 What do you think of these NEW RULES?
Poker is an evolving activity, which means that the gatekeepers of the various tours and even individual poker rooms are creating new rules to govern the game. Here are two that I have encountered recently and consider... well you decide.
NEW RULE #1: The Anti-Needling Rule. Some rooms are moving towards the European style where players may not directly address one another while in a hand. I have seen this enforced in two cardrooms in Las Vegas and have heard opinions on both sides of the debate from leading poker managers.
NEW RULE #2: The "How Much Have You Got" rule. This one is newer but I hear will be the law of the land at Binions and several other rooms soon. If chips are not in the pot, then you are not entitled to a count. This means you cannot ask a player to count his stack down. "I will put him all-in" will not be a legitimate bet. The agreements around this one mystify me a bit but they are vocal on both sides.
As loyal readers know, there was a lot of head-bumping between the media and WSOP officials this summer -- as Harrah's set up a bunch of new rules designed with the main event in mind that made things difficult for those of us covering the other five weeks worth of events.
While lots of us bitched, I've contended that the real test will be how they handle the 2007 WSOP -- because so much was new to Jeffrey Pollack and his team in 2006. It appears Harrah's may be making a move in the right direction, as they just sent me (and presumably several other PokerBloggers) a survey asking our opinions on how things were handled. But what I am wondering ... have they already brought on a new media-handling team?
For at least the past two years, everything from credentials to interview requests were handled through a company called TBC -- Trahan, Burden, Charles. But this survey -- and really, it asked some good questions -- came from an email at RDSCypress.com. It looks like RDS (Research Design Specialists) might just be a sub-sub-contractor, but I can't be sure. We'll see if we can find out for you -- and ourselves -- of course. But in the meantime, glad to see Harrah's Entertainment recognizing that having several dozen grumpy old men/women writing about one of their premier events isn't really in anyone's best interest.
NEW RULE: Dumb Rules are simply Dumb Rules.
The F-Bomb Rule still does not work. I wrote a two part article about this last year but another year of “enforcement” has done nothing to change anyone’s minds about this. The rule does not create more civility at the tables, it does force players to change their favorite curse word and its does overly punish players who grew up in New Jersey but it remains a stupid rule.
We all know and we have all told the floor staff in dozens of card rooms, the rule should punish intent and not just a word. The enforcement also puts dealers in the position of being table monitors and its demeaning to them and not uniformly enforced, never was and never will be. Dump the rule, it was a bad idea, it remains a bad idea.
NEW RULE: Give em a break (or a lung).
Smokers are idiots. Smokers are killing themselves. However, many smokers are also physically addicted to nicotine. I completely approve of all cardrooms being non-smoking HOWEVER that does not mean that the acceptable smoking area should be slowly moved further and farther away from the tables.
Give the addicted, suicidal fools a break and keep the smoking areas at least as close as the nearest ladies room.
Yes, I did play last night. Yes, there was a dumb ass drunk at my table. No, I had nothing to do with him falling into the canal at the Venetian.
Who the hell came up with the idea that dealers should take the crap they take off of the players? I mean what moron thought that coming to a casino meant you could drink play like the biggest donkey in creation and then treat the dealer like they are a junkyard dog?
You wouldn’t talk to an Arby’s clerk this way or your gardener or even your jerk son-in-law but dealer abuse is nothing short of the new bigotry. A created underclass, who as part of their job description, must take verbal and sometimes physical abuse from the casino’s “valued customers.” It’s a stupid way to run a business and some casino is going to figure that out and get all of my business and that of a lot of other players who do not think playing poker is synonymous with crass, stupid behavior.
NEW RULE/OLD RULE: Rules of play must be the same for all players at all times, no matter how many times they have been on television.
It happens in ever walk for life. The rich, the famous, the well-known get preferential treatment. However, when it comes to the enforcement of rules in a poker tournament such “special” treatment to professional players is tantamount to collusion. We see it at every tournament. Players have their hands killed for cell phone use but the professional is only warned by the floor who he calls by their first name. Professionals make request to the floor and their complaints are listened to, but if you or I made that same request it would be ignored. Professionals often call-in their registrations and then pay the day of the event, you ever tried to do that?
Now I do believe that the super stars deserve some special treatment. Their stardom brings more players and more money to the prizepool (someday maybe even ‘added’ money, if they ever get organized) but once again, there must be limits and the limits need to be the rules of play. So, it’s OK with me if the pros can phone in their registration but it’s not OK if they rulings go there way just because of who they are.
Here is a situation I witnessed recently. The floor was called and after the dealer explained the situation (correct procedure); the professional, who was involved in the hand, gave his view (additional correct information by the way but incomplete) and the floor ruled in favor of the professional. Fortunately the other player in the hand was not timid, he spoke up and said:
“Excuse me, you just ruled based on information provided by a player involved in the hand and you did not get the entire story.”
The floor to his credit listened to the player's additional bit of information, gave the dealer a very stern look and declared the hand a misdeal--the correct decision based on all of the information. Yes, the dealer gave inadequate information but so did the professional. It was clear to anyone paying attention that the professional (which is why I am not naming him) was using his celebrity and influence to try and steal a pot. Its still a game of money and when money is involved people, even famous people, will cheat.
New Rule: Sometimes you just have to say "Shut Up!."
At tournaments in Europe you cannot talk to a player while they are making a decision in a hand, it’s very civilized. That will never fly in the States and quite frankly it doesn’t always work that way over the pond. However, there need to be limits. When a player is making a big decision they should be allowed some time to concentrate without some yahoo mouthing off.
You see there is a big difference between “visual” people and “auditory” people. You can talk trash all day to me and I can tune you out and do whatever calculations I need to do to make my decision; I am a visual thinker, I see the math, I see the numbers, noise does not bother me. But “auditory” players need a bit of quiet to work out their play; they think the math and the odds, so an over-aggressive talker can actually prevent them from processing all the information available.
Suggestion: if you can call “time” on a player and get a clock, then there ought to be a way to call “quiet time” too. We could call it the STFU Rule.
Obvious Rule: Between sessions in a multi-day tournament, chips should not go missing.
It is a continuing and frequent problem with multiple day events that there is often a discrepancy between chip counts players make at the end of the day and what is in their stack the following day. If the chip bag is still sealed when they reach the table then the argument that they miscounted the night before is almost certainly valid but sometimes the chip bags are opened before the player reaches the table and that causes the problem. There are several reasons for the "missing" chips:
1. The players do the count themselves, usually unverified, often at the end of twelve or fourteen hour day of play. Player's make mistakes.
2. Chip bags are often opened by floor staff or dealers on day two before players have arrived at the tables. Players arrive late to the restart.
3. Poker tournament chips are not treated like casino chips and are considered “tokens” of play and not actual cash. Casinos do not treat "our" money like they treat "their" money.
Here is a modest proposal to solve the problem. If a player has not arrived at their seat by the restart time of the event, there bag will be opened by floor staff in front of all the other players at the table and one stack (20 chips) will be removed of whichever denomination is needed to satisfy the demands of blinds and antes. No other chips will be removed until the player arrives at the table or this initial stack is used up.
Whether anyone is willing to do accurate counts of all the chips in play at the end of each day in a multi-day tournament is highly questionable. It’s the right thing to do but there is no support for that change from either the players or the tournament staff.
But putting all of a player's chips out unguarded (dealer's cannot watch ten stacks in a full tournament room) is a formula for theft and it does happen more than tournament management wants to admit.
New Rule: Different Chips for Different Tournaments.
When two or more events are running in the same card room, you must use different chip sets for the different events. Players have been known to cheat at cards, no really! Different chip colors removes the temptation to move chips from one event to another. When those events have different buy-ins the temptation is much higher. This year at the WSOP the $50,000 HORSE event tables were right next to a $2,000 NLHE event. A lot more money to win in the HORSE event and a lot of reasons to move chips from the lower buy-in to the bigger buy-in event.
Simple safeguards make for Happy Poker and less gun play.
New Rule: Player’s Advisory Committees should be allowed to, at least, advise.
I know we pick on the WSOP a lot but when you are the big gorilla in the forest, you gotta expect that. The 2006 WSOP had a player’s advisory committee and I heard at least two members of that group say to player’s asking them for help:
“Don’t ask us, we have no power whatsoever.”
What poker does not need right now is window-dressing or corporate double-speak. Doing this "Poker is Becoming a Major Sport" thing right means a better game for everyone. Everyone means more and more players and therefore more and more customers for the big card rooms and big tournaments.
New Rule: There should be a player advisory committee for each tour.
...and I would include a dealer and a floor person on that committee.
I apologize if some of my new rules are a bit...ummmm... well... how should I say this.... expostulatory. [try dictionary.com]
But this time I intend to be even more endemic, autochthonous, inbred.
NEW RULE:There should be a PokerBlog writer at every cool important poker tournament in the known universe.
The line forms behind Dan and Jennifer for reasons we will not go into here but Steve could I have a copy of those Polaroids please.
I am always perplexed when I ask someone about a rule, any rule and I find there is no answer to the simple question: What is the purpose of this rule?
Example? Why are players reseated with 3 tables to go in a tournament or 2 tables to go or once they are ‘in the money’? If part of poker is dominating your table and outplaying your opponents and reading your opponents; then why reseat? Doesn't this rule punish the good players by rescrambling the field? I have asked this particular question before and gotten no good answers, in fact, I haven’t heard any bad answers either. But this new rule is not about reseating, it's about rules. It is, in fact, a rule about rules.
New Rule: No Rules without a Good Reason.
and by the way "because we have always done it that way" is not a good reason.
New Rule: Destroy Marked Cards
When a marked card is discover at the table, the floor should replace the card AND destroy the offending card at the table in view of the players. Marked cards have a tendency to show up again if not destroyed. We witnessed several times at the World Series where cards were removed from a deck only to be reintroduced to the deck sorting pile and made into a "previously owned" deck for play at another table.
I mean if poker is a major sport and is going to compete on that level then let’s act like a major sport. A baseball that is thrown out of play does not get recycled into the game later and they cost $14 a piece. Now how much exactly does a four of diamonds cost?
I am shocked to hear myself say this, being a child of the 60’s but………we need more rules.
NEW RULE: Poker needs more rules.
In particular there need to be more rules on procedures and not so much on play. The Tournament Directors Association has concentrated on rules for the actual playing of poker at the tables and they have done an amirable job with that. Now, however, we need the same diligence brought to bear on various procedures for running a tournament consistently, fairly and uniformly.
Over the next week or so (OK maybe a month) I am going to rant away with some New Rule suggestions. Feel free to join in.
NEW (old) RULE: Athletes do not make good role models based solely on what they do for a living. Just because someone can throw a baseball or catch a pass does not mean he (or she) should be someone your kids look up to.
Poker players play cards. Its what all of us learned to do as kids and back then no one told us we could do it for a living. In fact, most people cannot do it for a living (see: Fish). But more importantly poker players are just people who play cards, nothing special to make them different from anyone else on the planet; nothing to recommend them as role models or even decent human beings. There are exceptions, like Mike Sexton or...... well there are exceptions. But let's be clear, role models should actually do something for society, for others. Poker players play cards. Get it?
At a later date, we will discuss: Are poker players athletes?
 I wish to thank my good friend Liz Lieu for this one. She is a wise woman and I am forever in her debt for imparting this wisdom to me.
NEW RULE: Never date poker players!
Thank-you everyone! and don't forget to tip your waitress.
New Rule: Have a mandatory orientation session for all members of the media and this includes the entire ESPN crew. No orientation, no floor access.
The disregard for the players and the game is nowhere more evident than in the media pool. True it is usually new or late arriving media that make the same mistakes, so why not orient everyone before they get their media pass. I single out ESPN because, well frankly, some of them think they are gods. I mean did these guys go to medical school to get those big egos. Television is not king. But let me quote someone with more experience in this area than I. Mr. Wheaton, if you Wil:
"What a bunch of assholes the ESPN guys are. Seriously. I've been in the entertainment industry for a long time, and I don't think I've encountered a group of producers and cameramen who are bigger pricks. These guys shove people out of their way, apparently operate at the third grade level of basic manners and courtesy (I don't think I've heard a 'please' or 'thank you' or 'excuse me' from any of them the entire time I've been here) and seem to think that they're the only people here who have a job to do."
And a few days later, more from Wil:
"The ESPN bullshit is really getting on my nerves, but we're just three players off the money bubble at the moment, so hopefully they'll lighten up a little bit once this dramatic television moment has passed. I heard that ESPN declared that the player who goes out on the bubble must stay in his or her seat until they can come over and film them. Can you fucking believe that? You go out on the bubble in the Main Event of the WSOP, and they expect you to sit there and wait for them to send over Captain Asshole and the Rudeboys to capture the moment?"
For more poker insights from Wil Wheaton find his very entertaining words and wisdom here.
New Rule: Make permanent the ‘seating of alternates by table’ innovation introduced this year at the Series.
Yet another Jimmy Sommerfeld idea. After seating over 400 alternates in Event #2, one seat at a time. I must say they did a great job of that but…. Beginning with the next event alternates were seated in groups of ten at table #1, which was renumbered table #301. The players originally at table #1 were dispersed throughout the room. Next table #2 became table #302 and so on. Instead of each individual alternate having to be led to a table and given their chips at the table, which takes a huge amount of floor staff and time; under the new system ten alternates sit down at the same time and the first hand is dealt to all of them. Another great benefit is that alternates do not lose chips to blinds and they all sit down with equal stacks.
One of the prime complaints from alternates is that they often sit down at the table full of big stacks and therefore are at a disadvantage from their very first hand. This new system solves that problem and is more efficient, fairer and much faster. Alternates can be told where to be in the room and can already be at the table when it is broken and reset for them with new stacks.
Another great innovation, thank-you Mr. Sommerfeld.
New Rule: Find some damn way to stop players from losing chips overnight or while on break.
This is a big one. I cannot tell you how many players have come to the table on the second or third day of an event and found they had less chips than they counted the night before. The excuse is always the same:
“It was late, the players count the chips, we (meaning the floor or the casino) do not verify them. Miscounts happen.”
.
That is probably true some of the time. But 'probably' is a bad excuse and for a game based on the accumulation of chips, there needs to be a near perfect way to make sure chips do not go missing during an event.
This current system is arcane and just simply doesn’t work. Players arrive at tables to find their chip bags already open. There needs to be a rule about this too. No bags are opened without the player being at the table or five minutes before the re-start of the event and someone actually watches the stacks other then a dealer talking to his buddy at the next table. You see it’s quite simple. People cheat and people steal. They are playing for millions of dollars and some small minority of people will cheat.
A typical view from the rail
New Rule 14a: Implement the Sommerfeld Reseating System for all seat redraws.
OR
New Rule 14b: Don't reseat the field at all, ever, for any reason.
Reseating in a tournament needs to be done for a reason. Not just because its the end of the day or because the tournament has hit the money. If there is a reason then why not also rebalance the tables using the Sommerfeld System?
But there is an argument to be made that one aspect of poker skill is establishing dominance over your table with your play. If you have accomplished that, then why should you be arbitrarily reseated because its the end of the night? Why randomize the event each day?
So pick either of the New Rules but pick one and stop this reseating for no reason. Its the equivalent of trading teams between the divisions in Major League Baseball just because it's August 6th. What is the purpose of having the entire field redraw for seats?
New Rule: The seating list you give reporters should not cease to be accurate 20 minutes after the start of the tournament.
Every morning we in the media room receive a list of starting seat assignments and chip counts for players still in the Main Event. This morning I consulted the list to find the two players I would be covering - Ryan Kallberg and Andres Korn. Ryan was at table 186, Andres at table 163.
I entered the Amazon Room and looked for the tables. They weren't there. I was beginning to think I was crazy, until I spoke to a WSOP offical who assured me that I was in fact correct; the tables did not exist. The list we had been given was worthless. Add to that the new media restrictions and it makes it awfully hard to do one's job.
So I was on tilt. Still am to a certain extent, but was de-tilted by the words of my friend Wil, who said that "If they're going to screw something up, better they screw up something for us than for the people playing out there." I hate it when he's right.
Sadly, Ryan is out. Finished in 410th place, which is mighty impressive for a first time in the main event. Congratulations Ryan, we're all incredibly proud of you.
New Rule: Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should do something.
New Rule: Just because you have a rule doesn't mean you should use it.
New Rule: The game is about the player's NOT the television show.
Well yes, most of these are old rules. Rules that decent members of any community abide by. They are in effect rules of common courtesy, which most decent members of any society abide by.
Corporations, including Harrah's and ESPN are NOT members of any such community and no matter how many times the corporate shills say:
"We are concerned about the game."
They are not. I repeat, they are not concerned with the game of poker in any way except as it effects their bottom line. There is no sense in sugar coating this any more. The consistent decisions of those running the World Series this year have been overwhelmingly bottom line decisions based on the expediency of what ESPN and CardPlayer want done with the events. Players be damned.
Let me repeat: Players be damned!
There are lots of places to read about the way the tournament is being run; right here on pokerblog.com is one great place. I am not going to go into details here, maybe later. I simply want to say after spending the last six weeks here, at the Rio everyday, my singular impression of the World Series of Poker 2006 is:
Harrah's does not give a damn about the players.
NEW RULE: By the time we reach Day Three of the Main Event, players names should be spelled correctly.
And when "other" media provide you with the correct spelling of a player's name, you should say: "Thanks." And then you should actually change the way you spell the name in your reports.
Tuscaloosa Johnny, our own infamous blogger and a member of the media, is Johnny Kampis NOT Kamdis NOT Camdis NOT Nguyen NOT Ferguson NOT Violette.
John Barch is Tex Barch.
Jim Worth is James Worth aka "Krazy Kanuck".
and Avner Levy may be a pain in the butt but that's his name.
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