Playing by the Rules In this column I am going to try to write a little bit about one of the things that I think is wrong with poker and the way the rules of poker are not always in the best interest of the game of poker. But first let me tell you what I think is the worst thing that has happened to the United States of America-since the revolutionary war!
I think we have the best system of government that has ever been conceived by the minds of men. Sadly, sometimes it seems that we have very bad administrators of our government, but the system is the best in the world today and in the total history of mankind. At the age of seventeen I did volunteer to fight in World War II and later in the Korean War to protect and defend the USA and our democratic form of government.
You may have heard of another of our Oklahoma boys-Will Rogers-who once said, "Neither man nor beast is safe, when the legislature is in session." Will went on to say "We have enough laws on the books to last us for quite a spell, so it would just be better if they would shut up and come on home for a while."
Now, I said all of that to tell you-THE WORST THING THAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE UNTIED SATES SINCE THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR! And it's Air Conditioning! Years ago when it got hot in Washington DC, the old boys and girls in the congress would get too hot to stay there and talk, change the laws and whatever! So they would shut up and come home and sit under a Magnolia tree, cool off and drink a Mint Julep, but with the advent of AIR CONDITIONING, they just stay up there in Washington and legislate the year round.
Think about it-would President Clinton have been interested in Monica if his office had not been air conditioned? It would have been too hot for those carryings on!
Here, in my opinion, then, is one of the worst rules in poker! It is the STRING BET RULE !!! In over seventy years of playing poker, I have never seen this rule help the game of poker. I have only seen it hurt the game, and it always hurts the novice or unskilled poker player, causing arguments, delays and confusion.
Sure, I understand the defense of the rule-that the poker player is trying to get a read on his opponent-and pick up a tell-as to how much he should bet! But this is a car load of nonsense! Only the novice gets called on this rule-he cuts his chips to make the raise-everyone knows that he is going to raise-he is not studying the other players. Most of the time he just picks up half of his chips and then reaches back to get the other chips to make the raise. The dealer knows he is trying to raise-the players all know that he is going to raise-only the novice does not know the rule.
If you watch poker television-just a little-you will see how the expert players get their reads, tells or information. They will study, select their bets, arrange their chips, count their chips and the opponents chips, or ask him how many he has, etc. Then they will say raise and put the chips in as they may wish to. Or they will pick up a great pile of chips in their hand-and then put their hand out into the betting area and drop the chips a few at a time, and then, because they have a large amount of chips in their hand, they are permitted to put in a few or a lot of the chips into the pot to try to get all the information they can from their opponent before they compete their betting action.
Years ago, Billie O (now playing in the big game upstairs), who was the card room manager of many card rooms, drew a line on the table in front of all the players. All the chips that the player had in his hand when he crossed that line had to be his bet.
Let's fix the string bet rule, to read: when the player is betting- in continuous action-if the next player to act has not thrown his hand away, the novice may complete his bet. Or warn him once and explain the rule to him, but let him complete the bet the first time he makes two moves to his chips, and/or that the string bet may only be called by the next player to act.
Until next time, remember to STAY LUCKY!!!
