Have the TDA Rules Changed Your Tournament Life? If You Don't Think So, You May Get a Penalty!

Only a few years ago, if you traveled to a tournament, you were never sure of the rules for that particular casino or cardroom until you arrived. This was true not only when you traveled across the country, but also when you traveled across town.

Then, along came the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) – and things haven't been the same since. Today when we travel to any casino, all we have to ask is: Are the TDA rules being used?

The TDA's mission statement is: To adopt basic standards, rules, and procedures that will positively impact the poker industry by inviting tournament directors, players, and media representatives to discuss, evaluate, and review proposed rules.

Well, if you invite, they will come – and a virtual Who's Who in our industry showed up recently. There was representation from across the country and across the globe. Doug Dalton from the famed Bellagio in Las Vegas was kind enough to get us a meeting room, and those who attended came from the East Coast, the Northern and Southern United States, Amsterdam, Paris, and even Australia. There were tournament directors, cardroom managers, and Card Player writers in attendance.

Let's examine some of the things we now take for granted because of rules changes put into place by the TDA.

It used to be standard that during chip races, the highest card by suit won all the available chips; now, we award only one of the next-higher-denomination chips per player, making it considerably more equitable.

Remember when you could call time from across the room? "Hey, dealer, I'm coming; hold up!" No longer can you do that. If you're not at your seat when all players have a complete hand, your hand is dead. I like this rule, as it stops a player from possibly seeing the holecards of another player as he walks by.

Rule No. 9 (if there's no further action, all cards are turned faceup) used to be a rule I disliked, but what was so foreign in the past has now become automatic.

Additionally, no longer can we complain when we are moved to balance tables. The tournament director always takes the big blind and moves him to the worst possible position at the new table.

There also was a time when a player who exposed his hand had his hand deemed dead. This rule has been changed to a penalty, which hopefully teaches a lesson to a player to pay attention, and we no longer kill the hand.

It was obvious from the banter and passion in the room at Bellagio that there are many things the TDA members can agree on and many they cannot. There are also local laws that come into play in certain areas of the country, and they cannot be changed by the TDA. In any event, hurray for the passion, we all benefit from it.

Many a player has expressed concern about some of the rules, wondering why some of them even exist, and the answer is simple: Today more than ever, we must have great concern for the many new players taking up our great game. If we are too strict with the mistakes of these beginners, we run the risk of scaring them off forever. Conversely, if we are too lenient with these new players, we run the risk of disrupting the flow of tournaments. It's an important balancing act, and one that the TDA takes very seriously for the future of the game.

What will be the future for the TDA and the standardization of rules that it brings? It will be a bright one, I'm sure, to the benefit of us all – not only here in the United States, but globally, as well.

If you have any bright ideas of your own regarding the TDA and tournament rules, I'd like to hear from you.