Tournament Directors Association

Tournament Directors Association to standardize Tournament Rules

Last week, just before the inaugural World Poker Player's Conference and World Poker Industry Conferences began, tournament directors from all over the country got together to discuss ways to simplify, organize, and standardize the rules of poker for tournaments. Bellagio's Doug Dalton provided a meeting room and snacks and Card Player Cruises organized this historic event.

Since the Cardrooms couldn't agree to anything, they tried taking the rules problem to the tournament directors and found out that nothing comes easily. Starting with a list of 20 items, directors from everywhere turned out to try and be the dissenting vote, or at least that was the way it seemed.

Cardrooms represented, but not limited to, included Bay 101, Lucky Chances, The Oaks, Foxwoods, Commerce, Hollywood Park, Orleans, Spirit Mountain, Card Player Cruises, Lake Elsinore, Reno Hilton, as well as Bob Thompson and Jack McClelland.

Each item, some as simple as dead or forward moving button, were discussed at length. Finally, from the list of 20, 14 were agreed to by this select panel of experts. An agreement was drawn up and the casinos who sign it have promised to use these standardized rules commencing August 1st.

They will all meet and discuss how things worked for them at next year's WPIC (World Poker Industry Conference). Although there are only 14, it is a start and many concessions were made by some of the directors.

For more information, contact Dave Lamb at the Reno Hilton Poker Room. He will be getting forms out to you if you wish to sign up your room.

Here are the new standardized TDA rules...

1. Chip-race rule: When it is time to color-up chips, they will be raced off with a maximum of one chip going to any player. The chip-race always will start in the No.1 seat.

2. Odd chips: The odd chip(s) will go to the high hand. In flop games, when there are two or more high hands or two or more low hands, the odd chip(s) will go to the left of the button. In stud-type games, the odd chip will go to the high card by suit.

3. Side pots: Each side pot will be split as a separate pot. They will not be mixed together before they are split.

4. Calling for the clock procedures: Once a clock is called for, a player will be given one minute to make a decision. If action has not been taken by the time the minute is over, there will be a 10-second countdown. If a player has not acted on his hand by the time the countdown is over, the hand will be dead.

5. Dead Button: Tournament play will use a dead button.

6. Penalties: A penalty MAY be invoked if a player exposes any card with action pending, if a card(s) goes off the table, if softplay occurs, or similar incidents take place. Penalties WILL be invoked in cases of abuse, disruptive behavior, or similar incidents.

7. Players must be at the table to call time. In flop games, the big blind's hand will be dead if he is not there to act on it before the flop. In stud-type games, the forced low hand will be immediately dead if the player is not there to act on his hand at the time he is required to put money in the pot (the minimum bring-in will be posted and the hand will be killed).

8. Half-bet rule: If a player puts in a raise of 50% or more of the previous bet, he will be required to make a full raise.

9. All cards will be turned face up once a player is all-in and all action is complete.

10. In limit games, an oversized chip will be constituted to be a call if the player does not announce raise. In no-limit, an oversized chip before the flop is a call; after the flop, an oversized chip put in the pot will constitute the size of the bet.

11. The one player-to-a-hand rule will be enforced.

12. A draw for the button will be held at the beginning of each flop-type event.

13. Tournament and satellite seats will be randomly assigned. In satellites, the dealer will shuffle and give each player a seat assignment that cannot be exchanged.

14. The English-only rule will be enforced during tournament play.

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