[bav]

[ QUOTE ]
...if you reach out with chips to the location where most people put there bets, and start breaking down chips --- its reasonable for them to believe that you are betting. And this is true regardless of where your cards are located or whether there is a betting line.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes. When you reach out with chips, you're betting, not counting. But when you happen to have your cards tucked against the rail, you should not automatically have ANY movement of ANY chip become a bet because it's happening in front of your cards. And that's basically what was ruled. Let's try some ASCII artwork:

OOOOO <-5 stacks of 20 chips
OOOOO <-5 stacks of chips
OOOOOHH <-5 stacks and his cards
---------- <-Rail

The guy picked up a stack of chips, moved 'em over and broke 'em down into 4 stacks of 5, thus:

OOOO <-4 stacks of 20 chips
OOOOOoooo <-5 stacks of 20 and 4 stacks of 5
OOOOOHH <-Chips and cards
---------- <-Rail

And that was ruled a bet. Even though the chips he was counting were behind the frontmost chips in his stacks. I was displeased with this ruling and tried to point out the stupidity of this by asking why the 200K in chips in front of the cards in his stacks weren't part of the bet, too. I got one of those "don't you dare" looks from the floor so I shut up. I guess if the guy had picked up a stack of 20 chips from his stacks and set it right back down where it started, that woulda been a bet, too. It's absurd.