how long is too long??

Lamb_of_john

I was playing at Bristol last night and it got a bit frustrating. Some of the people at my table were taking so incredibly long it seemed to make their decisions. spending almost 30 seconds each time to decide wheather to just call, fold or raise. and usually just fold!!

heres the thing though, i dont mind when people need some time to make a decision. take your time, i do it sometimes. but holy crap man, how is anyone supposed to actually play when there are only 3 hands each blind??

so heres the thing guys, how long is too long.

have you ever just been purposely slow just to annoy other players??

thanks
Johnny

FrogKing

Ive seen this alot online, but live never. Maybe when i play with a bunch of newby but never in regular game.

What i do with newby, is i tell them (gently) to think about what there gonna do during the other players turn. Well it actually makes sense to prepare in advance. Just tell them that you can read them better when they take there time. Then glare at them when there up and they will act faster.

stpboy

I asked your ex-girlfriend this same question and she said, "After being with John, anything over 2 inches is fine".  

No seriously though.  I have that very same pet peeve when playing, of course it takes me all of about 5 seconds to lay down AQ to a big raise, so most of my decisions are easy.  When playing with new players and players that overvalue cards a lot you will see this.  Also, I believe a lot of the time players deliberately take the same amount of time in making semi-hard decisions.  I think this is a good habit to get into but yes, annoying.  Perhaps we both need some more patience or perhaps TD's should give each player a standard  amount of time before being put on the clock.  Good Q John.

stp

whiterabbit

It's pretty easy to make quick decisions preflop, but for the most part, don't you think you always need a few moments after flop to decide. At this point, you can do so many different things and you're also trying to figure out what hands you're up against.

Preroller

Well, I pretty much know what im going to do, only taking a bit of time on tough decisions. Also, since you don't know what they are holding, they may very well have a tough choice. Plus, if I had the nuts and someone is deciding to call or not, hey, I'll give you all the time possible to make that call!

As an aside, I don't look @ my cards till its my turn, so I have to take a bit of time when it comes to me, but thats just my strategy.

Also, there is a move called the 'thoughtful check', I dont do it to annoy, just to try and put a little trickery into play.

but yes, anything longer then a minute or so, and people would be justified in wanting them to hurry up.

Wolffhound

I have to assume this happened as the blinds got bigger etc...and guys where trying to decide whether to end their night on K3 or wait...

Have I ever been purposely slow to annoy- No, never.  Annoying people comes naturally to me, i don't need my play to make it worse.

I would think that with the group at least locally (Park St, BSC and WPC) a couple of good natured jabs or even a loud JC would get the point across.

If someone pointed it out to me, or questioned me on being slow,  I don't think I'd be tossing chips at him or anything, I'd make a note of it and try to correct it.

Big E

I think everyone should do what I did last night at Bristol (when I had 275 left and the blinds were 150/300, in BB of course)

Don't even look at your cards let 'em sit until the river, then turn over the miracle straight and quadruple up!!!!!

I guess the pots would be small with everyone checking down but hey the hands would be smoking fast!!!!!

p.s. Shopsy, you should have folded to my all-in, then my comeback would have been unstoppable!!!

Preroller

Also, not everyone is sooo aweosme @ poker like you John.

Unknown

The TD should set some guide lines to time it takes.  I know in pro events a player can ask the tournament director for a clock on a player.  The question I guess is how long would the clock be.  In a 2 HR blind pro event a 1 min clock is valid but in the events that are run around here with 20min or 30 min blinds what clock time do you use?  In the GMSOP that I plan to start with w/30 min blinds a person would have (2) 15 sec clocks per round which on top of a min or so b4 someone calls a clock and  should be plenty of time to decide.  Any further delays will cause hands to be folded.  With a dealer controling the table I am sure action should move a bit smoother also.

Ercules

Yeah, I know what you mean.

I was playing last nigt as well and during the rebuy period the longest pause between decisions was about 10 seconds. The higher the blinds the longer someone will think about the decision.

I was fairly short stacked by the time the blinds got to 300 -600 which made me all in on the first decent hand because I wouldn't survive the next blind level. So it was frustrating when my table slowed right down and in effect shortened the round. However, as I said I don't think anyone was doing it intentionally and if I thought they were I would call for the clock or talk to the TD about it.

Personally, I've gotten used to the online action and tend to play very fast, if anything I think I should slow down a little more.

Big E

if anything I think I should slow down a little more.

My wife wishes I'd slow down too Eric.....not sure what she's implying?

Ercules

Big E wrote:

My wife wishes I'd slow down too Eric.....not sure what she's implying?

A phrase I have heard from my own wife all to often........

Zithal

The most important thing for players to realize is that these are friendly home games. You can't possibly have that tough a decision to make *every* hand.

Play curtiously and keep the game going. Nothing worse that being on a short stack, the level is ticking away and watching a player in MP, after he's been folded to, take 30-40 seconds to decide that, he too, will also fold.

Lamb_of_john

you find that annoying too eh rob??

it's like they are trying to make you sweat it out. trying to intimidate..........

ha

johnny

Iron

I'm inclined to be understanding when it is a truly difficult situation/decision, or when it's an all in or close to all in situation involved. Happens a lot at the last stages where people are relatively short stacked and have to decide if they want to call the desperate looking all in move preflop with a mediocre holding.

One thing I hate though is the people who have learned from televised poker to "fluff and puff" whenever they are caught bluffiing... pretending always they have a tough decision when EVERYONE at the table KNOWS they are going to lay it down. Yes, you saw them do it on tv but my home game is not a televised $1M prize pool event. The blinds are moving up much more quickly... get on with it.

roketinpoket

This might add a different perspective but have you ever folded superfast so that you could get your small blind in at the cheaper rate? In other words have you folded a speculative hand as the big blind with only one caller just so you could post your small blind just before the rates go up?

In truth I generally make my decisions within 5-10 seconds, but the exceptions are when I have to make pot odds calculations + reading what I believe others behind me will do.

Big E

Wolffhound wrote:

Have I ever been purposely slow to annoy- No, never.  Annoying people comes naturally to me, i don't need my play to make it worse.

ROFLMAO....it's funny....cause it's true 

Unknown

On the internet time is usually not a factor, 30 seconds is not a long decision, but in a real game it all depends. It all depends on the cards and the raise's or calls if any. The speed with which some one acts can tell you an increadbible amount about the cards in their hands. The important thing to remember is the longer they take to act the more time you have to figure out how to play against them. Dont get annoyed by it use it to your advantage, being annoyed will only throw off your game! Its been fun hope I could help in someway.

stoneskn

is it goint to matter how long is *too* long? Will they "speed" up their play just for you? Poker is about patience, and I believe this is no exception.