Texas Hold'em Tournament

Monday, January 30
Commissioner: Jeremy Fineman
Location: G9 Lounge
2:00-2:15 Registration. DON'T BE LATE
(email registration accepted before 1:30)
2:30-4:00 Round 1
4:15-5:45 Round 2 (winners from Round 1)

Tournament Information

New players are welcome. It helps to be familiar with the ranking of poker hands (below), but we expect a wide skill range of participants. If you need some help learning the game, be sure to show up early so that someone can fill you in.

Registration: Be sure to register in person by 2:15pm on January 30th. I will accept early registrations by email, in which case you don't need to show up until just before play begins. If registering by email, make the subject something obvious like POKER REGISTRATION. Be sure to REGISTER ON TIME. I will need time to organize tables after registration closes, so I cannot accept latecomers.

Tournament Overview: The tournament is a two round, no limit, texas hold'em tournament. In the first round, each player will be sent to a particular table and given the same number of chips (I will decide the actual number depending on number of players). Play will continue at each table until all but one player run out of money, or until the time limit. In the second round, the winner of each table competes with all the chips they won in the first round together at one "final table." Note that players will not necessarily start with the same number of chips at the final table; there will likely be some first-round tables containing one more player than the others, and a winning player may not necessarily win all the chips at his/her table. Rank is determined by order of elimination and chip count at the time limit if necessary.

I will try to balance the olympics teams at each of the first-round tables. Seating order around each table will be determined randomly by drawing cards before play begins.

Scoring: Each player from a team participating earns 2 points for his/her team. (Players who leave the table for more than 5 minutes must stay around for a total of at least a half hour to earn the 2 points). I really want at least 25 players, so I'm awarding 5 points to each team that has at least 6 players. In addition, there are bonuses for doing well. You get 1, 2, or 3 bonus points for finishing in the top 3 of your first round table. The nth player eliminated at the final table receives an additional 2n points. I will also award 5 points to the worst beat of the tournament. For example, a terrible beat would be something like the following: you are dealt AS & AD (ace of spades and ace of diamonds). The flop comes 2S, AH, AC, giving you four of a kind. Your opponent goes all in, and you call. Your opponent shows KH, QH. The turn is 10H, and the river is JH, giving your opponent a straight flush. These are the only two cards that could win it for the opponent, and he/she got both of them.

Those helping run the event earn 3 points for their teams (though this is in lieu of points they earn for participating, if any). Spectators (staying for at least a half hour) earn 2 points for their teams; spectators should check in with me on arrival and departure. At the end, points will be normalized so that a total of 100 points are distributed to the four teams.

Starting Money and Chip Values: The starting chip and values assigned will depend on the number of players and my mood on the day of the game. Throughout these rules, let's assume that everyone is given 10 $5 chips and 10 $25 chips for a total of $300.

Blinds and Betting: Initially, the blinds will be $5 for the small blind and $10 for the big blind. Every 20 minutes, the blinds will increase to something like $10/$20, $20/$40, $40/$80, and $80/$160.

The minimum raise is the current value of the big blind. This is no limit poker, so there is no maximum bet. If a player does not have enough chips to call a bet, he or she may go "all in." Any money he or she could not match becomes a side bet among the other players, but the all-in player is eligible to win the pot he or she contributed to. For example, suppose that the current pot is $20. Alice bets $40. Bob has only $10 left, so Bob goes all in. Cindy raises to $40. Alice calls. All three players are still in the hand. There are two pots: one containing $50 for which all three players are eligible, and one for $60 for which only Alice and Cindy are eligible. Suppose Bob has the best hand and Cindy has the second best hand. Then Bob wins the $50 pot and Cindy wins the $60 pot.

If at any point no more bets can be made (i.e., all but one of the players is all in), and there is at least one more card to reveal, then all players must show their hands. Spectators love this part, so don't deprive them of it. For convenience, when no more bets can be made, it is not necessary for the calling player (the one who is not all in) to count his chips. He may simply call, and chips can be counted (as necessary) when the hand ends. If the all-in player loses the hand, you save time.

Showing-up Late, Leaving Early, and Taking Breaks: Whereas there are no late registrations allowed, people may arrive at their table late or take breaks. Both cases are treated the same. That player will be dealt into every hand, paying the blinds when necessary. The absent player automatically folds at the first raise. If the table is still full, it may take a long time before the absent player runs out of money. If a player wishes to leave early, that player can have another teammate who is no longer in the tournament (either never was or already got eliminated) play for him or her. A player can only be replaced by a teammate. If no teammate can be found, that player is treated as an absent player and must pay blinds as above.

Transferring Money: Players are not allowed to transfer chips from one player to another. Players can effectively do it anyway through game play, but it's not very classy.

The Basics of Texas Hold'em

In Texas Hold'em poker, each player is dealt two cards face down (called the "hole"). These cards are hidden from all other players. The player to the left of the dealer contributes a small blind to the pot, and the player two seats left of the dealer contributes a big blind, which count as bets made by those players. The next player is the first to act in the first round of betting. Note that the big blind has the option of raising even if all the other bets were calls. Once the first round of betting is completed, the dealer burns one card (places it face down) and then deals three cards ("the flop") face up in the middle of the table. The first player to the left of the dealer acts first in this second round of betting. The dealer then burns one more card and deals one card ("the turn") face up in the middle. Then there is a third round of betting with the first player after the dealer acting first. Finally, the dealer burns one card and deals one ("the river") face up in the middle, and there is a fourth and final round of betting.

In the end, each player's hand is the best hand he or she can make using 5 cards from the 5 community cards and the 2 secret cards. The player with the highest ranking hand wins the pot. If there is a tie, those who tie split the pot as evenly as possible, with the extra chip(s) going to the first winning player(s) after the dealer.

Dealing: The deal rotates clockwise around the table. The first dealer will be chosen randomly. When dealing, you should deal one card first to the player left of the dealer, then continue clockwise until all players have 2 cards. The dealer will be deal his or her second card last. Some tables will have two decks of cards (different color backs), in which case the next dealer should shuffle the cards while the current dealer is dealing. If you have some reason to not shuffle or deal, someone else may shuffle or deal for you, but he or she should do it as a virtual version of you (i.e., dealing to the correct positions first and keeping the blinds in the correct places).

Poker-Hand Rankings: are given in the table below, from highest to lowest:

Play Irregularities

Here are a few possible irregularities that may come up during the tournament, and how they will be resolved.

How to Bet: READ THIS! When it is your turn, to bet, you do one of four things: fold, check, call, or raise. Whichever of these four words you say first is what your action is. So do NOT say "I call you and raise you $200" or something like that, because the raise you said you wanted would be illegal. Similarly, if you say one thing but do something different with your cards or chips, whatever you do first takes precedence. If you do something silly like raising and then throwing your cards in the middle, you still must raise, but then you must immediately fold. In general, when you raise you should immediately say how much you raise by, but you may say something like "raise, deciding how much" if you want time to think about it. If you say that you "raise" but don't quickly indicate how much, you are assumed to raise the minimum. A "check" is essentially a bet of $0 or a call when there is no bet on the table (i.e., it costs $0). Tapping the table is considered to be checking, so be careful about fidgeting too much.

When betting, you should place your chips far enough in front of you to be clearly a bet (i.e., not near your unbet chips) but near enough that you can still tell which chips came from which person. In this way, it's easy to tell the total of the current bet. When the round of betting is complete, all bet chips should be pushed into the middle of the table.

Folding out of Turn: Even though you may decide to fold when it is not your turn, you should not actually say that you fold until it is your turn. If anyone says they fold when it is not their turn, this is considered table talk and will be ignored. However, if you muck your cards, you are folding out of turn. You will get warnings about this but anyone repeatedly folding out of turn may be removed from the tournament.

Revealing Cards: If a hand finishes with one player remaining while the rest all fold, the one player is NOT obligated to show his or her cards to anyone, and no one may look at them without his/her permission, including the next player to deal. Furthermore, no one may examine any cards remaining in the deck when a hand is over, though players are often tempted to do this ("would my flush have hit if I stayed in?"). If more than one player remains at the end of the hand, the player who raised last must show his hand first. The following players (in clockwise order) need only show their cards if they can beat the currently best hand.

Misdeals: First and foremost, the dealer must not look at his/her own hole cards until the deal is complete. If any card is accidentally revealed when being dealt to a player, the entire hand must be redealt. This rule is different from normal casino play, but it is much simpler, so that's what I'm going with. Similarly, if more than two cards are accidentally dealt to any player, the entire hand must be redealt, unless this is noticed before the player who got the extra card(s) looked at them, in which case, cards are removed from that players hand at random until the right number remains. If the dealer forgets to burn a card when dealing the face-up cards, the first card dealt is considered the "burn" card and so does not count as part of the hand. That card is left face up until the round of betting is complete, at which point it is turned face down. If the dealer accidentally deals more cards than they are supposed to deal face-up, the first cards dealt are the ones used, and the remaining ones are considered extra burn cards. If any irregularities come up that are not covered here, call the tournament organizer and a ruling will be made.

Card Control: In order to prevent certain kinds of cheating, there are rules about what you can do with your cards. There are two rules we will be using that are worth mentioning. First of all, your cards must always remain above the table. If you ever put your cards below table-level, any player may call you on it, and you will have to fold. Similarly, if your cards touch any OTHER cards, you will have to fold if it was your fault (if the dealer accidentally dropped a card on your hand, it can be fixed, as long as you don't move and alert the other players). Dealers, beware of this! Don't let your hand of cards touch the deck, and never hold the two at the same time! In casinos, this rule also applies if you drop your cards on top of other cards when showing them at the end of a hand; here we will be lenient about this, but try to restrain yourself.

Spectators: Spectators must stand at least 2 feet from the table at all times, and should not make an effort to look at any player's cards unless the player shows his/her cards. A spectator should not look at more than one players' cards during a single hand. Spectators must keep quiet about anything they do observe.

Cheating: "If there is any attempt by either contestant to cheat, especially with my wife, who is a dirty, dirty, tramp, I am just gonna snap." But seriously, don't cheat. Why do you even need to read this section? It's not like there's even any money involved. What kind of person are you?