Phil Hellmuth Breaking Rules, Harrah's Floormen Absurdly Incompitent, From $1500 Stud 8 Event tonight... updates inside

How's your lego kayak holding up? I'm surprised you can get wifi service on the open seas

anything is possible with my planning manager.

Another story involving a TV poker pro nepotism:

http://pokerati.com/2008/06/28/re-the-monk...f-stack-monkey/

"Naturally, Scotty was unhappy about that and asked the dealer why he didn’t have 3K. But at the WSOP, only late registrations get their full 3K chips (and get seated in Seat 10); everyone else gets a regular seat and then gets blinded off if they’re late, which is normal. Scotty, though, obviously didn’t like the idea of starting out with a 9 bet stack, said “I’m not playing”, and went off to find the tournament director. I think he just wanted to be allowed to unregister, but instead, a couple of minutes later, the floor showed up with a full stack and gave it to him. On the one hand, this is pretty much blatant cheating - it’s a free 1200 chips that nobody not named Scotty Nguyen would ever get"

I am now in email contact with Jeffrey Pollack.

We have agreed to meet and discuss this rules situation, as they have admitted fault. But, as I said to Jeffrey in my initial response, this WSOP has been the best one since Harrah's took over, so that is a good sign of things to come and further improvement.

I will of course do a full write-up after I meet with JP.

wow, that's really bad

but lol at why Scotty was late...poor monkey:

"Though it’s not unusual for pros to show up late for WSOP tourneys, something was amiss during one of the last 1500s when Scotty Nguyen didn’t show up til well into the 100/200 level …

Apparently Scotty lost one of his capuchin monkeys. The fire department was still trying to get the the pesky little primate out of a tree when Scotty decided he just had to go. Not sure what the status is of said monkey, but one thing that is interesting is how the floor handled his depleted stack."

pokerati is such a great site

I briefly scanned the official rules and could not find the answer to this:

in a headsup pot, after all action is completed on the last betting round, if Player A throws his hand into the muck, is Player B required to show his hand to be shipped the pot? I understand that if someone at the table asks for it to be shown, it has to be turned over, but is the dealer required to turn over the hand with no player input?

I had different dealers enforce this both ways in the WSOP this year - making me show my hand when I did not necessarily want to, and in a different hand allowing my opponent to quietly muck his hand and be shipped the pot after I had mucked my bluff.

In most cash games I've played you can just get the pot without showing your hand, but is it somehow different in tournies for collusion reasons, etc?

That's how I've understood it. In cash games, especially the higher end ones, there is more of a "gentleman's agreement" status quo going on where the players police the game themselves b/c it's their money they are playing with, not a winner-take-all stack. If they wanna run it twice, make insurance, and not have to show their hand when a bluffing bettor says, "you got it", that's their choice.

In tournaments, however, there is, and should be, a strict form of set rules because every one is playing for each others' stack. In all major casinos that I have played in, at least on East Coast and in Denmark/Ireland, it 100% takes two cards on their back for SOMEONE to win, even if the other player mucks.

I actually think most online sites do it the best for tourney play, where the bettor first shows HAS TO his cards before the caller. He called you, show the cards.

It's a good rule for collusion, as well as for the fact that the dealer can ship the pot to the correct person, the floor guy working that set of tables can log the action and make sure the dealer is doing their job, and for the poker media to relay each showdown to the fans on the interwebz. You also have newbs (dead money) who have NO idea about the showdown rules, or even the hand rankings, so this makes it easier for them (which encourages them to come out and play).

In tournaments, pots are ship it crucial, hence why if it goes check-check I always show my cards even if I have a REMOTELY close chance of winning, due to players/dealers misreading hands, chopped pots, etc.

It goes back to the Bellande/Hellmuth arguement on PAD a few weeks back. Hellmuth bet on the river with a missed straight draw, Bellande called with second pair, and Hellmuth said "you got it". Bellande refused to show his cards because Hellmuth's had hit the muck and he didn't want the table to know what his cards were. He must of gotten confused since in Cali cash games, that's kosher; but in tournaments, especially in Vegas (least one would think so), the consensus rule SHOULD be it takes two to win. It kinda sucks for Bellande, but that's the rule.

But it doesn't susprise me in the least that WSOP dealers don't know shit and arn't consistent with a basic rule of tournament poker. Makes me wonder if THEY have the rules.