I ran into this a couple of weeks ago, and tried to have a quiet word with the player in question in order to placate another player at the table. Not too sure how to apply the rules fairly. I would appreciate any feedback
I have a player who is about 70 years old. He constantly picks up his cards to his face every time he has to act, or think about what is going on, I am sure you have all met such a player. The problem started during level 2, when rather than getting change from the pot when acting, he would ask players on his right for change, while the hand was on progress. I was alerted to this by a player, as when he was contemplating acting UTG, this other player would ask players for change, and every time he did so it was because he was going to play the hand. The dealer had asked him on the second occasion he did so, not to do so until it was his turn to act.
I was called over by the dealer to find an very angry player (quite rightly so IMHO), who was not happy as effectively the elder gentleman was acting out of turn as his change request was a sign he was going to play. I spoke to the player regarding how his actions were being interpreted, but he could not grasp what he was doing (i do beleive him), and how it was affecting the game.
I was forced to tell him that the dealer was more that happy to make change, and if he continued to play in a way that the dealer beleived was influencing other players before it was his turn to act, he would be penalised in the first instance, and disqualified in the second.
The long and short is that I genuinely beleive he did not think he was doing anything wrong, but his actions were playing out of turn and pissing off the whole table.
Was I being "ageist" and should have let the old boy be, or correct thing to do?
