Author: Floor

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Chip racks on the felt

Players cannot play out of the rack. Chips must be stacked neatly on the table.

Reference

WSOP 2024 Live Action Rules
#61. Playing out of a rack is not allowed. If a participant decides to put chips in a rack before leaving the game, they must have an effective working stack of chips to play with that is not placed in a rack. Racks will be removed from the table at any time in the event that they obscure vision or impede gameplay.

No saving bets

Pushing bets, “saving” or “potting out” is not allowed. This means that participants are not allowed to retract any bets that have been committed to the pot.

Reference

WSOP 2024 Live Action Rules
#65. Pushing bets, “saving” or “potting out” is not allowed. This means that participants are not allowed to retract any bets that have been committed to the pot.

Straddle is allowed

A live straddle bet is allowed in all blind games.

Reference

WSOP 2024 Live Action Rules
#11. A live straddle bet is allowed in all blind games. The player who posts the straddle has the last action for the first round of betting and is allowed to raise. The amount of the straddle is twice the big blind unless otherwise specified. Unless otherwise noted on a game placard, a player can straddle from either under the gun or from the button, with the button having precedence. The minimum allowed raise after the straddle is three times the big blind. Unless indicated on the game placard, a mandatory straddle will not be enforced, even if every player at the table agrees; a new player will not be forced to straddle. The button straddle is not allowed in limit games.

Small blind throws one oversized chip

Horseshoe Casino WSOP Poker Room, Las Vegas, Nevada
$3-$5 NLH

Situation

The small blind has posted 3 $1 chips. No raises. When it get around to the SB, the player grabs a red chip from his stack, then reaches in and grabs the 3 $1 chips, picks them up, throws the four chips for $8 forward toward the pot, and doesn’t say anything. What is the bet?

Human Floor – Anthony

Facing a bet, a single oversized chip is a call. However, this player actually made more than one move. The first move was pulling in the three dollar chips, and the second move was throwing them back in. Had the player simply thrown in the $5 chip, it would be a call. However, Anthony ruled that this player is actually betting $8, which is more than half the required amount to raise. Therefore, it is a raise to $10.

4 burns on the river

Situation

Hold’em. Instead of burning three cards, the dealer burns four cards, and then deals out the river. The players notice this has happened and agree that the dealer accidentally burned twice on the river. However, the dealer smashed the burns into the stub and they are not retrievable.

A.I. Floor Decision

In this situation, we have established that it was a dealer error that caused the extra card to be burned. However, since the cards have already been mixed into the stub and are not retrievable, there’s nothing we can do to reverse the situation.

Ruling: The hand will continue as is, and the river card dealt will stand as the river card.

Reasoning: The purpose of the burn card is to protect the integrity of the game by ensuring there’s no card visibility or marking. An extra burn card does not directly influence the game results since it’s completely random, and the used card was not destined to be part of the game play, it’s seen as a card out of play. Yes, the error may have indirectly affected the outcome of the game but in a way that’s impossible to quantify or correct. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a harmless mistake that doesn’t affect the integrity of the game. Future, I would advise the dealer to take more care when burning and dealing cards to prevent such errors in the future.