[noelsarchs]

Originally Posted by OnTheButton

Our weekly games are 99% regulars.

Occasionally a friend brings a friend, but that is not often.

Last week one of the regulars brought a friend, whom has been to our home game once before.

I've done what I can to "train" the regular players that have no casino exposure to avoid the basic table problems. Including things like not acting out of turn, and announcing your action, etc.

Saturday night, a bit late in the evening, play on a hand is down to heads up preflop, a regular and the visitor mentioned above are the only two active players, and the flop is now sitting on the board.

Now I've always told my regulars to verbalize their action to avoid confusion. It is not too much to ask for them just to state "raise" "call" or "fold" to clarify their intent. This is particularly necessary when someone intends to raise and just starts pushing chips (string betting) out into the middle. I've also told them that particularly when they intend on raising, they should declare it, and then they can fiddle with their chips all they want until they are happy with their raise amount.

So the visitor checks the flop, and the regular says "Raise" and starts counting out some stacks of chips in the betting area. The visitor frowns and says, "Jeez man you're not making a "raise" you are making a "bet" since I didn't bet anything for you to raise. And since you are making a bet, and you are doing it in more than one motion you are string betting right now."

Regular says, "So what would you prefer I say then, since I'm raising the bet to $7.00..." (He is a little intimidated since he's never played poker at a casino.)

There is a little head shaking by visitor and mumbling about "They wouldn't let you do that in a casino..."

I stepped in and said, "I've done that in a casino MANY times. (Which I have) No, I agree that it's not 100% proper to say "raise" when there is no active bet, but by saying "raise" he is in-fact declaring he will be betting at least 2x the BB to open the betting against your check. Once you say "raise" you can count out all the chips you want infront of you so long as you actually make a raise."

He grumbled a little more about "home game rules" and play resumed shortly thereafter.

It left the regular player a little uncomfortable, (since he has never played poker in a casino) and I later told him, "You didn't do anything wrong, he was just being pissy and although technically correct about what you said, the intent was clear with your announcing "raise" before you started on your action. No casino would care less if you said "raise" to a "check" so long as you didn't just start making chip piles without saying anything at all."

So any opinions on how you would have treated this scenario, or if I handled it correctly or not?

Sounds to me like their is already a BB, so isn't it a raise if more than the big blind? He either calls the bb or raises from what I read.