Backline(poker)
1) Make an agreement between two or more players to accumulate
chips in the following manner. One of the players usually maintains
the back line. Whenever he or the player with whom he has made
the arrangement wins a pot, a certain portion of the chips in
that pot are put on the back line, that is, in a pool for later
distribution. That amount could be one chip for each pot. It
could be some specified larger amount, perhaps five or 10 chips.
In a limit game, it could also be one chip for each bet in the
pot, or one for each bet won by the winner of the pot. For example,
in a $10-limit game, if two players are back lining one chip
per bet, and one of them wins a $100 pot (that is, the pot contains
10 bets), $10 goes on the back line. If they are back lining
one chip per bet won, and both of them
(only) are in the pot, only $5 goes on the back line (because
the winner of the pot profited by $50, or five bets). At some
prearranged time, the players split the back line. That is the
point of this arrangement, that when one of the players is running
bad, he makes some money off his "partner's" good
fortune. If the player who
maintains the back line runs out of his own chips, there may
be some argument about whether those chips are playable, or
if the other player runs out of chips, he may want to get his
share of the back line. For the reason that arguments
sometimes arise from this sort of arrangement, many clubs do
not permit back lining. In such clubs, some obstinate players
do it anyway, but surreptitiously. It's best when back lining
that all parties involved in the agreement maintain sufficient
chips to
avoid running out in one pot or having to use the back line
chips to bet with. A sharp tight player tries to make a back
lining arrangement with a loose player. The loose player may
lose money overall, but he wins more pots (because he plays
more pots),
and so the back line accumulates. The loose player doesn't mind
contributing when he's winning, and when he's losing, and his
"partner" is lucky, he gets something from it. He
just doesn't realize that he's taking the worst of it in yet
another situation.
2) The chips accumulated by back lining. The name probably
comes from where the chips are kept. The back line is usually
a stack of chips behind the player's own playing capital.
Sometimes the back line is kept on the wooden rim, if the table
has one.
