Tourney two is in the books and is was another good one. We had 31 players this week including a few first timers with us. One of the first timers, Mitch C, decided to be the first out which was very exciting to me. I was down to about 300 in chips and was dreading being first out two weeks in a row. Bobby D was right behind Mitch being second out. I was able to hang on for a while but was eventually put out of my misery in 22nd place by another new comer Steve S. We had one of the most interesting hands of the season with seven players left. Keep in mind that the top six make the money. Three players were involved, Karen D, Steve S and Dominic D all moved all in. When we turned over the cards Karen had A,A, Dom had 10,10 and Steve was a mile behind with 4,4. Things got better in a hurry when the flop and turn came 5,6,7,8 giving Steve the straight and sending Karen to the rail on the bubble. Oh wait we still had the river card to come and guess what, the 9 comes giving Dom the better straight, crippling Steve's chip stack and leaving Dom about 75% of the chips on the table. It was one of the wildest swings in one hand I've seen in a long while. From there it was basically a matter of time for Dom to start collecting the remainder of the chips at the table. As a matter of fact he was able to eliminate the remaining players in only sixteen minutes. Steve S went in sixth, followed by Mat K then Linda K. Gary R hung on for a third place finish and Bob L had a great second place finish. This was Dom's first league win. The amazing part was that Dom and Karen combined to eliminate 12 of the last 13 players.
We also had a rules question come up during a hand that two people at the table said they new the answer to. We went with their interpretation and moved on. Later in the week it was brought to my attention that the ruling may have been incorrect. The hand went as follows:
Small blind posted $25
Big blind (Jerry T) posted $50
Steve S raises to $100
Paul B goes all-in with $120
Greg E(not a blind) wants to raise to $300 with KK to scare away Steve (who had A-4).
Greg was told he could not re-raise because the previous raise did not meet the minimum raise.
After further review it looks like Greg should have been able to re-raise. The rule that I am citing is from Roberts rules of poker section 14:
3. All raises must be equal to or greater than the size of the previous bet or raise on that betting round, except for an all-in wager. Example: Player A bets 100 and player B raises to 200. Player C wishing to raise must raise at least 100 more, making the total bet at least 300. A player who has already acted and is not facing a fullsize wager may not subsequently raise an all-in bet that is less than the minimum bet or less than the full size of the last bet or raise. (The half-the-size rule for reopening the betting is for limit poker only.)
Because Greg had not acted he should have been allowed to make his raise. I believe the rule that the other referred to was from limit play. Here is Roberts rules section 3:
7. In limit play, an all-in wager of less than half a bet does not reopen the betting for any player who has already acted and is in the pot for all previous bets. A player who has not yet acted (or had the betting reopened to him by another player’s action), facing an all-in wager of less than half a bet, may fold, call, or complete the wager. An all-in wager of a half a bet or more is treated as a full bet, and a player may fold, call, or make a full raise. (An example of a full raise on a $20 betting round is raising a $15 all-in bet to $35.) Multiple all-in wagers, each of an amount too small to individually qualify as a raise, still act as a raise and reopen the betting if the resulting wager size to a player qualifies as a raise.
My apologies to Greg. In the future if there is a question and someone disagrees with the answer let me know and we will pause the clock and research the rule before moving on.
