A bet is not a raise. Our rules are written specifically to discourage what you claim to be a clear action. When facing a bet, tossing a single oversize chip into the pot, without the simple prior declaration of a raise must always be a call. Period!
Get fired up much Nick? Haha
Thomas,
How can you determine that the player tossing a single oversize chip into the pot, while saying "bet" has intentions of raising. I'm sorry but, the player easily could have said "raise" instead of bet. The rules are very simple, and clear, whenever we discuss the single oversize chip rule. I'll risk your judgement that I'm in the category of "not worth their salt" because I disagree with you on this one, wholeheartedly.
So what you're saying is, in any game whether PL or NL that you'd rule it a call. Fair enough. I said I was nearly certain every TD in this forum would rule the Pot Limit action a raise. I left room for error. I can say ever single supervisor to a person would rule it as "up to the maximum value of the chip".
While I agree with you that as TD's it's not our job to "force" players to raise, I refer you to Rule 41 which implicitly makes our job to force players to raise of which I've argued against many times. However in this circumstance I'm not forcing a player to raise. I'm forcing them to honor their statement. A verbal and binding statement.
By statement, I'm defining the term BET as being an aggressive action when there is no action to you, as described above. Because that's all poker is, Action. What kind of action is it?
There are 3 types: 1) Aggressive 2) Passive 3) Recessive
Aggressive Terms: Bet, Raise - Notable players such as Negreanu have even lobbied to have phrases such as "Take it up" included in this category. Giving the "Thumbs Up" which is not binding anywhere that I'm aware of (except in cases of Hearing / Speech impaired players) but is generally accepted amongst players that they know a raise is coming.
Passive Terms: Pass, Check, Call
Recessive Terms: Fold, Muck - Other phrases that are used include but not necessarily binding conditional statements, "You win" "I'll let it go" "You got it"
All you need to do is decide what kind of action is it. Aggressive, Passive or Recessive. Once you decide that, you'll have your answer on how to proceed.