Live poker has always held a certain characteristic appeal, especially as poker players practice, create and brand their own poker table ‘persona’s.
For instance, there are players that absolutely never speak at the poker table. When they raise they just shove some chips into the middle, carving them out of their stack with a look of stone on their faces before placing them in the betting area of the table.
Others talk incessantly. Take Daniel Negreanu for instance. One of the worlds most high profile ‘Chatterbox Poker Profiles’. He’s always fishing for information, bantering, and asking questions. Most of the time, all of this chit chat leads Negreanu in the right direction. He uses the information he gathers, combines with the second thoughts he takes on the his actions to make some very correct decisions in some very hard to read positions.
Dealers are commonly unimpressed however by our antics at the poker table. Last year at Spirit Mountain Casino in Oregon, a young lady was calling bets, chasing her hand down the river, much like a conoer with no paddles, floating along a certain creek.
She checked timidly, when her opponent, a cocky young fellow, a bit on the hyper side said “Check This”, and slammed a small stack of chips onto the table. The dealer, having heard the word check come out of the lads mouth, went with that.
The floor was called, and the check stood, you have to beware of the words you use when you play poker. Check is not something you should say when you raise.
However, what can be said to signify a raise?
Daniel Negreanu told Freddy Deeb “I’m going to pound you back”. Which Deeb didn’t consider proper notification of an impending raise during the World Series of Poker in Europe this year.
After telling Deeb he intended to “Pound him back” Negreanu used two hands to make his raise, one to place his call on the table, and about .25 seconds later the other hand to bump it up a notch. That’s one hand making a call, and the other making the raise, within a quarter of a second of each other. If no raise is declared prior to this action, that’s a string raise as plain as day, even having occurred in less than a second.
Deeb tells the dealer that it’s a string raise, and the floor was called. The reason behind the complaint was Danny N’s method of declaration. He didn’t say raise. Cut and dried poker, with predetermined phrases, removing all confusion and all personality. Doesn’t this sound something akin to online poker?
What do you think about the ruling? Rumore is, Deeb’s got something to say about it, and he’ll be saying it on the 2+2 pokercast.
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i saw that episode of WSOP Europe and the floor did not agree with Deeb. In your article you state the floor agreed with Deeb. By the way, I totally agree with Deeb and "Im going to pound you back" does not declare a raise. Negreanu knows that and when he recapped the action to the floor, his version was that he said "im going to pound it up". I think Daniel knew if he said back instead of up the floor would rule against him, so he lied!
I just saw it. Wasn't Freddy Deeb. Shawn or Sean Deeb. I think the floor was wrong.