11-26-07, LearnTexasHoldem:

Acting out of turn to trap other players

Question:

Hi:

I know this has been covered to an extend in your website. However, here I have an interesting question for you.

Top 3 Beginner Rooms

We're in a NL Hold'em tourney before the flop, blinds are 25-50. A, B, C, D, and E are in the hand.

Player A calls 50, Player C acts out of turn raising to 250. Dealer stops the action and asks player B for his turn to act. Player B, calls 50. Now player C is forced to keep his 250 in (based on action out of turn is binding). Player D folds, and player E calls 250.

It comes back to player A, who calls 250. Now player B decides to raise the pot again, he increases the wager to 1400. Player C, in his turn now, decides to go all-in for 6000. The hand stops by player E, and A with a complaint that "how do we know that B and C didn't angle us to this situation?"

The ruling was:

1) Player C's action stands for 250.

2)Player B in his turn facing a 50 bet, and has the options of folding, calling, or raising that bet.

3) If he decides to just call the 50 bet, he forfeits his right to raise when the bet comes back to him at 250.

4) Anyone who was skipped his turn, treated the same as player B.

5) Therefore, player B, and C cannot use this mistake as an opportunity to wrap the other players in hand.

This ruling was simply done because other players in the hand must be protected from a mistake done by another player. However, now the complaint rises from player B "why should I forfeit my right to wrap everyone in the hand? I didn't cause the mistake. I am only using the info given out by player C, whether it was out of turn or not"

What do you think about these circumstances?

Regards,
Mohamad

Answer:

Hi Mohamad,

We actually think player B has a strong case here: why should he be punished for another player's mistake?

First of all, it's possible that the hand would have played out exactly the same way even if Player C didn't raise out of turn.

Secondly, the other players should have been VERY suspicious when player B decided to only to call 50. It's almost like screaming: "I will raise when the action gets back to me."

In our opinion, all the bets should have been allowed to stand.

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