Rule Change(s)
Posted on April 22, 2008
Filed Under General
One of the continuing struggles in poker is to institute standardized rules for all tournament play. There is honest debate among both players and tournament directors on many of the rules. I attended last year's Tournament Directors Association meeting and was impressed with the diversity of views on how rules should be written and applied.
So it was heartening today at the start of Day Three of the World Poker Tour Championship at Bellagio to see some true rule cooperation. Before the cards were in the air, reknown and respected Tournament Director Jack McCelland stood up with Daniel Negreanu and asked the players their opinion of the "Show One Show All" rule. Daniel has written often in his blog that the application of the rule, particularly at Bellagio is not what was intended.
Interpretation #1: If you show your cards to one player, you must show them to all players. This is a rule everyone agrees on.
Interpretation #2: If you show one of your cards to the table, you must show both cards. This is a rule that most players do not think is appropriate.
So Jack stood up and asked the players about the #2 application of the rule. The players nearly unanimously voted against it. At which point Jack changed the rule at Bellagio.
Now that is cooperation.
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Later in the day another new rule:
The Bellagio has implemented another new rule for the money bubble. If a table has players who are all in, they do not reveal their hole cards until all the tables either complete their hands or also reach an all-in situation. That way, players at other tables don't have the advantage of knowing whether a short stack is weak or strong, potentially affecting their decision.
