Saturday, December 10, 2016

Slow Play Controversy



Last night at the Legion I got involved in a controversy regarding slow play.  There is a regular there who is by far and away the slowest player in our game.  He will routinely agonize and Hollywood before acting on his hand.  He really slows the game down and I hate, hate, hate having him at my table.  When I deal, my attitude is that I want to deal as many hands as possible to the table.  It is a turbo tournament and if fewer hands are dealt then you are at a disadvantage to another table.

So, here is the situation.  There is probably a minute left on the clock before the first break when a shortstack player on the button shoves (K/10).  It is folded to the cutoff, our annoying slow player (as I am opposed to writing critical pieces using actual names, I will call this player "Darren") who absolutely tanks (he has limped in).  This goes on as he looks at the clock, letting the time run down so we will be unable to play another hand before the break, then finally calls....with Q/Q!!!!  Unbelievable.  The flop contains a queen, but also a jack, so our hero has the open ender.  The turn brings a 9, making him a straight, and the river brings an ace making a bigger straight.  Karma is a bitch, is it not?

After the hand is over the dealer takes "Darren" to task about his slow play, and he admits that he did not want to play another hand before the break (?????).  The dealer points out that QQ is a snap call situation (heads up with a shorter stack).  The discussion goes on for a few minutes, we chip up the tables and I talk to the dealer briefly about the hand.  He asks me if I would say something to the player which I am more than happy to do.  I also talk to the other players and ask them to chime in as well (they do not).   When we return we have a pretty nasty discussion involving slow play and karma as well.  The table breaks up soon after and thankfully he is assigned to a different table.

What is your take on this?  All the players agreed that this was a major dick play.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...


Think I know this "Darren" fella and when dealing I have called the clock on him more than once. This is what the dealer should have done or another player.


7 Dewey said...

I don't know if you've watched the Main Event of the WSOP on TV but this reminds me of a player that was constantly slow and annoying. I think at least half his reasoning was to tilt people and by golly it sure worked. I don't know about your guy trying to put people on tilt, but what he did in this specific situation was stupid and ridiculous. I would have given him a piece of my mind for sure. The game needs to speed up not slow down and why the heck wouldn't he want to play another hand before the break? Nonsense. I hope you and the other players keep on him about this.