[psandman]

The first time I played poker in a casino there was a betting line, I remember very vividly that a player reached out over the line with chips and tapped the table like a check. He was required to bet (this was a limit game but it might have been spread limit 1-4-8-8). At the time I felt like the line was good thing, I thought I was being protected from players doing dishonest things (like pretend to bet but actually check).

Over time I have learned to despise the lines. They become the tools of nits. "That chip didn't go over the line" or people playing games pushing their chips up to the line but not going over. I happened to be at Palace Station on the morning that they had just put in new felts with the betting lines (I'm not a regular there but picked this up from the converstaion) before the game got started the local nits were actually debating whether a chip had to cross the inside plane of the line or the outside plane of the line before it was a bet.

Today I would prefer that there not be a betting line.