As some of you know, I'm a dealer in a pub league. I'm also the league's rules guru, and I train the new dealers. We run short stack turbo type tournaments which each last less than an hour and a half, and do three per night.
While we try to follow the TDA rules, we also bend them a little, in an effort to keep it friendly. For example, when there's a bet of 225, and a player silently puts in 525 expecting change, we rule it a call but we'll tell them that in a casino, that would be a raise if they didn't say call first.
Some players like to have fun, particularly early on when risking a few chips doesn't cost much. Blind UTG raises before the deal are common, and that's where my question is heading.
So in our first tournament last night, one player did the blind UTG raise three times.
In our second tournament, a player who doesn't normally do the blind UTG raise, decided to do it. He silently put out a single 100 chip when the blinds were 25/50. The player who did it in the first tourney asked if that's a blind call or raise? I know he was just busting chops, but I truly didn't know how a casino would handle it. I mean, strict interpretation would say it was a single chip put in silently, so it's a call. But doing so while the cards are still being shuffled may have other meanings.
I mean, at cash games, I see the dealer often asking an UTG straddler if he's actually straddling. Technically, by asking, the dealer is allowing the player to revise his action.
I merely turned to the UTG player, raised my eyebrow to silently ask, and he jokingly said it was a raise. After the hand, I DID say all the stuff I just mentioned, and that I'd find out.
So here I am. trying to find out.
On a side note, often when there is such a blind UTG raise, someone will mention 'straddle' and I'll remind players that no casino allows straddles in tournaments, but do allow blind raises. Sometimes I have to go one step further and explain the difference.