What exactly does "time" mean?

[Rick Nebiolo]

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It's also to prevent problems when people start acting after you by accident

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This is precisely the reason why people say "time." AFAIK, it goes back to the original Gardena card rooms, and is insurance against people angleshooting you by mucking their hands out of turn before you have a chance to act, and thus killing your action. Many of the games used to be player-dealt (!), and with no professional center dealer to keep things in line and a bunch of rough characters, all sorts of things are possible.

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In Gardena the little old lady poker players would even shout "time" when reaching into their handbags to pay a cashier at the grocery store.

~ Rick