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You are the Tournament Director Series 3: Online Verbal Action Binding?
This one was posted by Jools on The Hendon Mob Forum.
Two players are heads up in WCOOP with equal chips and it is on the river. One (player A) has the nuts and moves all in, he has the other (player B) covered. Player B types in the chat window 'I call'. He then times out and his hand is folded. How do you rule?
 Matt Savage:
Obviously online rules are different than live tournament rules. I am assuming that he needed to click the mouse and he loses the pot. I am sure that live support is not watching every tournament and would have to be consistent across the board.
 Thomas Kremser:
Very funny … if he doesn’t hit the call button and times out, it is clearly a fold. (If a player by accident hits the fold button instead of the call button the hand is also dead (didn’t it happen to all of us?).
 Dave Lamb:
Chat windows are just that, a great way to shoot the breeze, but there is no way to enforce or know if all opponents have the chat open. Binding actions online are those that are done with the click of the mouse.
 Jeff Leigh:
I don’t play on the internet but I’ll take a stab at this one. It seems to me to be pretty straightforward, if a comment in a “chat window” constitiutes “legal” action then it should stand, however if a “chat window” has NO legal obligation within the context of a hand (i.e, whatever comment is written has NO bearing on the hand itself) then if he” times out” without making action it seems reasonable he has folded his hand.
 Jack Effel:
I’ll take a risk and say that verbal is not binding in this situation, because action online is controlled by the check, call, raise, and fold buttons. There are many factors to consider when playing online such as bad internet connection, a person’s pc locking up, or not acting in time. I would think the site would have a rule that covers these types of situations, and to contact them.
 Thomas Lamatsch:
Online ruling is very fair and comfortable.
Also, when the player B announces “I call”, he can’t create any advantage of his statement. Player A can’t show his hand too early or other action.
So the verbal Action in online games is not binding.
The Mob Verdict
This is an interesting one that shows one of the ways in which online poker and live poker are very different.
David Lamb makes the valid comment that some players may not even have the chat window open and he is 100% correct when he says, ‘Binding actions online are those that are done with the click of the mouse.’
Verbal action in turn in live poker is binding as previously established in the other article in the First Series of Your are The Tournament Director.
Chat window action whether in turn or not is not valid action online.
Whilst the situation with action is quite straightforward there can still be an issue with information and opinion. On Full Tilt Poker chat is suspended when a player is all in in order to prevent players or observers attempting to influence the decisions of those who are still to act in the hand. Although such problems are rare, we feel this is proportionate and does not unduly restrict the general chat.
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