December 9, 2008 by Bravo228.

Rule #8 states that A player must be at his or her seat by the time all players have been dealt complete initial hands in order to have a live hand.  Players must be at their seat to call time.  So with that in mind, what does At Your Seat mean to you as a Tournament Director?  To me, it means the player must be sitting in their seat.  That way, there is no confusion as to what At Your Seat means.

Posted in Fouled Hands, Late Registration, Missing Players Etc, Official Rules & Guidelines, General, Empty Seats, Penalties, Clocks, Ejected Players, Mucking, Dead Hands, Etc, Seating & Moving Players | Print | 3 Comments »

December 2, 2008 by frenchflush.

Hello,

During a tournament a player stand up and declare he is leaving and will not come back (for personnal reasons) : we retired his chips from the tournament … right?

GG

Posted in Buy-Ins and Re-Buys, Late Registration, Missing Players Etc, Empty Seats, Penalties, Clocks, Ejected Players, Seating & Moving Players | Print | 2 Comments »

September 9, 2008 by khalade.

Hello All,

My question is pretty simple but I wanted to verify my information before I passed it along.  If a person has begun a tournament or bought into the tournament persay, and they play a few rounds but then have to leave the tournament what happens to their chips?  For example, if they had to respond to an emergency and couldn’t finish out the tournament how should they officially be handled?

Thanks,

Posted in Late Registration, Missing Players Etc, Buy-Ins and Re-Buys, Official Rules & Guidelines, General, Empty Seats, Penalties, Clocks, Ejected Players, Registration, Buy-Ins, & Awards, Money & Chips | Print | 6 Comments »

June 19, 2008 by coldtalk.

Tournament situation. Two tables both with six players playing and waiting to create a final table with ten players. Dealer is dealing the cards, small and big blind placed. At same time on the other table dealer is announced ALL IN, and for players at the same time get of the table to see the game, including the players from the blinds. Player who is UTG and next one folds immediately. The cards are folded from the players who are not at the table following the order. Coming to the SM and fold him to, took the chips and placed it front the BB. I must add that UTG and next one are fold soon as they get they both cards and seen them, so they are in the muck when the dealer is finishing of dealing.We have a rule which is: if the player is not at the table his hand is fold. But what about situation when we have only two present players at the table and they fold they cards when was they time to play. Is the hand of SM and BB also fold?Who then gets the chips? I am not sure what would be a general rule for this and what does the Robert’s rule says about situation like this and I would like an opinion about this also-if the all hands of players who are not at the table folded at the same time without to wait an order then is it possible for a player who is last fold and who is last also on the table to win the chips. Two players only at the table present. This all happened very fast. Please, what would be a general rule or is it a rule that if the no ones matches the amount can not win a pot.

Posted in All-In Bets; Re-Opening Betting, Side-Pots, Split Pots, Late Registration, Missing Players Etc, Official Rules & Guidelines, General, Showdowns & Pot Awarding, Buttons & Blinds, Seating & Moving Players | Print | 4 Comments »

June 19, 2008 by bill.buckley.

Hi the TDA rules used to be pretty clear of who can play when moving from other positions.  It used to say A player being moved will be able to play if moved to any position other than between the dealer and the small blind. Hence he could play if he was moved into the button position, little blind or bing blind.  The latest rules for rules from roberts rule don’t specify this clearly but do say that a ‘new’ player can not sit down between the dealer and the big blind (the way it is written makes it sound like it is for people new to cash games).  What is the most popular rule for tournements?  Also if a person at a cash table and misses the big blind (stepped away to answer phone  or smooke), if he returns prior to his small blind will most places let him post 3 chips (small and big) and play from the small blind position (and then take the dealer position) or must he sit out the  small blind position and wait for the button to pass before posting the 3 chips (small and big blind).

Thanks

Bill

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Posted in Late Registration, Missing Players Etc, Official Rules & Guidelines, General, Buttons & Blinds, Seating & Moving Players | Print | 3 Comments »

April 13, 2008 by dsbartolo.

I’m a Dealer i have a situation that i believe needs assistance:  Every Wednesday we have No Limit Holdem in our 6 Table Poker Room.  When we get the second game players on first table are always concerned whether they are going to make the 2nd table a feeder game into the first game that begun.  Floor man are usually never consistent with there rulings. Usualy if the second table goes they will make the first table 10 handed then start the next one, but you never know with the players.  Sooner or later the main game will get short handed with no board and the 2nd table will be full.  Yesterday they began this Must Move on the Second Game in to the Main Game but we had husband and wives and players who enjoyed there seats in the 2nd game and did not want to move…..floor man said its must move……it got a little out of hand that players from 2nd game just left instead of moving …..one left cause she would be playing on same table with husband……… etc……what would you suggest would be a better outcome to solve this issue…..thank you for your time……….

Posted in Late Registration, Missing Players Etc, Poker Room and Casino Mgmt Issues, Empty Seats, Penalties, Clocks, Ejected Players, Tournaments vs. Single Tables, Tournament Directors, Event Structure & Management, Seating & Moving Players | Print | 2 Comments »

April 13, 2008 by yelims.

There is a practice I have seen at a couple of casinos that disturbs me. Opening a new table after the tournament has begun. The casino allows late entries up to the end of the first limit, and has a provision for alternates, can be seated for the first hour. They will make tables 11 handed to accommodate more players, (the normal is ten players to a table) but on occasion, have opened a new table when enough players walked in after the cards are in the air. Is this fair to the players that arrived on time, played through the blinds and possibly busted out already, or had a big chunk out of their stack? This whole table gets in late without posting blinds that would have been played if they where inserted into existing tables. I have searched for a rule on this and have come up blank. IMHO this is not a fair practice. Does anyone have thoughts on this?  

Posted in Official Rules & Guidelines, General, Late Registration, Missing Players Etc, Registration, Buy-Ins, & Awards, Tournament Directors, Event Structure & Management, Seating & Moving Players, TDA & this forum: Questions, Comments, Suggestions, Uncategorized | Print | 5 Comments »

March 26, 2008 by Deadman.

Hello all,

I have seen a number of posts that ask questions about best methods to handle late arrivals and managing prize pools in regards to on-time attendance, and no-shows. Sometimes these questions are regarding official casino and card room policies, but many times these pertain to home run or private run tournaments (bar leagues, etc). My expertise (if I could call it that) lies in the latter.

As someone who has run home games of one sort or another for 15 years and has been running a successful and consistent monthly tournament for over 4 years (without missing a single month), I thought I would offer a standard we came up with for this that has been wildly successful over the last year or so. It has also relieved a lot of headaches from the lack of method or less developed methods we had used in the past.

1. Although we do have an RSVP list, we do not use a pre-registration method that collects entry fees prior. In the home / private game world, this is not always a trusted method by the players who certainly prefer to pay fees on the day of the game.

2. We switched from a punishment method affecting late arrivals, to a reward method affecting on-time players. This has proven to be a huge success and rarely do we have stragglers anymore (details to follow).

3. We did our best to make most all situations “black-and-white”. This is important in home / private game play where newcomers, guests, and others may feel slighted by special treatment of the regulars, “inner circle”, etc (whether it exists or not).

4. For late arrivals entered, we draw a seat, place chips at the table and blind them as the rounds come. This guarantees everyone is aware of the “place” in the game, their entry in the prize pool, and the accuracy of their chip loss for late arrival.

5. No one is seated without entry into the prize pool (late arrival details to follow). This eliminates the situation of holding a seat for a player, only to find they are a no-show and the prize pool is down one entry fee.

So, how do we do it? Below is our standard rules that have so far managed to accomplish the goals and results above. I hope they are helpful and provide some new ideas to those out there that run regular games and tournaments.

—————–

All players who have ARRIVED (not valid for Call-ins), signed in, PAID their entry fee, and drawn their seating card by 4:45pm will start with $3,000 of no-value tournament chips  (a 25% “on-time bonus” of $600 as a reward for punctuality), and the tournament will start as promptly as possible at or after 5:00pm. 

CALL-IN LATE ARRIVAL PROCEDURE:

In order to be a guaranteed entry and have a seat in the tournament, you must be in attendance and have received your chips.  For anyone running late, we have set up the following CALL-IN procedure.  This will be the CLOSEST and ONLY way that you may have a seat, without being in attendance by the time of the first hand. The first hand will be dealt as close to the 5:00pm start time as tournament directors determine feasible.  If a player has not yet arrived, but wishes to be entered and seated in the tournament, he/she must understand and agree to the following: 

1.  Player must have someone in attendance that is willing and able to cover his/her entrance fee in cash.  This can be any individual, but the entrance fee will not be covered by the “house”.  Player is accepting the responsibility of payment of debt to the individual that covered his/her entrance, regardless of any circumstance or whether the player ever made it to the tournament at all, or in time to play a hand.  This is to be handled between the player and said individual as a personal debt.  The “house” accepts no responsibility or liability to this debt. 

2.  Player must call in to make arrangements at least 10 minutes prior to first hand being dealt. 

3.  Player must be willing to be blinded and folded appropriately until his/her arrival. 

4.  The “house” reserves the right to decline seating for players not in attendance for any number of reasons (e.g. it would require adding another table to the game, already have too many call-in entries, tournament has enough players, etc.). 

5.  Entry and Seating Stipulations:

Being on the reservation list does not guarantee a call-in seat.  Reserved seats are “up for grabs” and are no longer reserved for any player not in attendance by 4:45pm.

Players in attendance (reserved or otherwise) will be seated with priority over call-ins.

A call-in seat is not guaranteed.  Player may lose the seat, for any number of reasons, prior to the first hand being dealt.  Player will not owe any entrance fee in this circumstance and cash will be returned to the individual that covered any such fee. 

6.  Once the first hand is dealt, all call-in seats are guaranteed for life of chip stack and/or tournament. 

Please do note that these rules and the tournament starting time may be STRICTLY followed.  We can offer no breaks for friends, as most of us are friends.

——————

 I hope someone finds this helpful. Questions or comments are welcome.

-Deadman

Posted in Late Registration, Missing Players Etc, Start Chips, Blind Raising Structure, Tourney Timing, Registration, Buy-Ins, & Awards, Tournament Directors, Event Structure & Management, Seating & Moving Players | Print | No Comments »

February 29, 2008 by Steve Silver.

I am the tournament director at the River Poker Room at the Mountaineer Casino in West Virginia.  I deduct 1 Small Blind and 1 Big Blind for each round the late registering player misses .  This never goes past the third round as thats when registration closes.  I put the missed blinds into the pot on the first hand that the new player is in as dead money.  There are some players that argue with me and want a full stack.  They tell me that the Bellagio gives full stacks even if a player is late.  I told them that I would give a full stack only if the event was sold out and the players in line were ON TIME. They would be seated as alternates.  BUT late players would be blinded off. Any comments?

Thanks

Steve Silver

Posted in Late Registration, Missing Players Etc, Registration, Buy-Ins, & Awards | Print | 4 Comments »