Great question, and something the membership is still working to try and standardize. At Summit VI, if you watch the video on this there is agreement on some of these "silently adding to chips of a prior bet not yet pulled in" (i.e. Rule 44) type situations... but not all. And honestly if you ask the same person one day what the rule is, you might get a different answer the next day... it's a work in progress...
The Association originally drafted a set of Illustrations ("rules") to cover all of these situations where chips are put out silently:
A: There is change due from the prior bet.
A-1: Player puts out an overchip
A-2: Player puts out multiple chips
B: There is no change due from prior bet
B-1: Player puts out an overchip
B-2: Player puts out multiple chips
C: Player disturbs prior bet
C-1: Player pulls all of prior bet back then puts out overchip
C-2: Player pulls all of prior bet back then puts out multiple chips
C-3: Player pulls PART of prior bet back (leaving one or more chips), then adds an over chip
C-4: Player pulls PART of prior bet back (leaving one or more chips), then adds multiple chips
D: Any of the above PLUS player tosses the entire lot forward...
Any truly comprehensive rule regarding adding new chip(s) to chips from a prior bet not yet pulled in must address each of the above. There just wasn't anywhere near enough consensus to move forward with one or more rules that would address each of these at Summit VI, so it was deemed better to make the point in Rule 44 that everyone agrees to: Because so many possibilities exist, it's advisable to declare your bet verbally PRIOR to putting out chips in any of the above situations...
There is yet another consideration to all this, and that's the practical side.... WHATEVER rules are adopted must be practical for the average dealer to remember and implement. In some conditions, it's one thing to have a theoretically sound rule and yet another that will yield the most regularly consistent rulings. An example of this would be to say that
anytime the new bet involves adding just a single overchip it's a call... regardless of whether the bettor disturbs the prior bet, has any change due or not, or tosses the whole lot out forward, it's still a call. Just to give an example of this controversy, some say "well, if he puts out the overchip then tosses the whole pile forward he's gesturing a total bet"... however might that be a string bet of sorts: 1) puts out the overchip (done deal it's a call); 2) tosses it all forward (that's a second action so it's a stringed bet). Another twist: what if Player A has a call of a prior bet of 1800 in front of him (with 1000, 500, and three 100's out there), and Player B raises to 4000 total. Player A then pulls back two of the 100's and tosses out a 5000 on top of the remaining 1000, 500, and 100 silently. There's a pile of chips totalling 6600 which A has deliberately constructed for this bet. If he just wanted to overchip call with the 5000, why didn't he just either silently add the 5000 or pull ALL of the prior bet back? why make a point of leaving the 1000, 500, and 100 out there? So a theorist might consider that a deliberate multiple-chip bet of 6600 total, well enough for a raise. However, is the average dealer going to think like this? Would it just be cleaner to say "hey you just added an overchip, it's a call". Then twist it and say he does this then tosses the lot out forward, does that make a difference or is it a string action as previously described?
It would be great to have this dialogue on here and see if some consensus can be reached, at least for some of these possibilities.
Back to Luca's original example: this is one where there is nearly 100% agreement that it's an overchip call...
....but let's put some twists on Luca's example (assume the UTG has a 500 and 100 from his prior raise to 600 total):
1) what if the UTG drops the 5000 on top of the 600 THEN takes and tosses the whole mixed pile of 5600 forward when he's facing a total bet of 1100? Does that gesture turn an overchip call into a multiple-chip raise, or is that a string action?
2) what if he pulls the 500 and 100 back towards his chip stack in his hand, adds a 5000 to his hand, then extends his hand and tosses the 5600 pile out?
3) what if same as 2, but only tosses 5500 out, or 5100? Is he making a deliberate point that it's a specific multiple chip bet in that circumstance?
... And what is the average dealer going to think intuitively in these situations... Keep in mind we need not only a theoretically sound rule, but perhaps more importantly a memorable rule that's reasonably easy to implement and likely to produce the most consistent interpretations with minimal need to call the floor....
This is great stuff for Summit VII, it might take til then to get full agreement
