It’s a tale as old as time. You're dealing a game, and a player thinks that the blinds should be one amount, but you think it should be something else. There's a disagreement.
So what do you do? Do you ou stand up, walk over, grab him by the throat, and throw him to the ground?
Recently in Flint, Michigan, at a charity poker club, that's exactly what one person did.
The player insisted that he should owe the 4,000 big blind. The dealer said it should be 6,000. Words were exchanged, and the player ended up on the ground.
The dealer sat back down, shuffled, and got ready to deal the next hand.
And I promise you, the next player in the big blind probably put out whatever he asked them to.
The new TDA rule
Here's the thing: this is an excellent opportunity to talk about a new rule that we have in the Tournament Directors Association. Because if everyone was familiar with it, perhaps nobody ends up on the ground in this exact situation.
The new rule is you do not have to have a tournament director announce the new blinds in order for it to be the new blinds in a tournament.
The clock dictates the new blind levels, and everybody does it.
That was a recent change at the TDA. And why we changed it is because the purpose of that rule was to ensure that all tables were on the same level at the same time.
In the past, the official TDA stance was that the tournament director had to announce the blinds in order for them to be up. It was well-intended.
What happened, though, for the most part, is that the only people who were on the previous blinds were the people who knew that rule really well. They were the ones who enforced it in their own big blind to make sure that they didn't have to pay the right amount.
It's easy logic. I have not once seen someone worried to get up when we’re about to go on break because it wasn’t announced yet.
What if the tournament director didn't announce the break? Not a single person ever assumed that that table was going to deal another hand because there was no announcement.
It was only called out in spots where a lower blind level could be played.
What ended up happening is 90% of the tables were on the same blinds, and the players who knew the technical rule would get extra hands at the previous blind levels.
We switched it so that now everyone has to be on the same blinds as soon as the clock says it.
Call the floor, not the choke slam
Now, about the situation where someone gets their throat slammed to the ground.
That is not the proper solution to this. No matter what kind of bar or club or poker room you’re in, it’s never the right thing to do.
The correct thing to do is to call a floor and have them fix it for you.
So everyone, please remember, if the clock says the blinds and they haven't shuffled yet, those are the blinds now, regardless of whether the tournament director has announced it or not.
That's the rule.
And don't do any choke slams. It's not a really good look.
Justin Hammer is the Live Events Director for PokerAtlas, an online tournament director for the Texas-based poker app Hijack, and a tournament director at Thunder Valley Casino Resort. He also works as a consultant and is a minority owner of Desert Bluffs Casino in Kennewick, Washington.
For more info visit PokerAtlas.com, HijackPoker.com, and bluffs.poker. Follow Justin on X.
