Another TDA Summit In The Books!

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The TDA (Tournament Directors Association) held its 2022 Summit on July 1-2 at the PokerGO Studio at Aria in Las Vegas.

I am back on the Board of Directors again and this summer I assisted Matt Savage, Mike Bishop, and other Board members in putting together a full agenda with the help of players’ topic suggestions. Poker room personnel from more than 15 countries attended, leading to some lively discussion. In this column, I will mention some of the changes made to current rules.

1. In the player responsibility section, three additional responsibilities were added: A. Players are responsible for verifying they have the correct number of cards on the deal (to reduce misdeals). B. Players are to play in a timely manner (to reduce stalling). C. Players should inform the house if they experience or observe discriminatory or offensive behavior (to create a more welcoming environment for all).

2. It was reiterated that TDs should more strongly enforce the current phone rules (players must not be on the phone at the table, must not let their phones disturb others, and must not use betting apps or charts during a live hand.) After lengthy discussion over the use of betting charts at the table, the overall feeling was that TDs don’t want to monitor the contents of a player’s phone and that the betting chart information is available to everyone who wants it.

3. Two new causes of misdeals were added. If the wrong number of cards is dealt to any player and if a card not belonging in the deck is found (example, if a four is dealt to a player in short deck poker).

4. When it comes to seating new players and players from a broken game, the rules were clarified that these players can take any seat including small blind, big blind, and the button. They will be dealt in except between the small and big blind.

5. The halting play section was modified as well. Play halts on tables three or more players shorter than the table with the most players ONCE THE BLINDS ARE IMPACTED (example, once the big blind reaches an open seat at the new table).

The wording on the following was changed from “As the tournament progresses, at TDs discretion, the tables may be more tightly balanced” to “As the tournament progresses, at TDs discretion, the tables SHOULD be more tightly balanced.”

I love this change!!! Most players like balanced tables and balancing tables once the number of tables becomes manageable is good customer service. I hate to hear, “we don’t balance until we are in the money” or “we don’t balance until we are down to three tables,” and this will hopefully help alleviate that problem.

6. The TDA also deleted prior rule 20-D regarding the division of odd chips in an identical hand winning both high and low (example, when two players have a wheel in Omaha eight-or-better.

7. Another example of a fouled deck was added to include a deck that contains two or more cards of the same rank and suit.

8. It was clarified that there is never more than one burn card per street and that the purpose of the burn card is to protect the stub, not to try and preserve the order of the cards.

9. The current rule about irregular flops (too many or too few cards on the flop) is also being amended. I have paraphrased many of the changes above while waiting for the official language to be adopted, but I encourage players to go to PokerTDA.com to read the new rules about burns and irregular flops because quite a bit is changing and I don’t want to misquote anything.

Many recommended procedures were changed during the summit. I will write about some of them in my next column.

In closing, I want to thank everyone who attended the TDA summit. They all worked together to try to improve the TDA rules for the betterment of the game.

Linda Johnson is a WSOP bracelet winner and member of the Poker Hall of Fame, the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, and WPT Honors. She is a partner in Card Player Cruises. Please contact her at [email protected] with questions or comments.