Players talking during hand, what is my remedy

[Willy Gee]

Until this weekend I had never played no limit hold ‘em in a casino. The wife and I traveled to the Akwesasne Mohawk casino in upstate New York, where they have a $1/$2 no limit game with a $40 minimum buy in. I decided to play a short stack and buy in for $40.

I play two hands (both AK) during the first two hours and have a $48 stack. I then find myself with Kc Kd in the small blind. The under-the-gone player had called, and the button raised to six. I re-raise to fifteen. Under-the-gun calls as does button.

The flop comes Qd Jh 6s.

I move all in. Under-the-gun has a pained expression, and is considering his options. The button then announces that he will be calling me. Under-the-gun says, “If you’re calling, I’m calling.” They both call.

I complain, and the manager agrees that they should not have been speaking with each other prior to acting, but says there is nothing she can do other than tell them not to do it again.

I, of course, lose the hand to runner, runner

Was the manager’s ruling correct?

[DayTripping]

I don't see what else the manager could have done. Have the winning player give you your money back?

[swede123]

Since it's not a tourney there really is not penalty that can be imposed on these clowns. You do sound a bit bitter about the outcome of the hand, but honestly now, it sounds like you had your money in the middle being the big favorite, so shouldn't you be happy about two callers?

Swede

[Willy Gee]

Let me add one other thing. I objected before the dealer dealt the turn card, and the dealer then called the manager. The manager ruled that the hand could proceed to the turn with both of these guys still in. It doesn't seem fair that they were allowed to give each other odds to call. Perhaps one of them should have forfeited his hand. I don't know. That's why I'm asking.

[URAISEMEIRAISEU]

Kick the button in the nuts.

[DayTripping]

Not to sound like a jerk, but if you had won the hand would you be making an issue of this?

The point is that there are moron players who do this kind of stuff all the time. If it's a constant thing where two guys are constantly telegraphing their action to eachother then the floor should and often will take action. But it seems like this was an isolated incident. Nothing can be done about it.

[budman]

I don't think there is much that the floor can do beyond what she did. What if the middle player decided to fold because the other player was calling? What if the third player was lying?

No matter what, when there are more than two players in a hand they should not be talking about the hand while it is playing out. If they are doing it, then the floor must warn them not to and take action if it continues.

By the way, if you spent more time at this casino I bet you could have taken advantage of their behavior.

[undathesea]

Remedy... buy-in for more than 40 dollars. If you would have gone all-in for 100... your villain probably would have dropped his cards right there.

Why short stack yourself? You can't run anyone out of the pot and if you have cards, you're just begging for someone to draw out on you.

[gmr31]

These guys are idiots, but what can you do? They were warned, idiots do this all the time at the table. It's not fair to you, but then again poker isn't fair. If you dont mind me asking, what did you lose to? Runner, runner sounds like a horrible call! People make bad calls all the time, and still win!

[yasher]

OP,

I'd rebuy for the table max and be glad I have people calling my all-ins needing to catch runner runner to win.

Afaik, there's nothing the floor can do. If this behavior continues, you can bring it up to the floor again, but this is the kind of stuff you see at low limit games all the time... and the talking is half the fun. Lastly... if the button had said, "I'm calling," and folded, would you still be in a tiff? If not, you're being results oriented. Stop it.

undathesea,

Buying in short stacked at an NL game is apparently a strategy that works pretty well for people. I don't play much cash NL, so I don't know much about this, but I believe it stems from Ed Miller's Getting Started in Holdem

-- yasher