November 19, 2008 by PurePoker.

Hi Guys,

been an avid reader of this blog for quite some time and thought I should post a couple of questions that I have run into over the last couple of months.

Guy in middle position declares All-In and places his remaining chips (about 10 pieces) on top of his cards and moves them towards the middle over the betting line. Guy on the Dealer button calls, Big-Blind calls as well, both have more chips. The bets are collected and the flop is layed out. While BB considers his options, suddenly the person all-in says: “Where are my cards?” The dealer realizes he has mucked the cards, because they layed on the wrong side of the betting line.
How would you rule?

Somebody on the table folds his cards so strongly, they fly into the cards of another player. The dealer cannot identify whoch cards where folded.
What is your ruling?

Somebody is playing aroung with his chips, holding a large amount in his hand. Suddenly he drops the chips in his hand and the fall into the stack of his neighbor. It is not possible to identify which chips belong to which player.
What should the TD do?

Thanks,
Denis
Pure Poker Lounge

Posted in Collusion, Cheating, Etc., Chip Counts of Pot & Opponents Stacks, Fouled Decks, Missing Cards, etc., Dealers Responsibilities, Errors, Partial Faults, Etc., Fouled Hands, All-In Bets; Re-Opening Betting, Side-Pots, Split Pots, Dealer Errors, Bad Flops, Etc., Etiquette, Behavior, Play Procedures & Penalties, Mucking, Dead Hands, Etc, Texas Holdem | Print | No Comments »

September 14, 2008 by Sonny.

   I am having a problem locating a rule, in either favor on a chip stacking issue. First, does it say anywhere, that chips MUST be stacked? If so, does each stack have to contain the same color chips? How many chips in a stack? How many chips can there be max in a stack etc? Here is the issue. I have a player in my league, who insists on keeping her chips in a lump. At some points, there is at least 100-150 chips in a pile in front of her, nothing stacked. And of course, she is superstitious. Other players complain that they cannot get an accurate count. I know she does not have to give an accurate count, but she must have all her chips visible. I do force her to have the largest denomination chips on top of the stack, in plain sight. Anytime she makes a bet, she always declares the amount, and gathers the bet and puts it in neatly, in a stack, but she will not stack her chips. When she goes all in, she will stack them, to enable us to count correctly. If she wins a pot, she just lumps them again in front. I cannot find any clear rules, other than her largest denom chips must be visible, and that is being satisfied. Any help here?

Posted in Chip Counts of Pot & Opponents Stacks, Official Rules & Guidelines, General, Start Chips, Blind Raising Structure, Tourney Timing, Money & Chips | Print | 2 Comments »

May 26, 2008 by Rising300.

Ok, here is what happened:

I am called over, player A raises, player B grabs a stack of $25 chips, starts moving forward with chips to call this bet, and then really quickly Player C reraises, at this point, I’m sure he’s thinking “heck no” so he quickly pulls back his bet (which was about semi completed) and mucks his hand. I am called over.

The hand was mixed into the muck, so I said “well you made a motion to call, he is acting on behalf that he thinks you are calling, so I have to make you put in the $300″ However, I had him whisper his hand to me, and i looked in the muck, and found them to be the bottom two cards.

I don’t like to dig in the muck, but our rule says “if there is a misunderstanding, i can dig in the muck and retrieve a hand”. Player B kinda was the culprit here as he started to call, but didn’t drop say the last batch of greens, and then when player C reacts on it, he quickly takes it back.

I got lucky in this situation as his hand, the 8,5 of clubs were the bottom two cards in the muck. Did I open up a can of worms on this ruling? The dealer told me that he started to cut out chips, wasn’t quiet done and then quickly retracted.

Posted in Chip Counts of Pot & Opponents Stacks, Gross Misunderstandings, Underbets, etc, Bets, Min Raise, StringBet, Fwd Motion, Act Out-Of-Turn, Texas Holdem | Print | 3 Comments »

May 19, 2008 by frenchflush.

I know you will think: “what a big mess” but this situation really happened in a big club (used to host the WPT): the “Aviation Club de France” and during the “Grand Prix de Paris” (link here : http://www.aviationclubdefrance.com/home_uk.html).

OK to make it simple: after a Break they close a table … player A (with 25000) find a ticket sending him to a new place with 50000 … A just seats & start playing … he plays 4 hands during wich he eliminate player X (famous) wich had let’s say 40000 … player A have now 90000 … then player B is coming back (late but it’s his right) from the break and claim for this seat (in fact the organisators really made a mistake with the ticket of A: he should never have been moved to this 50000 place wich really was the place of B) … the three players (together with X) call for the floor (poor man lol) … after half an hour of decisions:   PLAYER X IS DECLARED ELIMINATED (I agree) - PLAYERS A&B ARE SENT TO THEIR ORIGINAL SEATS (25000 & 50000) but on TV nobody understood what became the 40000 of benefits … we understood it was divided between A & B (???) … On my opinion: I WOULD HAVE RETIRED THE 40000 FROM THE TOURNAMENT (X would be eliminated but A could’nt get profit from a move made with another one’s stack!)!

Any idea?

GG

Posted in Incorrect Pot Awards, Official Rules & Guidelines, General, Collusion, Cheating, Etc., Chip Counts of Pot & Opponents Stacks, Chaos: Sloppy Mgmt of Tables & Tournament, Start Chips, Blind Raising Structure, Tourney Timing, Color-Ups & Chip Races, Etiquette, Behavior, Play Procedures & Penalties, Registration, Buy-Ins, & Awards, Empty Seats, Penalties, Clocks, Ejected Players, Money & Chips | Print | 3 Comments »

April 7, 2008 by lnufnu.

An incident came up this past weekend during a rather large tournament that I was directing.  A player (player A) made a rather large raise to a player (player B) who was the chip leader at the table.  Player B asked player A how many more chips he had left.  Player A did not answer and just sat there coldstone silent, not moving an inch.  Player B asked again and once more player A said nothing.  All of player A’s chips were clearly visible.  Player B then asked the dealer if he could get a count of the remaining chips that player A had.  The dealer was not sure if he was allowed to assist another player in this way so he called me over.  I made the ruling that the dealer was not allowed to count another player’s chips.  This upset player B and he told me that I was wrong.  Was I right, or was I wrong?  Thanks for your assistance.

Posted in All-In Bets; Re-Opening Betting, Side-Pots, Split Pots, Gross Misunderstandings, Underbets, etc, Chip Counts of Pot & Opponents Stacks, Showdowns & Pot Awarding, Mucking, Dead Hands, Etc, Dealer Errors, Bad Flops, Etc., Money & Chips, Bets, Min Raise, StringBet, Fwd Motion, Act Out-Of-Turn | Print | 4 Comments »