That's not what the poster I responded to was saying. He said he never heard people adding the amounts before and that it's just a hype thing. That certainly didn't start with TAR. People were calling out the total amount at DCC for ahead sets (the total freeze up amount) long before TAR was around. And I think that was gambling Mecca other than Hard Times.
What TAR did was to CLARIFY what the amount was by saying "in the middle." People were saying the total bet for a long time before that. And people were confused back then.
Surely you can recall hearing about matchups a decade or more ago and asking "was that total or each?" and nobody could give a straight answer. And legends/fantasies would grow. (Walden vs Cooney... what was the amount?)
TAR (especially Nasty) did the great job IMO by simply clarifying it and hammering out the "in the middle" description. That way for sure we would know how much each side was in for. It certainly isn't about hype.
Freddie
Fair enough. I didn't spend enough time in the action pit at SBE to realize that they were calling middle amounts.