Binding or not?

[mooredog]

Player A goes all-in. Player B asks him "Do you want me to call?" and then says "I'll do whatever you want. If you want a call I will call. If you don't I'll fold." Player A says "Yes, I want a call." Player B now hesitates and another player at the table asks if B is bound by what he previously said to call. Does B have to call or is it considered table talk? He did call, but my question is was he required to do so?

[Stuart Murray]

Hi mooredog,

I would surmise a no as whilst it is table talk, there is no real binding statement and another player/person cannot play the hand, you could use "One player to a hand" to justify this.  I do remember a case where in a WPT a similar situation occurred, but the player stated "I'll make the call" inferring to whether or not he would call the all-in, without relying on the other players statements, this was ruled as a call however, as whilst clearly not in the context of what the discussion was about was a verbal statement and was binding.

Regards
Stu

[DCJ001]

Conditional statements are not binding.

[WSOPMcGee]

Conditional statements are not binding.

What he said ^^^^

[Dave Lamb]

Correct on all levels:

It is table talk and conditional bets are not binding.