear view with the chips reasonably stacked, not in some weird castle shape. But they are not entitled to a count unless I have went all in.

2. If the dealer is going to wrongly give a count, they should count. Not make some wild guess. If dealer screws up the guess and the player relies on that incorrect info, one of us may be disadvantaged. Next thing is the floor is called, an argument breaks out and someone is peeved.

Dealer should only make sure chips, especially large value ones are in clear view and reasonably stacked. If they are in a pile, player should be instructed to neatly stack them. Same if he has built some elaborate, complicated design. Of course you, design builder, are free to give a count if you don’t want to tear down your castle.

But the reality is many, too many, dealers will just blurt out their WAG. I try to politely tell them after the hand that there is no entitilment to a count. But mist will swear they are correct and HAVE to give a count of the stack behind if asked.

Why not switch to limit? None of this will be an issue.

Thank you for your service.
1) As many people have said, you do not have to answer or count out your chips if asked (in most rooms). I generally just make sure my stacks are visible and say nothing, or "What you see."
2) In regard to keeping track of your own chips, if you keep them in standard stacks of 20, it's pretty easy for you to count or estimate them for your own info as often as needed.
3) You might consider either limit or PLO, as others have mentioned. PLO especially will give you lots of practice at keeping track of the pot, and you can always ask the dealer (which you can't in NL).
4) In general, the way people keep track of the pot is to multiply the number of bettors by the $ bets (and add the blinds and subtract the rake, if you need to be that precise). I.E., 5 players to the flop x $20/each = $100 pot.
If you play a lot, you will also get fairly good at estimating the size of the pot simply by looking at it (as long as there are no hidden big chips). Usually it's not critically important to get the precise, exact pot size in NL anyway.
4) In PLO it is definitely harder to remember your 4 cards than 2 in Holdem. I always look at my cards and repeat to myself (in my head!) what they are and relevant suit(s) before or as the flop is being dealt, while also trying to watch the other players react to the flop. (And sometimes I still check my hand later in the hand!)
5) But if you're in doubt, it is definitely better to check your cards than to misremember your hand and lose a big pot that way. For that matter, checking your cards consistently actually eliminates it as a tell. Usually people are checking their cards to make sure they have a straight, a flush or a draw. But if you always check them on every flop, or turn, or river, what does it give away? So I would suggest that you go ahead and check your cards a lot, and stop worrying about it.
Have fun playing poker, and I hope you achieve a full recovery.

Agree with everyone above, except I don't know why you wouldn't be permitted a pad and pencil to take notes on while playing. I'm not sure that violates any rule I'm aware of. And in between hands you can doodle or whatever.

If you're slowing the game down that might be an issue, but otherwise, write away as far as I'm concerned.

Having said that, being the guy who does this is going to point a giant arrow at you, so I would probably recommend not doing it if you can use one of the other tricks here to recalculate it instead.

Card protector.

Spreading the pot when requested is standard. Might be an issue if you continuously ask. But stacking is a no go. The only place I have seen dealers stack chips in the pot have been the horrible ones on cruise ships. But he do it because they don’t track the pot to know how much to rake. Never seen it done in a domestic casino.

Most important though thank you for your service.

Thanks again for all the constructive comments. Limit is not an option for me because the casino I go to almost never runs limit NLH games. I live four plus hours from the nearest casino, so I go when there is a WSOP circuit event three times a year. I play a couple of tournaments and some 1/2 cash. I have played very little online since Black Friday, but online spoils me as I don't have to keep track of the pot, etc. PLO is an option I will look into, although I think there is only one PLO tournament during the circuit. They do run PLO cash games there. It took me years to get halfway decent at NLE, so have always concentrated on that game versus learning another one, but maybe it is time to add it.

I have not read much of the responses here, but as far as I know, most places will let the dealer spread the pot for you, but it could get annoying if you asked every hand. I suggest you practice estimating pot sizes by looking at the pile as well as these suggestions:

1- I love the idea of using your own chips. Just use $1 chips and set them aside. One chip for every $10 in the pot for 1/2NL. In a tourney just use the lowest denom chip and one chip can equal 100 or 1,000 or 5,000 or whatever works best depending on blind level.

2- Instead of using your chips, buy one of these and do the same thing. One click equals $10 or whatever works best.

https://www.opentip.com/search.php?c...SABEgKv7vD_BwE

You can look at the rake to get an idea of how much has been taken to get an idea of pot size, at least early on in the hand.

As others have said, let as many floor staff know of your situation, and hopefully you find that they will accommodate for you. if you play at the same place, you will find more and more floor staff, dealers, and players will be fine with spreading the pot, ect. Even some honest players/opponents in the will tell you the approximate size of the pot. I know I would.

I sometimes have trouble distinguishing which cards are on board(5c can look a lot like the 6s for to my eyes from seat 7), so i just ask, and no one minds. Poker should be for everyone, and natural handicaps that give you an unfair disadvantage shouldnt be a barrier to play. so get to know people in the room, get them them to know you, and over time i think you will find you will be able to play with the same information as everyone else, which is only fair.

Ps i would stay well away from games that involve discarding cards. I dont see a way around that.

Pps screw the people that give you grief. they can get ****ed.

Love the responses here. And thank you for your service.

While I don't officially have OCD I always stack my chips so I can get a quick easy count.

In cash games it is usually stacks of 20. When I have more than ten chips of a color but less than 20 I look to make stacks of ten. In tournaments this occurs fairly frequently because of being short stacked and/or coloring up.

When I am really short I stack them in fives.

The thing is, in NL games it is crucial to know how many chips you have. I usually count my chips before every hand and look at it in terms of blinds. I do this because in tourneys my bet sizing changes based on effective stack size (especially pre-flop) and also because before the river I will be shoving rather than making a normal sized bet if my bet size would be > 33% of my stack. This last point means that it is important for me to know my remaining stack size on the flop and beyond.

Similarly with counting pots. I always keep track of the pot size. I like the using your chips to count idea but that may not be an option in tourneys (because you may not have enough chips to do it). The Abacus was awesome. But really I am with Dinesh on this. I see no reason not to bring a pencil and pad and just keep a cumulative count.

If anyone says anything just tell them you work for the FBI undercover. OK maybe not (impersonating an officer and all that). I typically go with the truth... In your position I would probably say "I am just keeping track of the pot size". No need to mention why. I don't see how anyone can object to that. Though it would be much more fun to hint that you are recording all of your hands for a future novel/movie.

I would think that nobody would say anything if you get proficient at it - so that when it is your turn to bet you can just look down and quickly figure out your bet sizing.

And lastly, most pots in tournaments you can tell the size based on the color of the chips. You can generally see all of the large denomination chips and add them up and the smaller ones I just estimate (like with black hundreds I count as many as I can which is usually close enough).

Bets of luck to you! [edit: I meant to say "Best of luck" to you but I am sticking with "Bets"...]

I like the attached picture and the idea of using an abacus as a card protector. It'd take some practice at home and you'd need to find one the right size for your purposes, but it's a novel idea that could work.

Other than that, I think the best idea is buying in with, and using oversized chips when you're in the pot. It may become a bit annoying to some players/dealers, but you're doing nothing wrong by using them. This would definitely help keep down the number of physical chips in the pots you're involved in, thus making it easier for you to keep track of the pot.

This would be a smaller amount of help to you, but when you're the bettor in a pot you could try to bet in increments that are easiest for you to keep track of. IE: betting 40 or 50 instead of numbers with a 5 at the end. Or when action gets larger bet in increments of 50 or 100 instead of 85/90/95 types of sizing. This too will often help keep the pot less cluttered with chips.

Just ask other players. Live poker isn't fun unless you're playing with the type of people who will tell you anyway. In Florida and Minnesota all the poker rooms I've tried no one would think twice.

Also keep your stacks in units of 20, or at least the same size of xx.

Thank you for your service! Maybe you could be upfront at your local cardroom and they can accommodate you by spreading pot or stacking like amount chips together, or by some other means. Good luck!