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 »

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 »

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 »

May 19, 2008 by Rising300.

Ok, the blinds are 2000/4000, and they have been for at least 10 minutes. This is the final table of a $150 buy in tournament. On the river, player A leads out and bets 2000, and player B (the only 2 people in the pot) calls the 2000 quickly. The dealer says “whoa, you gotta bet the minimum, 4000″ The guy says he would not have called the 4000. It’s pretty clear we have to make Player A bet the minimum of 4000, but with player B do you:

A) make him call the 4000. “Sir, it’s everyone’s responsibility to know that the blinds are 2000/4000, and you cannot call a 2000 bet. You call the entire amount.

or

B) The 2000 stays in the pot, I will let you complete the bet to 4000 and call and have a chance to win, or you sacrifice the 2000 with no chance at winning the pot.

I suppose you can go either way, but I made him complete the bet to 4000 and he called it and lost.

Posted in Gross Misunderstandings, Underbets, etc, All-In Bets; Re-Opening Betting, Side-Pots, Split Pots, Official Rules & Guidelines, General, Money & Chips, Bets, Min Raise, StringBet, Fwd Motion, Act Out-Of-Turn | Print | 1 Comment »

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 »

March 30, 2008 by dc_rocker.

Hello TDs,

I was talking to a friend who is also a TD about strange situations that have or may come to happen during tourneys and we came across a possible tough scenario:

Imagine that sometime well into the tournament, when players have already built large chipstacks, an uncontrolled guy takes on a pretty bad beat, flips out and hits the table so hard that all of the chipstacks fall or get mixed together.

I mean, imagine a situation where all of the chips on a table fall on the ground (for example a large guy’s shoelaces are untied and he falls over the table).

There’s just been a dealer push, the new dealer has no idea of all those player’s stacks and there’s no such thing as a live Cardplayer coverage to keep track of chipcounts. Also,the tournament is not being held on a casino with cameras everywhere.

How would you handle the situation? =)
Best regards,

D.C.

Brazilian Series of Poker

Posted in Chaos: Sloppy Mgmt of Tables & Tournament, Money & Chips | Print | 2 Comments »

January 1, 2008 by nestg.

So I was dealing a tournament and the button was in the 2 seat. The table was 10 handed and two seats were blind stacks. Both seats were paid for but neither player was in their seats. Player “A” was the small bind of 100 and was in the 3 seat. Player “B” was in the large blind and in seat 4. The rule in our poker room is that if a player is no “At his/her seat by the time the last card is dealt to the dealer button, they’re hand is dead.” In this situation everyone, including the button, folded to the dead blinds. I know this seems silly but it actually happened.

 Confused I called the floor as I was unaware of what to do since there was no eligable perosn to win the pot. I was unsure whether to push the pot to the dead big blind or refund both blinds as a “chop” like in a cash game. The floor ruled that the person on the button, despite the lack of paying attention was the last person to have a live hand and therefore should be awarded the pot. So the person who was on the button, who also did not have a hand, was awarded the 300 chip pot.

Online I have seen this happen and in this case Player B would be awarded the pot. Since they were in the big blind. Imagine if there were ante’s involved or it was later in the tournament.

How would this be ruled on in other poker rooms? Does any of the TDA rules cover this? Has anyone else ever seen this happen?

Thanks!

Posted in Showdowns & Pot Awarding, Incorrect Pot Awards, Buttons & Blinds, Mucking, Dead Hands, Etc, Money & Chips, Texas Holdem | Print | 2 Comments »

December 3, 2007 by Legato.

The following happened at my table during a recent TDA sanctioned tournament:

Blinds 300/600. First player in tosses in 2*500 chips without announcing anything. It’s considered a call. I am not in the pot and I don’t get involved in the discussion until after the hand where I state that I thought it was a raise in a situation like that, because:

* The raise is more than 50% of the minimum raise (1000>900).
* The one chip rule does not apply since 2 chips were used.

The other players at the table say I’m wrong and it’s a call, they fail to motivate why though. One of them really wants to know and calls floor over. Floor says it’s a call in the described situation. The next day I talk to my neighbour at the table (a pokerstars pro) about the ruling, asking him of his opinion. He says he’s sure that it’s a raise and calls the head floor over. He says it’s a call, and when we ask if throwing in 3*500 on 400/800 also would be a call he says that would be a raise. He does not tell us why he thinks we are wrong when we say “there is no 2 chip rule, right”?

My conclusion is that he felt that the intention of the 2*500 is clearly a call, while the intention of the 3*500 is clearly a raise. But is it really the right decision to abide by intention when “the book” clearly states it’s a raise? IMO it’s much easier if rules are enforced strictly according to book, since players will then learn to announce “call” or “raise” if the intention isn’t 100% clear. To me it seems like tricky follow up situations can occur otherwise. Let’s say someone calls his bet putting in 600, and the player now says “ohh, I meant to raise, it’s got to be 1200 right?”, what do you do know?

Posted in Official Rules & Guidelines, General, Etiquette, Behavior, Play Procedures & Penalties, Limit, No-Limit, Pot Limit, Money & Chips, Bets, Min Raise, StringBet, Fwd Motion, Act Out-Of-Turn | Print | 6 Comments »

November 30, 2007 by frenchflush.

Hello, sometime a question is so simple that you have a doubt (lol) here it is:

2 players left at the turn in a hand - player A bets 500 - player B raises at 1500 - player A takes his time - then … suddenly player B throws his cards in the muck thinking that player A has folded (witch is not the case at all : no confusion, no angle move, nothing from A : just an error from B)  … OK the hand of B is dead but can he recover the raise (1000)?

I personnaly think so because of the official rules BUT … then imagine that:

3 players left at the turn in a hand - player A bets 500 - player B calls 500 - player C raises at 1500 - player A folds - player B takes his time - then … suddenly player C throws his cards in the muck thinking that player B has folded too (witch is not the case at all : no confusion, no angle move, nothing from B : just an error from C)  … OK the hand of B is dead and I think he can’t recover is raise because it pushed A to fold … so who wins what? I would simply say B wins everything of the pot (if his stack can cover the 1500) … but it’s so unfair for A !?!

GG

Posted in Official Rules & Guidelines, General, Fouled Hands, Incorrect Pot Awards, Chaos: Sloppy Mgmt of Tables & Tournament, Mucking, Dead Hands, Etc, Showdowns & Pot Awarding, Money & Chips | Print | 2 Comments »

November 8, 2007 by frenchflush.

Well, to make a conclusion on the counting (unpleasant situations I experienced with my dealers as TD with very unsportmanlike players):

A bets 13575 (counted & annouced by the dealer) … his stack is around 100000

B raises all-in at 47325 (counted & annouced by the dealer) …

A wants the dealer to tell him the difference he has to pay to call BEFORE taking his decision !?!

IMPORTANT:

1- In one hand the organisators of this finale table wanted the stacks to be very big for the show (pictures & vidéos) so there where a lots of chips around (even the short stacks) making the counting hard for everybody. 

2- But in the other hand the player A (and some others) where really not nice: critisizing everything & my poor dealers & asking quite everytime for the differences of amounts BEFORE taking his decisions! His main argument was the during the EPT (european poker tournament) the dealers did ALLWAYS give the 3 amounts: the first bet, the raise & the difference (still not sure they really did it)!

SO: does my dealers are definitively OBLIGED TO ALLWAYS COUNT THIS DIFFERENCE BEFORE THE PLAYER’S DECISION (imagine the waste of time?) ???

GG

Posted in Official Rules & Guidelines, General, Start Chips, Blind Raising Structure, Tourney Timing, Showdowns & Pot Awarding, Money & Chips | Print | 3 Comments »