The Timer

Hello !

I just wanted to share a suggestion about the timer.

Sometimes I get into a really interesting hand on all levels, and in some big tournament (final stages) or in a high stakes cash games, but I have no time to think and calculate.

I think we should have a timer to activate in these situations and have more time in general.

I do understand that the game might be slow sometimes if someone left the game, but it’s a need I guess.

In conclusion, a little bit more time in general, with a timer to activate if we get in interesting hands.

What are your thoughts guys ?!

Have a nice day !

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I can understand both sides of the coin on this one. Yes it would be useful to do that, take a small time-out in a high stakes game where the stakes are big and the pot is bigger. Even in low stakes tournaments, there definitely are sticky moments in the latter stages.

On the other side of the coin, people will say they have no patience and they wouldn’t want to wait around any longer.

One idea could be to give every player one time-out which for example would reset their timer so that they get an extra period, same as a regular timer period, per tournament. They can use it whenever they want but it’s only once. And some little text message next to their name would indicate that they have used it. That way nobody can slow the game down deliberately time and time again.

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Yes, I do agree.
but why not like 20 sec timer, that can be used all along the tournament, and add like 5 sec to it every blind’s level.
and every player do activate it when he wants it, so not automatically every hand.

Not sure, that might be asking a little too much, but that’s only my thoughts.

Well, we are just giving suggestions. Enjoy !

1 Like

I suggest leaving the timer alone!!

3 Likes

I strongly agree that more time in difficult spots is a good idea. This can be offered by giving each player a finite number of time banks that can be used for extra time. Maybe you get an extra time bank every 100 hands or something. Another approach would be using the situation to calculate the extra time you get. A bigger pot, for example, might result in the players being given more time.

It’s not about the pot, it’s about the hand. Leave the timer alone and everyone is playing on an equal field.

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The timer is fine in most spots; in fact it’s too long preflop when the pot is unraised. However, it’s also way too short in difficult spots where genuinely difficult strategic thinking needs to be performed. When I play on Ignition Casino I have about 3-4x as much time to think things through, which obviously facilitates strategic play, and greatly elevates the level and sophistication of the game.

It’s not about the pot, it’s about the hand.

Yeah, but there’s lots of heuristics you can use to estimate whether or not the hand warrants a little extra time. Pot size is one of those heuristics.

Leave the timer alone and everyone is playing on an equal field.

I don’t really agree with the contention that changing the timer would put people on an unequal playing field.

If the play is on player in the 12 o’clock position and you are at the 11 o’clock position, that’s a lot of time to get to you. A player should only need about 5 seconds to decide what to do or they are playing the wrong game.

A player should only need about 5 seconds to decide what to do or they are playing the wrong game.

You’re entitled to you opinion, obviously, but I’m not sure I really agree. This is kind of like saying: “look, if you’re playing anything other than 1 minute chess games, chess just isn’t for you.” There’s lots of chess formats. There’s 1 minute, 3 minute, 10 minute, 30 minute, and those are considered the quick ones. Garry Kasparov famously played a game where each move took 24 hours, and then the opposing team had 24 hours to make their move (he won, incidentally). There’s also versions where you have even less time to start with than the “quick” games I mentioned earlier, but each action you perform puts a certain number of seconds on the clock. Obviously, all of these are valid ways of playing the game of chess.

In poker there’s a bit less freedom to pick and choose the format, because you’re not always heads-up against another player, and if you want to play at tables that are full, you need to pick a format that’s popular. Replay has responded to this problem by offering only one “format”, with respect to time at least. Oh, there’s various table-sizes and buy-in levels, but I think the time-to-act restrictions are basically the same across all these games. So in some sense, that’s just one format. That’s fine, but it means that optimizing the amount of time available to create the best possible game is more important, since everyone on the site is basically stuck with whatever Replay chooses.

Yes, I agree that slowing down the game even further is largely a bad idea, and I’d like to see games remain quick, and maybe go even quicker than they currently are in the majority of spots. However, there are some spots where asking someone to make a 5-second decision just isn’t conducive to the strategic, intelligent poker that makes me find the game interesting, and I think a lot of other people would agree with me there. At a minimum, surely you agree that refusing to have the discussion about what these mechanisms might be is fundamentally a mistake? If you can’t agree to that, I’m not certain I really have the energy to continue this dialogue, and I’ll probably just restrict myself to conversing with others on this topic. No hard feelings.

3 Likes

Hi Everyone,

I’ve seen players suggest a time bank before, some like it, and some don’t. This suggestion has been submitted to our Team. As always thank you for giving us ideas as we continue to improve features in our site.

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Well said, so you’re a fan of chess haha. Have fun and enjoy!

1 Like