Playing Behind
When you are playing in a cash game, you may bet the chips you have on the table at the beginning of each hand. In some card rooms, cash also plays, if you have it on the table at the beginning of a hand. But follow this scenario: a hand ends and while the dealer is shuffling a player tosses out and bill and says to the dealer: “Chips please.” Now sometimes the dealer will change the bill from the chips the dealer has in the table tray, but more often the dealer calls the chip runner, who takes the bill and goes to the cage for chips. But the game does not stop and wait on those chips. The dealer will say: “The player is playing behind.” and the dealer will call out the amount. “The player is playing behind 100.”
This means that the player may bet those chips even though they are not physically on the table at the start of the hand. It is assumed the other players were paying attention and heard or saw the chip transaction and know that the player has more chips to play that hand. Any disputes will be in favor of the “behind” players increased stack, as long as the other players were made aware of the behind status.
The assumption that players at the table are paying attention to such actions or other floor rulings is always to be assumed. If a player misses such a call and in this case assumes the “behind” player is short stacked, the floor will always support the announcement if it was clearly made to the table. The bottom line is pay attention or potentially lose more than you intended to a player who is “playing behind.”
-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #206
