Quote:
Originally Posted by BDHarrison
Just to be clear, I assume we are talking about a player throwing in $1 to signify a call when facing a $500 bet and not an oversized chip being ruled as a call. No one dispute the latter while some people have problems with the former.
The basic reasoning for not liking an undersized 1-chip call rule is that it avoids any sort of ambiguity about whether the caller had a gross misunderstanding of the size of the bet being called.
If people like it because it speeds up the game, its not going to speed up a hand against me because I am in the habit of always verifying that it is a call before tabling my hand because I may play somewhere else where that isn't a rule and I prefer to be in the habit of acting in a way which holds up under various rule sets.
This post is pretty comprehensive but I'd point out one additional thing: almost everyone agrees that in some cases the "one chip call" or "undersized chip call" rule speeds up the game and in other cases it causes confusion. The main disagreement is how often and how much it speeds up yhe game versus how often and how much it causes confusion.
I'm firmly on the side that it causes more trouble than it's worth.
1. On a practical level, most people tank before making a call of that magnitude. So it's silly to tank for 30 seconds and then save half a second by throwing out one chip instead of a stack.
2. The heterogeneity of rules around yhe country make this rule an angleshooter's paradise. Someone playing where they know the rule is not enforced can easily angle someone who doesn't know the rule or doesn't know whether it's enforced.
3. Simply put, good players shouldn't often be calling with hands they think will win a huge percentage of the time. If you're calling with a 90% confidence that you're good, you should be raising.
4. It's not that hard to push chips forward. Unless you have tiny hands, you can easily push 3-5 stacks of 20 forward, and with basic practice push 10-15. Most bets will be well under 3 stacks.
I'd probably more in favor of the rule in two scenarios:
A. People throw out one chip and then immediately reach for the exact count. That is, their intent really is to save time, vs to be lazy.
B. People fastroll immediately afterwards, for example, someone shoves into you while you have the nuts. Again, in that limited scenario, I can readily buy the argument that one chip saves time.