Why do poker rooms calculate the total pot for you?

In live games, you have to remember what everyone bet, in order to know what the total pot is. Why isn't it like this in online games, also? I mean, if you're going to list the total pot, you might as well list the odds of improving your hand as well. I know there's programs out there that help you with this kind of thing. But I think it's wrong to do so in the official software itself.

In real games, it's a lot easier to look at the pot and at least get an idea of how much is in there. Also, with people selecting what they want to do prior to it being their turn, you could have a few people calling in a couple seconds, and it would be nearly impossible to keep track of it all.

Speed, efficiency and PROFIT would be some of the main reasons. The faster these things are calculated/put together, the more hands are played. The more hands that are played, the more profit the poker room makes ( Cash tables ) and the faster a tournament finishes, the faster a player can play another one.

Also it would just be unmanageable if everyone had to work out their own bets/math etc. If someone miscalculates what happens then?
You would need a live dealer at every table tbh. It just wouldn't work for many many reasons.

Profit I can understand, but I don't see why poker games need to move so quickly. Often, if I take like 10 seconds to decide what to do, people are already complaining, making comments like "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz".

Lol... Gl multitabling and remembering what everyone bets. Weird Question...Why dont You get to deal the cards yourself either...one for you and one for You and one for you... must be obvious that its in everybodys interest for the gam to move as swiftly as possible

In live games you can always ask the dealer what is in the pot, so I suppose it is the same as that.
If you are constantly taking alot of time to decide every hand I can understand why they are hurrying you up, but if it is only occasionly then what I do is tell them to "stick their zzzzzz's up their A$$, it's not as if I do it every hand". "and if you don't stop it with the zzzzz's I will take the full amount of time every time it is my turn every hand". And if they keep doing it, take the full amount of time to prove you wern't lying. These ppl are just trying to bully you and try to look like a big shot to everybody else on the table.

I take all the time I need.

If that infuriates opps and they start typing zzzz or hurry up or call me names, I take
even longer - just to tilt them - . Any small edge can help.

Well, if that's true, I guess it's normal everyone's using HUD's these days.

From a certain perspective, I can understand why you would want this kind of information available to you. Your mind won't be clouded with mathematical calculations, and you won't have to remember the plays of your opponents. The HUD does the calculations and observations (e.g. raise frequency of other players) for you, and you just make the relevant strategic decisions. Very compelling.

Only, if you're used to playing like this, and you move to a live game, you'll have a hard time adapting to the fact that you need to do it all yourself - since you won't have trained your memory and computational skills. Asking the dealer what the size of the pot is all the time isn't very practical, IMO.

Besides allowing people to play more hands because it goes quicker (thereby increasing the hourly profit of both the poker site and the winning player) and compensating for the difficulty of reading chip stacks in a 2D environment...

Keep in mind that displaying the pot amount encourages people *not* to pay attention. They can be in la-la land and still see exactly who did what. This allows people to multi-table effectively (because they don't have to watch the action) and it also allows people to watch television or tend the kids or do some other distracting activity.


Well, playing with a HUD lets you play a lot more tables so you see a lot more hands and pick up the math a lot quicker. With online tables seeing hands at twice hourly rate as live tables, and people like Zachvac playing 20+ tables, an online player can often play as many hands in one year as a live player does in his career.


When an online player moves to tables, the math and situations don't change, so he has a good foundation to play. He might not see that someone is in 44% of the pots and c-bets 73% of the time, but he will notice that the guy is "in a lot of pots" and "c-bets all the frigg'n time" and he'll adjust his play accordingly.
Really, I don't think observing and getting a feel for players is apt to be an online player's weak spot. I think boredom (from the slow pace of the game) and giving off tells are going to be his initial problems.

wow, i didnt expect such huge responses to such a simple looking question. i was always under the impression that it was done purely because theres a time limit on players in online poker, unlike live poker where no one is rushing you to make a decision in 12 seconds

The software on online poker will def, dumb a player down.Iplay in several home cash game and in a bar league(which is about the level of play as a play money tournament online) but it amazing to see the amount of players who can not figure out pot odds,or even figure out a split pot.. or for the love of god deal.. It is sad that online poker actual makes live poker worse.

Actually no, not according to the TDA rules or Robert's rules. Players are only entitled to dealer counts of the pot in Pot Limit games. The player is responsible for keeping track of pot size in live limit and no limit games.

Thats a good reason to play on line.