It is a question that has puzzled some of the greatest minds in tournament poker. Just how much is TOO much? How many buy-ins should be allowed, how many chips should be used, and how to deal the cards (yes, the “slide” has now taken over from the “pitch” method). But the biggest one is still being asked – how much table talk is TOO much for a poker tournament?
World Poker Tour Executive Tournament Director Matt Savage posed this question to his Facebook followers this week, after a particularly noticeable incident(s) regarding this very subject. Savage’s question was whether the different tours – the WPT, the World Series of Poker, the European Poker Tour, and others – should institute a mandatory “shot clock” from the start of tournaments, or whether the stigma of “calling the clock” should be removed? Overwhelmingly (this writer included), people believed that a mandatory clock from the start would remove the “table talk” and force the players to action.
It should not have to come to this, but it is time that tournament poker goes “all clock, all the time” to shut up the morons who think they are being “colorful.”
Serial Abusers Ruin the Tactic
The 2025 WSOP has put this tactic – and it is a strategy that some players have used with pronounced effect in the past – on full blast for all to see. Players like Martin Kabrhel, William Kassouf, and “world famous” Pat Lyons, have opened their mouths to speak…and they JUST. KEEP. TALKING. They don’t have to be commenting on the hand at the moment, they could just be spouting idiotic BS that has nothing to do with the ongoing tournament, they don’t even HAVE to be in a hand. They JUST. KEEP. TALKING.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There is a place for speech play at the table. Eliciting a response from your opponent through some strategic phrases (“Oh, got there, didn’t you?” or “I’ve got a great hand here…would hate to fold,” among others) is perfectly all right. This is a part of the game of poker; the ability to garner information through betting actions, tells, or other information that can be ascertained.
But when you handle yourself in the manner of Kabrhel and Kassouf – and to a lesser extent Lyons, who I didn’t think could be outtalked – it becomes an abuse of the privilege.
Watching Tuesday night’s livestream on PokerGO put this idiocy on full display. The level before the dinner break, Kassouf was moved to the second feature table, which also featured one of the chip leaders, San Kim, and pro Vanessa Kade. Lyons was moved to the main featured table simultaneously…and the spewage almost immediately began.
Lyons at least TRIED to keep it on poker, and he even stepped away from the table to speak with his rail rather than prattle on about whatever thought was racing through his mind. Kassouf, on the other hand, was just being an obnoxious ass, calling Kade and the female dealer “honey,” continually talking about nothing in particular, and seemingly pissing off every person that was sitting at the table.
What made it even worse with Kassouf (and this applies to Kabrhel also) is that it was delaying his actions on the table. Every hand brought about a ninety-second discussion process (minimum) from Kassouf, even for the simplest of folds. Just before the dinner break, Kade had improved her leading hand to a pair on the flop, yet Kassouf still yammered on about how they were going to dinner, how his hand needed some thought (it didn’t, he had completely airballed it), and on…and on…AND ON.
This is why the shot clock, and more aggressive actions from both tournament directors AND PLAYERS is necessary – this type of crap needs to stop.
What Can Be Done?
There should be some patience in implementing my suggestions. On the PGA Tour, there are rules against slow play, but those rules are not utilized until after the players committing the abuse have been warned that they are playing too slowly and given the chance to pick up the pace. The same applies to poker – the tournament directors would need to give abusing players ample warning that they are pushing the envelope with their actions and give them a chance to clean up their act. If the players do, then no problem – if they don’t, then we move on to these methods.
First, the institution of a shot clock from the start of an event should be mandatory. A thirty-second shot clock, with five extensions per day, would move the action along. In theory, it would eliminate the long soliloquies of these serial abusers of the “table talk” privilege, because they would have to make quicker decisions rather than producing their next moment of stupidity.
Now, you can also say that the players could, in theory, use every bit of their shot clock every hand, and instead of shortening the process actually lengthen it. Each hand, shuffle to muck, normally takes about two minutes in a normal poker setting; if each player on a nine-handed table took all thirty seconds, that’s a four-and-a-half-minute hand with just pre-flop decisions alone. This is where the tournament directors should be stepping in, and a further implementation of the shot clock (fifteen seconds?) might be necessary.
Second, a suggestion from the men who call the tournaments made a great deal of sense. PokerGO commentators James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton highlighted how the EPT managed Kassouf’s actions. EPT tournament directors started instituting a personal thirty-second clock on Kassouf from Day One whenever he participated in their events. From what Hartigan and ‘Stapes’ said, it shut up the abuse of table chatter by Kassouf and kept the tournament moving. This should be a tactic that ALL tournament directors utilize when there are players who are continually abusing the rules. If necessary, they should post a floor at the table where the abusing player is located, so that the player gets the message that their BS is not going to be tolerated.
Finally, it is time to remove the stigma of calling the clock on your opponents. Yes, you want a congenial attitude from all players at the table. But when the actions of one player become overbearing or even racist (Kassouf discussed several Asian stereotypes, regardless that two Asian players were at the table), then a table player needs to call the floor for appropriate actions. Nobody deserves to be chided for their race, sex, or sexual orientation, and it should be something that tournament directors take seriously.
Once again, this is not about the moments in a tournament when a hand is in action and some probing questions are asked. This is not about trying to gather some information that might help in your decision. This is about the incessant and annoying fact that there are some players out there who need to shut up, sit down, and play the damn game. And it is time that the rules punish these actions until they actually get the message that it will not be tolerated anymore.
The post Editorial: Time to Go “All Shot Clock, All the Time” In Tournament Poker Against “Table Talk” Offenders appeared first on Poker News Daily.
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