Greetings,

I played my first live poker game last night (a satelite to a local wsop event).

Before this i had only played online, the thing that really tilted me is that people took very long to make decisions. Even pre-flop certain players took forever and they were not even old guys, it looked very intentional to me.

Do i have the right to call the clock on these people instantly every hand when i know they are just gonna tank all the time? it looked like they were trying to turn it into a hyper structure.

thanks for the feedback.

Yes.

Should you? Probably not. Even when its justified, calling the clock is looked down upon. If you do it on more than one person, the table--including the dealer--- will turn against you. Do it frequently enough and the floor will start hating you too and probably eliminate your ability to do so.

A player must be given a reasonable amount of time to act before the clock is called. This usually means at least a minute. If you are having an issue with a certain player chronically tanking, you can talk to the TD, off the table, and ask him to observe a bit.

How long are you talking? If it is something 10 to 15 seconds (which is a very long time, and very frustrating), there is nothing really that can be done. Do not let it tilt you.

You missed the last part of this sentence, where he wants to call the clock instantly. No, you cannot do this, except in the most extreme circumstances, and that is usually after speaking with the TD first. A player has to be given a reasonable amount of time to act.

I'll wait for OP to return and let us know what they consider to be a "very long" time before weighing in on whether it was 'unreasonable.' Some people are simply methodical. Since this was a satellite, it likely was not a conscious effort being made to avoid timing tells, but if OP was being tilted in a satellite, just wait until they hit an actual tournament...or worse, cash games (which they REALLY won't like since some actually have people who enjoy the social aspect of the game).

Hey guys, thanks for the replies.

They took around 1.5 - 2 mins preflop in a 8 handed game.

some flop decisions took upto 5 mins.

i didn't count river decisions because i can understand them being pretty difficult sometimes.

also the part i was wondering about is if i can call a clock right away, the second they look at their hand?

I seriously doubt you were routinely seeing delays of that magnitude. Even the worst of the tournament dealers I have had through the years put that sort of delay in check after a few instances of it occurring.

Oh, and if you called the clock after barely a minute, I would likely use the ENTIRETY of the minute that was then afforded just to spite you...

Not discussed yet in the thread is what levels this was occurring at and whether decisioning took into account player tendencies that had pretty much already shown themselves.

All in all, however, it sounds as though OP is not cut out for live poker...

blind levels were 20 mins, which i realised is pretty fast live with a bunch of tankers, and yeah i just don't think live poker is it for me. I spoke with staff yesterday and they informed me that i cannot call clocks right away and it would be considered harassment.

The worst part is that i did win a seat to the event, so i will have to get my mentality fixed.

Are you absolutely sure of your times? Consistent tanking preflop of greater than 1 minute is unusual. Taking occasionally up to 5 minutes is very unusual. Talk to the TD off the table and have him come observe. If it is as you say, frequent 2 minute tanking, occasional 5 minute tanking, all preflop, this is abusive and not at all normal.

This is not a standard feature of live MTT poker. I am guessing it was more pronounced because of the fact that it was a satellite, and people were trying to coast to the bubble. In normal live MTT play, a consistent preflop delay of 6 to 15 seconds is considered annoying. A consistent delay of 1 minute would be unbearable, and would definitely spur me to say something.

If they are tanking chronically, call clock right at a minute. There are only a small number of preflop decisions that require more than 10 seconds to decide.

With a local club using time cards instead of rake, it is interesting to watch how few players actually have a clue about passage of time. Almost EVERY SINGLE TIME that it was time for the next time card to be put out, there was the incessant whining of 'they are shorting us." This despite the fact that they all had watches and had not even bothered to look at what time it was when the last call for cards had occurred. If anything, there were more instances of going 35 minutes before calling for the cards...