Walkers!

I wanted to give you my view on "walkers" this writing. You would have to play a few times in the public poker arena to know what that term means. A "walker" is a player who is not playing at the table, but his chips are sitting there. Of course you can leave and eat, make a call, go to restroom, etc. That's not a "walker" unless the player does it chronically. I would like to determine a fair way to not really penalize a player away from the table, but to curb walking, and players who lack the respect to keep a game going.
I suggested once that a procedure be added to cardrooms that the buttons for missing players are disbursed by floorpersons. Normally you would get 1 hour and 15 minutes for a maximum break from a poker table if you went at the proper time. This should only happen once per session. Now if you play one hand with an incoming dealer and go eat, or whatever (that should be the only reason to leave a poker game for a long period), you would get a button in a half hour. Some cardrooms have 20 minute dealer pushes to their rotations, so you can figure. Thats when a floorman could give out a CHARGE BUTTON in fifteen minutes after ecieveing first button. The floorman would come over and take, like, $3.00 of the players stack and toss it to center of table for dealer tp drop. Fifteen minutes later, another CHARGE BUTTON, and the same. That's one hour so far. The player then might get another fifteen minutes, and is picked up, and placed at the top of the list for fifteen minutes.
I have seen so many games break up because of an intial "walker" or two, and then pissed-off players refusing to play short, or just picking up. You can't blame someone who sits with an intention to play poker, and everyones lobbying around. It doesn't make any sense to lockup a seat and then not play poker! That would be like buying seats at Dodger Stadium, then going down to the hotdog stand and doing what the heck ever... heh!
The above plan is just a rough idea, alterations to accomodate cardroom size/amount customers, etc. can be made. But its not as shocking as you'd think. How far back do you have to go to say in your mind that walking up to a hold'em table and having to post a blind to start play would have sounded ludirous? PENALIZE WALKERS!!!!!!

A few words about Stu Ungar. To quote Mike Sexton the day after he and others buried Stu, "We have lost our greatest gladiator!!." Stu's accomplishments will be tough to see surpassed in our lifetimes. He had 10 no limit hold'em titles in which the buyin was at least $5,000. T.J. Clothier and Johnny Chan have only 5. He is the only player to win both the World Series of Poker Championship and the Amarillo Slims Super Bowl of Poker - AND....
HE WON THEM THREE TIMES EACH!
I do forgive Stu for destroying his genius self.
What's halirious, though, is the new dealers, and some old, still the same, both parties never dealt to the "greatest player to ever grace the felt", say how terrible Stu was to deal to. Amazing... not to give an icon like Stu Ungar the decent respect to hold back an opinion unless you've had the honor of dealing to him. RazzO
razzo@pokerworld.com

A NIGHT OF NEWBIES

Hi, it's Razzo. I recently experienced this.

I was dealing a $4.-$8. Texas hold'em game. This player was new to the concept of the game, I could tell. It was on him and it was $4. to call, so he throws in $8., and I say raise. He doesn't say anything... until a player speaks up and asks him, "You didnt want to raise, did you?" He kind of shakes his head no. Player says words to the effect of: "Oh, he just means to call..!", like he had been told the structure/procedure. I say, "...sorry.. , he raised the pot...!

Action speaks...!" Player that pointed out the possible unintentional raise says my judgement was wrong and that I had made my "own decision." I did use judgement in this case. I felt that the player could easily be taking a shot.. although I don't believe he was, by playing dumb.... and felt that it's not a home game, it's a public business with rules/procedures. I feel I can tell the initial first bets a newbie makes in which he/she knows not what he does, and.. being able to tell when the "accident" is about to be made (in other words the said situation). If I'm wrong, then please tell me when a player sits down, how many "warnings" and/or "chances" should they get? It's most certain you wouldn't allow someone to always get away from a bidding bet..

Did I mention a "kicker" here...? The player that is mentioned above was a dealer. A very responsible dealer! *heH*