blonde poker forum

Probably for answering after the WSOP when you have more time Dave, but I see in Barney Boatman's account of the Trumper/Greenstein hand on Simon's blog that you are an advocate of a set thinking time to be established (as per online speed poker) for every decison to be made during a hand.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this, and how much of a problem you see in the big tournaments you play with dwells/stalling etc. I am not asking you specifically to refer to events in Trumper/Greenstein, where I think there is nothing much left to discuss

I have often needed 2 or 3 minutes to make a decision, to go over the betting and try to figure out why my opponent played the hand the way he did, this dosnt mean I always come to the right conclusion, but at least I have had the chance to marshal my thoughts

conversely, if I already know I hold the best hand I dont want to make it obvious by acting immediately

IMHO there is no need to impose a strict time limit, the system of allowing fellow players to call for the clock seems to work very well, they are in the best position to judge weather i player is abusing this privalege or not

I know some venues, ie Notts Gala, have a standard 2 min thinking time automaticaly imposed by the dealer but I personaly find this intrusive, if the other players know Im not taking liberties by doing it every other hand and are happy to let me think, why should anyone else interfere?

I know this question was aimed at Dave, Im sorry for sticking my two cents in

I tend to agree. A fixed time limit would be so tricky to impose. Does it mean every time that a player pauses a clock goes on him?

In my opinion its just not practical. Part of poker is taking your time to make a decision... its all part of the game. Staring someone down for a few minutes to work out if they are bluffing or even if its just to make them think twice before making a move next time. I do think that some players do take too much time sometimes when it is clearly obvious they are going to pass.

Also you need time if you are not a brilliant mathamatician to work out the pot odds/implied odds of making a call.

One thing that does irk me is when you are nearing the bubble of a big tournament. Nearly everyone takes a long time over every decision.... especially the short stacks who just dwell for a few minutes then muck their cards. Not sure how you can get around that though.....

As a mainly online player the odd live tournament I play in I still make my decisions very quickly and when I watch on tv
I am wondering what they are sitting there thinking about, online your thinking tends to get done later with self
analysis.

I think when I am playing live I need to try and slow down and think more on key decisions.