December 16, 2008 by bill.buckley.

I was wondering what are the rules at most casinos for when a person is elgible to rebuy.  At a local charity game the rebuy amount was set to anything below the starting amount.  One player prior to a hand had substantially more than the the rebuy amount but during the hand had bet an amount that would put him below the rebuy amount (he remained in the hand).  He then called over the rebuy person and did a rebuy since the amount he had in front of him at this point was less then the rebuy amount (he did not use the rebuy during this hand).  That person also won the hand so depite the fact that he started the hand with more than the rebuy amount and he had more than the rebuy amount after the hand he also got to keep the rebuy that he had gotten giving him a substantial lead.  When the Tournment director was called to rule on this he said it was perfectly acceptable.  In later talks with the TD when questioned wether this was done at casinos he said of course and he has done it before.  This is new to me, I always thought that at most casinos you have to have started a hand (or ended a hand) with less than or equal to the rebuy amount before being eligible for a rebuy and that you could not use your chips in play to reduce your pot to amount that would allow you to rebuy in the middle of a hand.   I know an organizaiton can do what they want in terms of how to determine rebuys (and understand the charity is trying to get as many rebuys to help make money for a good cause) but am just wondering what the most accepted practice was in regards to when a person can rebuy I don’t ever remeber being at a casino where they allowed rebuys to be done his way (of course there are lots of casinos in the world) and I only rarely enter rebuy tournaments. 

Posted in Buy-Ins and Re-Buys, Start Chips, Blind Raising Structure, Tourney Timing, Registration, Buy-Ins, & Awards, Money & Chips, Tournament Directors, Event Structure & Management | Print | 1 Comment »

November 1, 2008 by remoh.

You are a tournament Director in a 10 table poker room who is holding a 200 person major poker tournament with two Day 1 flights. However due to less than maximum registrations you end up with 150 entrants of which 100 wish to play Day 1A (eg Fri) and only 50 wishing to play Day 1B (eg Sat).

Do you do anything to cater for the imbalance such as possibly reducing the length of both Day1’s  by 1 blind level (60 minute levels) to ensure enough players from Day1B make it to Day 2? 

Do you do nothing? and let the tournament run its course…….for Day 1B at the end of the day from 50 players you may only have 10 left….

Im up for any suggestions or what may have been done in the past…..This is the first time we have run multi Day1 flights in a tournament due to popularity of the game.

TA     Remoh 

Posted in Start Chips, Blind Raising Structure, Tourney Timing, Buy-Ins and Re-Buys, Tournament Personnel, Equipment, & Venues, Registration, Buy-Ins, & Awards, Buttons & Blinds, Tournament Directors, Event Structure & Management | Print | 4 Comments »

September 2, 2008 by riv.

Hi!

What are the situations when you pause the tournament (on all tables) if any? Checking the cameras? Some  big distraction? Any other reasons?

Best regards,

riv

Posted in Tournament Directors, Event Structure & Management | Print | 1 Comment »

April 15, 2008 by 52cartas.

Hi TD’s:

Last weekend I had my very first important tournamet with 3 different events and more than 300 participants in total, the Marbella Classic Poker, here in Spain.

I wanted to be sure I made the right decisions by asking you…

First situation:

We are on the river. Player A bets and B calls but A doesn’t realize about it and thinks the other guy folds so he throws his cards, passing the line. Inmediately he realizes that he is still in the hand and takes back his cards. Player B complained because cards had passed the line but I gave A the chance to play the pot which was finally won by him, as I thought it was an accidental fold and he realized inmediately and cards didn’t touch the muck nor the chips. Wrong or right decission?

Second situation:

Pre-flop. Player A limps in and B goes all-in. A asks for a chip-count and the dealer counts less than the real amount so A calls and shows his cards, moving the amount declared by the dealer through the line. Player B suddenly declares that he’s got more chips and that A hasn’t complete the bet, that A has folded his cards and the pot must be won by him (he still hasn’t showed his cards). Then A says that he will complete the bet anyway, moving the rest of his chips into the middle. B continues complaining, claiming the pot and shows pocket jacks, A has pocket kings. How I proceeded: I gave the call as good declaring A winner of the pot and busting out B as he had less chips but penalized A for showing his cards out of turn. I did so because I wasn’t present at that table when all this happened and I had to ask the dealer to explain the whole situation… Wrong or right decission?

Moving players:

Can a player moved from another table, to balance them, be two hands without play? I picked him from the u.t.g. position in the original table but, the available seats on the other table were just between the big blind and the button so, to preserve the order of the original blinds in that table he had to wait two hands to play…

Deal and chops:

Does exist any program or software to calculate the deals by chips at a final table? How do you proceed with them (the deals)?

Posted in Chaos: Sloppy Mgmt of Tables & Tournament, Fouled Hands, Exposed Cards, Hand Discussion, Etc., Gross Misunderstandings, Underbets, etc, Tournament Personnel, Equipment, & Venues, Showdowns & Pot Awarding, Dealer Errors, Bad Flops, Etc., Tournament Directors, Event Structure & Management, Etiquette, Behavior, Play Procedures & Penalties, Mucking, Dead Hands, Etc, Bets, Min Raise, StringBet, Fwd Motion, Act Out-Of-Turn | Print | 5 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 19, 2008 by Nina C.

I’m putting together a Holdem, Stud and Omaha 8 or better tourn for about 32 ppl. Only omaha will be 8 or better. I would like to structure it as pot limit. Can anyone out there direct me to any source where I could find a good structure for this evernt?

Posted in H.O.R.S.E. Variations, Official Rules & Guidelines, General, Start Chips, Blind Raising Structure, Tourney Timing, Etiquette, Behavior, Play Procedures & Penalties, Tournament Directors, Event Structure & Management | Print | 1 Comment »

December 30, 2007 by Mayhem_VI.

  I’ve run a couple H.O.R.S.E. Tourneys and participated in a couple of live games.  The issue always comes up regarding the placement of the button, and I have a simple solution.  Keep moving the button through the Razz, Stud and Stud/8 games and keep dealing to the left of the button.  After the last hand of Stud/8, the button gets moved, and the two players to the immediate left post the small and big blinds respectively.  It doesn’t matter who got knocked out of the tournament, who got moved to another table, or who left (or came into) the live game.

  Now, every time I’ve made this suggestion, it gets rejected immediately, and I don’t know why.   Finally, Roland Waters at the Wildhorse PRU suggested that I come here.  I think I’m getting him convinced, but he says when he brings it up with others in the TDA (again) they shake their head and change the subject.  As a system, it has worked like a charm in my tournaments and after watching closely and getting feedback from my players, I still don’t see a downside.  Personally, I like a button in Stud tournaments anyway as it takes away any advantage/disadvantge to the players sitting on either side of the dealer (I, myself, have a pathological hatred for the seat to the dealers right, and this system clears that right up). 

  Anyway, I would like some feedback on this.  And do me a favor please.  At least give it a try or a simulation before you tell me how full of crap I am.  Thanx.

Posted in Lowball & Razz, Start Chips, Blind Raising Structure, Tourney Timing, Official Rules & Guidelines, General, H.O.R.S.E. Variations, Buttons & Blinds, Tournament Directors, Event Structure & Management, Omaha, Other Games, 5 and 7-Card Stud, Texas Holdem | Print | 3 Comments »

November 15, 2007 by onedoubleo.

I run a weekly tournament in my university un its Poker Society. However with time constraints between the venue and university lecture times we have a very harsh blind system that is generally double blinds at 20min intervals. I looked into holding it somewhere where time costraints wouldnt be a problem but couldn’t find any where that is feesible.

The blinds in this system can work well but 50% of the time are far too steep by the time we hit the 4th level. Has anyone got tips on methods to improve this?

Posted in Start Chips, Blind Raising Structure, Tourney Timing, Buttons & Blinds, Tournament Directors, Event Structure & Management, Texas Holdem | Print | 2 Comments »