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Acting in turn on the river if you said "for sure I am calling" to get a reaction would that that be ruled a call? Mainly looking for feedback from dealers.

What about slag "for sure going to look you up"?

If you said "for sure I am calling" out of turn would you be committed to a call?

Toby Booth
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paparazzo
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  • It isn't your turn to act... pretty sure there are some videos of Jamie Gold where he did something like this. –  Jul 02 '17 at 04:10
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    Funny that you mention Jamie Gold, because of him there is a rule, which is also called the Jamie Gold Rule. I'll post an answer later today when I get a chance as I have had a few situations of this, particularly when I was dealing in the WSOP but other places too. – Grinch91 Jul 02 '17 at 11:02

1 Answers1

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So this really depends on the number of players in a hand. Ultimately the outcome will be the same but the number of players in the hand determines if a penalty will be applied or not.

Lets just get the easy, no questions about it part done, if there are more than two players in the hand, under the industrial standard poker tournament rules (TDA or WSOP) a player talking like the above example of "For sure I am calling" is speech play which is not allowed unless in heads-up. Some places don't even allow it in heads-up. Now this applies to talking out of turn, the player can say "for sure I am calling" if action is on them. A penalty, or at the very least a warning will be given if it's not their turn to act and they say something like the example given, as it can potentially end up effecting the other players decision.

So on to would it be binding as a call, absolutely it would, if the player was next to act or action hasn't changed.

  1. So let's say Player A raises, Player B says "For sure I am calling", this is binding.
  2. Let's say action is on Player A, they haven't raised but look like they are going to raise, before they act Player B says "For sure I am calling", this is binding. I would also give Player B a warning or a floor call if they've done it before as Player A hasn't finished their turn.
  3. Let's say Player A raises, Player B is thinking, and before action is on Player C, Player C says "For sure I am calling". In this case this would be binding if Player B calls, or folds. It would not be binding if Player B raises as the action has changed. Player C would also get a warning or a floor call if they've done this before.

Basically if you says "I am calling" in any shape or form, as long as the action doesn't change it's binding. You need to be extremely careful as a player when saying any sentence with the word "call" in it, often players and dealers can mishear and just hear the word call, so you might be saying "Should I call?" and people will just hear call.

An extra little tidbit that you may see, if the player says something like "For sure I am calling I have XX", their hand is dead. No question about it. You can say things that are not true about your hand but you cannot say your hand before showdown.

Grinch91
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