The String Bet

Before any of us played poker in a card room, or even played poker at all, we probably all saw poker depicted in old movies and TV shows. Although any movie genre might show the odd poker game, the ones that stick in my mind are those old westerns.  And the old TV show, Maverick.

There, you’d invariably see some guy bet, say, $100 and then some old codger would say in response, “Well, I see your hundred…..raise it five hundred.”  And first he’d put out a $100 bill (or a hundred dollar gold piece) and then put out five more, two separate acts. 

As anyone who has ever played live poker in a poker room knows, today that raise would be disallowed as a “string bet” or a “string raise.”

Of course, in those old movies, you’d also often see the guy who wanted to raise throw his gold watch into the pot, or the deed to his ranch, or his favorite horse.  That too is something you’d never see in a live card room, but this is not a post about table stakes.

Thus, one of the first things a player playing poker in card room learns about is that you can’t make a string bet.  Probably every player makes this mistake early once or twice (if not more) when they first start playing. Hopefully, after getting burned a few times, they are more careful and stop doing it.

As you know, to avoid making an illegal string bet, the player either has to say “raise” first, before putting any chips forward, or put all the chips that are part of his bet and raise out in front at the same time.  Many, if not most, poker room tables have a “betting line” on the felt that makes it easier to identify when a bet is a bet.

The surest way to avoid the problem is to verbalize your intentions.  If you say “raise” loud enough for the dealer—or any of the players, really—to hear, you’ll be fine, since, as we all know, verbal is binding. Of course, if you say “raise” you are obligated to put out at least the minimum legal raise.  If you don’t say raise before putting your chips in front of you, you better be sure you have all the chips in your hand that you intend to bet when you put them out to make your bet.

I guess sometime after all those movies were made, someone thought that making a string bet was a form of angle-shooting and decided it was inappropriate for a polite, state-monitored poker game.

So I blame those old movies and TV shows for the confusion new players invariably have.  I suspect home games where rules are more lax are also partly to blame. 

Last week there was a big ruckus over whether an intended raise was a string bet or not, and it definitely affected the way the hand played out.

Under the gun with Ace-Jack suited, I raised to $8.  Two seats to my left, an annoying young punk kid made it $20. It was like the third time he’d three-bet me when I raised, and as I hadn’t been raising that often, it was really starting to piss me off.  He didn’t seem to three-bet anyone else.

It took a long time for me to have to make a decision, however.  Another guy called and then it went to the guy in Seat 2, who as far as I could remember, hadn’t played a hand since the aforementioned Maverick TV show went off the air.  Seriously, my impression of him just by seeing him when he came to the table was that he was going to be aggro.  I just got that vibe.  But I was totally wrong. The guy wasn’t playing many, if any, hands.

This time things were different.  When it came to him he carefully cut chips, counted them, re-counted them, all well behind the betting line.  It sure looked like he was going to re-raise.  Seeing as how he was playing so tight, I couldn’t even put him on Aces there.  I figured he had the “guaranteed to win the pot no matter what” card.

Then, after he had counted and re-counted and re-counted again for good measure, he appeared to have three stacks of $20 chips ready to put out.  But instead of pushing all three stacks forward simultaneously, he picked up one stack of $20, placed it over the betting line, and then, and only then—definitely after the chips touched the table, but not by much—did he say, “Raise.”

And as he was putting the other two stacks over the betting line, the dealer informed him that she couldn’t allow the raise, it was a string bet, and that it would only be a call of the $20 bet.

The player was aghast.  He explained that it was obvious from his actions that he intended to raise.  He said “raise” (true, but he just hadn’t said it soon enough).  The dealer said no, it was  a string bet.  He said he was doing what he was doing to show the player how much he was going to raise.  The player to this guy’s left suddenly decided to become the Table Captain at this point and informed the player he had made a string bet and it couldn’t be allowed.  The bettor ignored him and pleaded his case with the dealer, who asked if the player wanted to ask the floor for a ruling.

The player most assuredly did.  Meanwhile, the Table Captain, who for the rest of this post we will refer to as “Jon Hamm,” acting on his own ruling, mucked his cards, and the cute young girl from Texas to Jon Hamm’s left (and my immediate right) called the $20 bet.

The reason we are calling the Table Captain “Jon Hamm” is that the cute young girl from Texas told him he looked like the Mad Men actor, Jon Hamm, and he in fact admitted that he had been told this many times before.  I agreed with that assessment myself.  At least, the guy looked a lot more like Jon Hamm than I look like Robin Williams.

The dealer held up the action, saying everything was frozen pending a floor ruling.  When the floor came over, he shut everyone up (mostly the string bettor and Jon Hamm, who, I should point out, was out of the hand by now, his mucked cards irretrievable) and heard from the dealer.  Despite the player’s pissing and moaning, the ruling stood and he was not allowed to bet $60 as he cleared wanted to do.  His action was just a call of the three-bettor’s $20 bet. He had put out just the amount of the original bet in the first motion, and he said “Raise” a second or two too late. As the floor was about to leave, the player asked if he could go all-in blind before the flop.  The floor said he could do that, but he didn’t recommend it.  I should point out that I was pretty sure that the player who made the string bet was an experienced player, not a novice, and had just screwed up this one time.

The cute young girl from Texas, who was the big blind, called.  So back to me, with four people already in for $20 each, with the pot therefore quite large, it was pretty easy for me to add $12 to see the flop, even though I figured there was a good chance I had the fifth best hand at that point.

The flop was Queen high, rainbow.  Nothing there for me.  To my astonishment, the cute Texas girl put out a bet, I want to say it was about $25.  It was too small for the pot, I knew that for sure.

But still, I couldn’t believe she was betting there.  I will mention here that this girl had announced she was playing poker in a card room for the first time ever.  From watching her play for a while, it was clear that she knew poker somewhat, but she was lost about poker room etiquette.  When she left later, she asked if she had to announce that she was going to leave in advance, and tried to cash out with the dealer.  Frankly, if anyone at the table was going to make a string bet, I would have thought it would have been her.

From her play, and from the comment, I pegged her as a very tight player, so when she led out like that, I would have bet anything that she had a set of Queens there.  She knew poker, I thought, and could easily call $20 with QQ, and then, with her set, she now had the best hand.  Otherwise, I couldn’t see her betting into a three-bet and guy who wanted to four-bet.  I thought she knew enough about poker to know not to do that without a big hand in her spot.

I folded and the original three-bettor put out something a bet the size of the pot, a big re-raise.  The next guy folded and action went to the guy who couldn’t string-bet.  He didn’t say anything but was clearly in a quandary.  And then, within about 10 seconds, Jon Hamm, who wasn’t in the hand, called time on him.

I thought that was way out of line.  The guy who had the action on him was shocked and asked him what he was doing, especially since he wasn’t in the hand. He politely told him to shut up and mind his own business. But Jon Hamm said he wanted to play some poker, he wanted this hand over with, and everyone knew what he was going to do, he’d already said he wanted to shove.

The guy was furious and the dealer had no choice but to call the floor again.  The dealer told the floor that the player didn’t have a reasonable amount of time to act before Hamm wanted to call time on him.  There was another long discussion with the string-bettor, Jon Hamm, the floor and the dealer.  If Hamm had just kept his big mouth shut, we would already have been playing the next hand.

So the floor gave the guy a minute, and then would start a one-minute countdown.  The guy was ok with that, and announced to the floor that he was going to act at the last possible second, just to be a dick, because he thought Jon Hamm was being a dick.  And in this case, he was absolutely right.  The guy who looked like Jon Hamm was indeed being a dick.

The guy verbalized his problem (saying more than he should have, since the cute Texas girl was also still in the hand).  He said that guy who had raised obviously knew what hand he had, and therefore he must know that his hand is better than his.  I really thought he was gonna call, but, as the floor started to countdown the final 10 seconds, he mucked.

Somehow, one of his cards got exposed as he mucked.  It was a King.

The Texas girl called all-in for less than the bet that the guy had made.

The board was dealt out, nothing interesting looking.  To my utter astonishment, the cute Texas girl flipped over King-Queen for just top pair, 2^nd best kicker.  I was floored.  I had totally misread her.  She had indeed bet into all that strength with a pretty mediocre hand, not the monster I had envisioned.

Original raiser mucked when he saw her Queen!  WTF???  He said he had Ace-King suited.  His big post-flop raise was basically a continuation bet/bluff! 

The guy who wanted to four bet looked like he was gonna vomit.  He said had pocket Kings, and I totally believed him.  I can’t imagine him wanting to four bet there with anything less.

So his failure to adhere to the string bet rule had cost him dearly.  If he had made the $60 bet as he intended preflop, he might have taken it down right there.  If not, he had the best hand post flop too. If Ace-King suited would have called his $60 preflop bet (doubtful), he would almost assuredly not made his flop bet as he had, and the string-bettor almost certainly would have taken the pot on the flop. His not getting his raise preflop changed everything.

Instead, the cute Texas girl got a better-than-a-double up calling a $20 raise with King-Queen offsuit out of position.

The moral of the story is, be careful not to string bet!