07-13-2006
Gregg “Bunky” Williams
Here’s the time pot tutorial that I said I would post for the new poker players out there. Keep an eye out for them next time you play in a time game and you wont feel like you are lost or getting hustled.
Here’s an example.
The Borgata 20-40 limit holdem takes a $7.00/half hour time charge at each dealer push. On a 10 handed table this accounts for $70.00. What happens when the table agrees to do a “time pot” is someone sponsors the pot. (i.e. puts up the $70.00 from their stack for the entire tables time after the terms are quickly discussed and agreed upon.)
The terms will vary with each sponsor, but the usual terms for the 20-40 are $35.00 comes out of the first pot over $200.00 for the first half of the time and the second pot over $200.00 covers the other $35.00. The winners of these pots will relinquish this share of the time pot to the sponsor. When both halves of the time pot are paid the sponsor should call out “Time is paid”.
We use called money as the pot counter, lets say there was $180.00 in the pot going into the river, and someone bet but the other player did not call. That pot would not qualify as the called money was $180.00. (Though different sponsors will have different terms, be careful of this and ask accordingly)
The variations come in when one person (or two) does not want to participate. This really doesn’t change things much but in a small way. We’ll use this example for one person not participating and we’ll use Barton as an example.
Time pot is discussed and Barton decides not to participate but the rest of the table does. Now the sponsor still puts up the entire time of $70.00 but Barton pays his $7.00 time to the sponsor. Now the terms change a bit as there is $63.00 in time to be played for. The terms will usually go $32.00 for the first pot over $200.00 and $31.00 for the second pot over $200.00 to cover the time.
Now, here’s the thing. If barton wins a pot, he does not reimburse the sponsor for any time (he paid his time) and only the first 2 pots over $200.00 won by the people participating in the time pot will qualify under the terms listed above.
Now, even the Borgata 20-40 is loose, its not the rock garden everyone thinks. 20-40 is like how 3-6 used to be. So, in fact I’ve never seen time pots go through a round unpaid completely. If for some unforeseen event any portion of the time pot goes unpaid through the entire dealer shift, the sponsor holds the bag and its left uncollected in paying the time, in short it has already come out of his/her stack. (That would pretty much kill the time pots at THAT table anyway.)
Time pots can benefit the tighter players in a full ring game as you can adjust your play to a time pot. Because if it goes over $200.00 almost a full big bet comes out of the pot there are some adjustments to EV calculations. Knowing when and how hard to get involved in these pots will save you lots of money from the drop. You will need to tighten up in time pots for that reason, and if you get heads up in a pot and its under the $200.00 use pot control with your marginal hands to keep it under that number if possible.
-Gregg “Bunky” Williams
