Once in an APAT National, and once in an APAT Regional I"ve had the clock called on me.
Now, usually I don"t take too long at all to make a decision when I"m playing. Most decisions can be made in 10 seconds or so without a problem.
Occasionally though, there"s a tough decision to be made that will affect my tournament survival (and maybe others" survival too). Then it"s my prerogative to take a little longer on my decision - and maybe work out the maths of the situation, determine what the other player could be holding, etc.
On both the occasions where the clock was called on me, I had tough decisions to make that could have determined my elimination from the tournament (or a tasty double-up). Both times the clock was called on me fairly quickly after it came round to my turn to act - maybe I"d been thinking for 30 seconds to a minute, and then the clock was called.
On both occasions the person calling the clock on me wasn"t involved in the hand.
I was discussing this with Ian (HaworthBantam) who thought this was against the APAT rules, and he dug out the following to back up what he thought:
44. Calling for the clock procedures: Once a reasonable amount of time has passed and a clock is called for, a player will be given one minute to make a decision.
If action has not been taken by the time the minute is over, there will be a ten second countdown. If a player has not acted on his hand by the time the countdown is over, the hand will be dead.
The following individuals, without exception, are entitled to call a clock on a player;-
a. Tournament Director.
b. Table Dealer.
c. Another player participating in that specific hand.
For the avoidance of doubt, the clock cannot be called on a player by another player who is not participating in the hand in question.
So, on both occasions, the clock was incorrectly called. Me, not knowing the rules, didn"t ask for a ruling from the TD. In both cases I folded, a decision I was almost ready to make before the clock was called.
In the Regional last week, I had raised pre-flop with AQ, and a stack I had covered but could still do me damage re-raised all in. I was going through the hands he"d shown earlier, how he"d been playing, and working out the maths of whether I should call or fold based on the range of hands and the probability he held each of the hands I could put him on. All of this takes a few minutes, and it"s hardly the end of the world for other players at the table. I"d expect others to take their time on this as well. That"s the game. The easy decisions are just that, it"s the tough ones that can often make or break the tournament for you.
It was another player on the table who called the clock on me, and it was only after 20 seconds or so after it had come back to me. Now I know he was in the wrong (according to APAT rules, not sure what the rule is elsewhere), and in the future I"ll ask for a ruling on this - which will take up more time and cause more disruption than if I"d been given a few minutes to think about it from the start.
So I have a few questions. Why do people feel it"s necessary to get involved and try to "speed things up"? What is a "reasonable time" before a clock is called? Would you or have you called the clock on someone - and was it because they"d already spent a "reasonable" amount of time thinking about their decision, or did you just want to put them under pressure or you couldn"t be bothered waiting a few minutes longer?
