WSOP Wrap Up and TDA Summit Review

As I write this column, the 50th annual World Series of Poker has just come to an end and it did not disappoint. Congratulations to our new main event poker champion Hossein Ensan. Kudos to our poker media and commentators who provided close up coverage of the action throughout the series.

Big congratulations are also in order to WSOP Vice President Jack Effel and his talented staff! There were a record 187,298 tournament entrants going for the gold! I can’t fathom that they had a tournament (the Big 50) with 28,371 entrants. The Big 50 was the talk of the poker world and made it affordable for many players to fulfill their bucket list of playing in a WSOP event.

Many poker professionals got on social media and complained that there were too many low-limit buy-in events. They felt that they took away from the prestige of the WSOP. My personal opinion is that the lower buy-in tournaments brought lots more players to Las Vegas than ever before and made it truly possible for recreational players to participate and “live the dream.”

During the WSOP, the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) held its biennial summit. More than 300 attendees came from cardrooms all over the world. The new rules will be out shortly but here’s a sneak preview.

As anticipated, the topic with the most discussion was whether the big blind ante or the big blind should have precedence if the player in the big blind doesn’t have enough chips to cover both. A show of hands indicated that almost 90 percent of cardrooms were making the ante be paid before the big blind. A lengthy discussion of the pros and cons revealed that the tournament directors who put big blind first did so because they felt that it was more “player friendly,” because if the big blind only has enough to cover the ante, all he does is get his own money back if he wins the hand.

Numerous reasons were given for having the ante paid first. Johnny Grooms pointed out that the word ante in Latin means “before.” I made the case that a player has benefitted from a free round with others posting the ante so he now has an obligation to pay the ante. I added that it was definitely not player friendly to the other eight or nine players at the table to allow him to short the ante. Matt Savage pointed out that rules shouldn’t be made just to favor the short stacks. In the end, the official TDA recommendation is that the ante should be paid before the big blind.

There were some significant changes to stud-type dealt games. TDA members voted to eliminate the double bet option on fourth street in seven-card stud if there is an open pair. Being a long-time stud player, at first, I was not in support of this change since “we have always done it that way.”

However, I heard some convincing arguments for the change: No one could figure out why this rule even exists since there is no other stud game that allows a double bet on fourth street (stud eight-or-better or razz for example.). Also, many TDs said they have numerous floor calls in every tournament over this issue since it is confusing to new players, thus slowing down the game.

A big change that will cause a lot of controversy is that the dealer will automatically announce the size of the bet in no-limit, except in all-in cases in which they will wait until someone asks. There were several reasons for this… most felt that it will speed the game up. Often the colors are hard to distinguish from across the table, so the bet amount will now be clear.

Many changes were made based on random card theory. For example, if the first- or second-hole card in a stud-type game is exposed, it will no longer be a misdeal; the third card will be dealt down. The theory is that it’s random and could hurt you or help you.

One new change I really like is that if one player’s river card is dealt face up, the next player(s) will get their card(s) and then the exposed card will be shuffled in with the rest of the cards and the player whose card was exposed will get a new down card. There will be no more option to declare oneself all-in. Consistency once again is the goal… there is no other form of poker in which a player can declare himself all-in and the option isn’t fair to opponents. Just replace the card and the betting can continue. Brilliant! Why didn’t we think of that long ago?

Other changes include improving chip-stacking visibility, reducing the number of players to nine in nine-handed events (previously it was ten) and seven in six-handed events, and adopting language that clothing and other devices that obscure a player’s identity may be disallowed (there is a trend toward use of masks, hoodies, and even helmets at the table.) More than ten rules had clarifying edits. Let the controversy begin!

There is always a good exchange of ideas at the summit. During the topic of late registration issues, one TD said that she solved the problem in her cardroom by giving the players who were dealt in the first hand an extra chip that would increase their starting stack by about 10 percent. She said it got butts in the chairs at the beginning of the tournament. I like the way she thinks! ♠

Linda Johnson is a WSOP bracelet holder and a member of the Poker Hall of Fame, the Women in Poker Hall of Fame and WPT Honors. She is also a partner in Card Player Cruises. You can contact her at [email protected].