After its dominant approval by players at the recent World Poker Tour L. A. Poker Classic, a version of a “shot clock” – a preset time limit for players to make decisions on their hands – seems to be coming to the popular tour. Poker professional Marvin Rettenmaier, the only back-to-back champion the WPT has ever seen, took to his blog on partypoker earlier today to enunciate his reasons as to why it would be bad for the game.
“I’m not opposed to the shot clock because I take my time, I’m objective and if (I thought it would) improve the game of poker…I’d be in favor of it or at least I wouldn’t speak against it,” Rettenmaier stated in his blog. “But 30 seconds (one of the proposed time limits) is not enough time, often counting out chips can take longer than that.”
Rettenmaier goes on to state that the usage of a shot clock would be detrimental to bringing in new players rather than an advantage. “What is the goal of implementing a shot clock?” Rettenmaier asks. “There has been a lot of talk about how we need to make poker more accessible and enjoyable for the amateur players rather than the pros. I think a shot clock would be detrimental to that goal.”
The German pro, who has over $4.7 million in tournament poker earnings over the last five years, goes on to discuss the effect that a shot clock might have. He uses businessman Paul Newey, who is a frequent player in High Roller tournaments, as an example of someone who would be turned off by such a rule implementation. Citing Newey’s Tweet that stated, “This only suits experienced pros who need less time to think. Unlikely (to play future) $250K if (the rule is used),” Rettenmaier asks, “What do you think way less experienced amateurs are going to do?”
“Mad Marvin” offers some suggestions for ways to implement a shot clock without going as drastic as a 30-second base. “I’ve had people say to me that you should have something like one minute on the flop, two minutes on the turn and three minutes on the river.” He also talks about the practice of “calling the clock” on an opponent, saying, “Perhaps the real shift needs to be that it becomes more acceptable to call the clock earlier on opponents.”
“I’ve had the clock called on me plenty of times and only a couple of times did I think it was out of line,” Rettenmaier continued. “An alternative (to a shot clock) would be an individual time bank as they have in chess or online poker, but it still makes playing a poker tournament less attractive to an amateur.”
In ending his blog, Rettenmaier says, “If the WPT does implement the shot clock and it fails, I will be the guy saying, ‘I told you so!’ Even though a huge majority voted in favor of the shot clock, I don’t think players have really thought this through and are just thinking yes, playing faster is awesome, let’s play more hands. Players might be forgetting the greater spectrum.”
Earlier this month, Rettenmaier’s fellow Team partypoker Pro Mike Sexton revealed the results of the WPT survey of players, which saw the vote go 80/20 in favor of such a new rule. “I’ve long been in favor of a shot clock in poker and believe that it’s not a matter of ‘if’ it’s going to happen, it’s ‘when,’” Sexton stated on his partypoker blog. “I also believe that ‘when’ it happens, everybody will be saying, ‘This is great! Why didn’t we implement the shot clock ten years ago?’” He also suggested that the shot clock could be used as early as Season XIII on the WPT.
Other players have sounded off on the shot clock issue and many seem to be behind its implementation. Daniel Negreanu and Josh Arieh have stated they are behind such an issue and, if you go back to 2012, the legendary Doyle Brunson has sounded off in favor of it. Ville Wahlbeck has opined, however, that some simple changes to poker etiquette may need to be made. Wahlbeck has suggested that players look at their cards immediately, rather than wait for action to come to them, which he suggests would make for a more natural flow to the game.
There seems to be a shot clock on the horizon for poker (at least on the WPT circuit), but will it improve the game? Would you play in an event that featured such an implementation?
these slow players are pathetic – saw one straighten out his stack before looking at cards, they think they are in a home game to drink Beer!