pot size is five chips
player A puts out twenty chips
player B says pot

where is the action?

does player A automatically called player B raise because his twenty chips are out there?

or is it back on player A to decide whether to call player B raise?

Action is on A.
There's no such thing as an "automatic" call.

All rule books I've seen say bet sizes should be corrected if it's still on the same round.

A bet 5. B bet 20. Action is on A.

I'd put this in the same category of when a player gets change and doesn't pull it back in a timely fashion. It can be distracting, but is not any sort of binding action.

Pot size is 5 (let's say dollars rather than chips, since chips could have any value). I'm assuming you mean the pot is 5 from a previous street, not that the current bet to player A is 5 during PF.

Player A puts out 20, but his max pot size bet is 5. So 15 should be returned to him.

Player B says pot. The current bet is 5, and previous pot was 5, so his bet is 5+5+5+15 = 30.

Action is now on the next player (if it's heads up, action is now back on A).

Caveat: when heads up, if player B wants to allow player A to overbet the pot, in some rooms that is allowed. so player A bets 20, and player B may now accept that action and bet pot which is 5+20+20+45 = 90.

Ive noticed that some very knowledgeable plo players think its a very humorous thing to put out chips way in excess of the allowable pot bet. Ive had players put out 8 black chips ($800) when the pot is $100 dollars. They know I will announce the correct bet size, but just think its funny.

I think this is incorrect. The first two 5s are in the pot so Player B's total bet is 20 (a raise of 15), not 30.

Yep. 5 to call, 15 for the raise for a total bet of $20. 30 is the pot size after the raise.

I think the ruling should be pretty straightforward unless the room uses an action offered and accepted rule in HU pots, like dinesh noted.

Derp, you guys are right. Editing errors on my part when I rewrote what I had said.

There are some places where "action offered and accepted" is the rule. If in such a place AND A&B are heads up, then B has accepted the action of 20 from A, and the pot bet is calculated. There was 5 in the pot, 20 bet, 20 called = 45 in pot now. The raise is 45 on top of the 20 (called) so B is putting a total of $65 and it's $45 to A (who has already bet $20, even though it was over pot).


The characters at the 2-2 PLO game were teasing the dealer about making bets in weird increments, not over betting.

Yes, the not so subtle over-bet that is supposed to either say 'I'm serious about this hand' or 'Let's just GII right now' (which may be the same thing).

As shown, by rule, Player A is restricted to 5 chips and Player B is restricted to 20 chips with action back on Player A. GL