In most time rake games, if you are in the SB or button when the new dealer comes in, you can play your SB and button for free and then leave without paying time for the following half hour.

This came up yesterday....

When the new dealer came in, I was on the button. The table wanted to play a time/bomb pot. Everyone is in for $50 blind and we start playing on the flop. Time rake is $8/pp

Am I allowed to play the time pot by putting my $50 in, and in the event that I lose the pot, I am still rebated back my $8, instead of it going to either the house or the player that won the pot? If not, whom should it go to...the house or the player that won? Would it be different if I won the time pot?

I’ve never heard of playing your blinds/button w/o paying time. Not to say it doesn’t exist, but maybe it’s not so universal as you think?


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The player who pays the rake for the table gets the rebate. By playing the bomb pot you're agreeing to pay time for the table, so you should be willing to either pay it then leave or stay and play for another half hour. Probably best to just not play it.

I've never heard of being able to play through to your button without paying time.

I have heard of it, some/many rooms offer it.

I think you either have to postpone the bomb pot now (they can run it in 2 hands and collect time when you leave if the premise allows, or else one of the other players can put time up now and get repaid by the bomb winner in 2 hands) or opt into it with no disclaimers and pay time if you win (and perhaps reevaluate whether you will actually leave).

You say the table wanted to play a time pot for this hand, but everyone at the table should have to agree for that to happen. It makes no sense for you to agree to that. It also is the worst position for you to play a "bomb pot", as you get no benefit from being the button.

How is being on the button not an advantage?

I thought you meant that everyone was putting in $50 and then just running out the cards. I guess you meant that was only for the preflop action though, and that post flop would play as usual. In that case, the button would still have an advantage, but not as big an advantage as in a normal pot.

I would say in a perfect would if you win the pot you don’t post the time and they figure out what they’d do to pay it (next hand another bomb pot or card for it). Rebating a player is never going to work as well IMO. You would have to say your out for time prior to the hand for it to work obviously though. In actuality it’s one of those things since neither of these things are in the rules and someone always going to object and angle you just either eat the money or don’t play the hand. You do anything else you look like an angler or get the floor to say bomb pots or time can’t be paid or you can’t play a hand and not pay time etc like that anymore.

The issue is that, in general, the dealer has to collect time before dealing the hand, so the dealer takes the whole table's time (maybe less his $8, since he tells the dealer he is only playing to his button) out of the bomb pot right away, before you know who won the hand, so there's no way for him to win and not pay, unless the dealer gives him a "refund", which should not ever happen once it is collected.

Also never heard of playing button but not paying time. I thought it was pretty universal nowadays when the dealer sits everyone pays.

In this situation house should collect 8 less for time from the pot. But you still owe 50.

That highly depends on stack sizes and players. In a $50 bomb pot at 2/5 with a $500 cap, the advantage is comparatively low. At 10/20 with stacks of $5k+ and a couple players who feel committed to pots once they have money invested, the positional advantage is solid.

I think everybody owes $50 and the winner gets the $8 rebate. If a player doesn’t want to play the time pot, it’s obviously off. But if you are not planning on paying the next time and don’t want to put in $50, you should just sit out the hand out of courtesy.

Back in the day (the late 90s) a rule in some rooms was if there was no list you could play through your button if you had paid the BB.

i know this was the case in time games at commerce as of a few years ago. at aria they'll let you play your button. at borgata they won't.

As described you should be sitting out this hand.

As people have said this rule is room to room, sometimes even floor to floor, so you def should have checked before the hand with the house. If this is indeed the rule, then you should have made it clear to the other players that you were out of the time pot, I mean its not that hard to say "I'm leaving after the BTN, I'm out of the time flop." If they question it just say you are taking care of your own time...