Calling Time in Poker + More

The video below has so much going on it’s almost too perfect. Paul Snead and Scott Montgomery are locked up in a crucial hand at the end of a big tournament (if it’s the WSOP sorry I hadn’t seen the clip on ESPN yet). Montgomery re-reraised Snead to go all-in. Snead would be very low stacked if he lost. So for one, we’ve got a major bluff going on here. Montgomery has A4 with nothing on the flop and Snead hit a top pair of jacks with a 7 kicker. Snead is talking the hand through when Tiffany Michelle somebody calls clock on him. He really hadn’t taken that long. She justifies the clock call because she’s short stacked and the blinds are really big.

The calling of clock is denounced by both Snead and another player after the hand. Michelle says there’s a lot of money at stake and she’s low stack so she’s got to do what she’s got to do. Snead eventually makes the very tough but correct call and gets pierced by a crushing non-heart ace on the river, giving a incredibly huge pot to Montgomery on pure luck.

I’m torn on this issue. I don’t think I’ve ever called clock on anyone, but with millions at stake, I’m sure a lot of things would change in my approach. I embrace a survivalist way of thinking when the conditions call for it. I really don’t know what I would have done here. I might have just kept my mouth shut for a little while because I wouldn’t have thought that he had taken that long. I mean what are you going to call clock on someone because they think for 30 seconds? 20 seconds? I’m sure if I did feel they were beyond the time reasonable I would call clock, but from what I’ve witnessed calling clock usually only takes more time because then a side issue arises about the fact that you just called the clock.