[muck_nutz]

It does strongly matter with whome you are playing even within each of the stranger and friends partitions of the poker world. In some places its reasonable to take a long time to make a decision. In others its not. In some places (casinos; mostly tournaments) a clock can and will be put on you if you take too long. In a home game where people are having fun and everybody is trying to become better at the game taking some extra time is probably expected. In a home game where people are chatting away, drinking it up, and wanting to play poker you should make your decision quicker.

In any case you want to consider the bad feelings you are engendering in your game and that effects how others give you action. If you are a rock who sits around trying to figure out if he should call with #2-5 for long periods of time then its likely you are hurting your chances at action (both in the current game and invitations to future games).

Additionally you should consider how your delay effects the game rate and your win rate. Not only do your delays effect how many hands you get to see, but it also encourages others to have longer deliberatiosn further effecting the rate of the game.

The only area where I think this touches on poker ethics is when it comes to delays inserted into deliberations for the intent of masking your intentions. These should be kept the minimum needed. 10-15s is usu. enough. Going into the tank for 2-3 minutes to decide to fold your 72o preflop bluff raise when somebody comes over the top is just wrong.