A couple tournament etiquette questions
A few situations at this WSOP that had me wondering what the consensus is in terms of manners, etiquette etc.
Scenario 1: Stalling on the money bubble
The tournament is approaching the money bubble (1,100 players left and 1,000 get paid) and people begin to stall a lot. Taking an extra 10 seconds per hand. Or in some cases they tank until clock is called. Are you calling clock on these players or bringing it to the floors attention? Are you helping the whole table get to the money and stalling as well?
Scenario 2: A card flashes and only you see it
Assume that you are going to be playing the hand. Do you announce what you saw was the card that was flashed (assuming it was folded by another player) or do you just say you saw a card and move on? I was told by a dealer that say what the card was with action pending is a penalty.
4 Replies
My $0.02:
1. Standard although 100 out is pretty far from the bubble live. As WSOP recently implemented min-cash = 2X buy-in I personally don't see the need. Each player is within the rules so I sometimes just get a table massage if I'm easily going to cash.
2. Always. In the Sr. High Roller I was head's up IP vs. a shorter stack and somehow the dealer flashed the turn burn card where only I saw it. I stopped V immediately from acting and told the dealer. He got me to whisper the card (8s) and then he looked and turned over the 8 spade. Sadly, the table was genuinely surprised I did that. I did get props from V who ended up folding to my turn bet for being so honest. So, tell the dealer you saw the card but not the contents until he verifies.
The 2x min cash followed by super flat until very deep has made this problem much worse, imo.
I always call out a card I have seen.
1: I hate when players do this (stall near the bubble) but I don't say anything. I don't do it even in spots where it would help me because I think it is wrong. The other thing I hate is when players stall right before a break so we don't get to play another hand.
2: I will always say I saw a card. Sometimes the dealer asks me what it was but more often they just turn over the card. The problem with asking what the card is, is that I often get it wrong. Like I say 9 of spades and it turns out it was the 9 of clubs. Well now everyone knows I don't have the 9 of spades. If the dealer hesitates I ask the dealer to turn over the card I saw which they usually do. That way I don't have an advantage in a way that I thin is unfair. There are some cases when I will say I don't know the value of the card but I know the suit or color. The dealer will always turn over the card in question.
I cashed in the monster stack and made a deep run in a $1500 FO. The stalking around the bubble got really bad for both events. I find it kinda annoying bc the structure gets kinda quick and stacks shallow so I dislike when folks tank. I’m fine with tanking a small stack with say 10-20 left to bubble but idk about 100 away. It’s just super annoying. I had a guy at my table get called clock on him multiple times when he had 5-8 bbs and we were still far away from money somewhat- like it was getting close but the tanking was bad.
I always will say if I see a card and in a hand. It’s just good morals honestly. Had a dealer actually yell at a player that continually flashed his cards during a cash game at Venetian. The player was a mass D to the dealer after the fact also but I appreciated the dealer because it was during a hand I had opened and seemed unfair to be flashing cards due to poor folding technique: he was throwing cards haphazardly
The tanking kills me honestly. I find it so annoying when people take so long at a stage where poker is very basic and decisions are much simpler than when stacks are deeper early on. I understand it can be smart to tank when super short right near the bubble but it’s still super boring to see someone take 20’seconds on simple preflop decisions and all the players can do is have the floor called to clock.
Final note- in the monster stack- is it serious that they put stacks in play and will take them out if the player doesn’t show up? It seems super unfair to have extra chips in play that were paid for but player didn’t show up so they get a refund? Maybe the dealer was clueless and floor but I felt they said people could get a refund if they didn’t show up. It seems super sketchy for someone to pay for a stack but not show up and then get a refund while their chips were blinded off. Seems like a super sketchy thing like a player can reg and see they have a tough first table/ not show up and just get a refund?
