Jimulacrum
Full House
A player in my tournament league really does not like to play short-handed. Let's call him Danny.
When I took over the club, there was no documentation establishing how many players to a table. On more than one occasion, Danny has tried to pressure me or the TD (players volunteer to run each individual tourney) to collapse the game into one table when it got down to 11 players.
He has basically said there's no real rule about it, and it's up to the TD. To be fair, there were hardly any written rules when I took over, but the guy I took it over from never mentioned the TD having discretion to collapse tables when he wants to—which is a truly awful rule, especially when the TD is playing. We had only ever done 10-handed tables when I played with the other guy as honcho, and 10-handed (if not 9) is pretty standard for NLHE, while 11 is very uncommon and frankly uncomfortable.
That was last season. Fast-forward to this season, and I actually put "Max table size is 10 players" on the blind schedule. Second game of the season, we get put in a weird spot where we have 10 players to start, but we have a player we expect to show up as much as 1 hour late. Incidentally, another player shows up late too, by a few minutes. So we organize into one 10-handed table, almost get started, and have to break into 5 and 6 all of a sudden.
The whole time, Danny keeps pushing to go to one 11-handed table. Not because it's a rule or there's any real reason to do it, but because he just doesn't like short-handed play. He keeps harping on about "But is there an actual rule about it?" Apparently he had not seen that I added this to the blind schedule, but it really didn't matter. I didn't want to show him the rule and have him find some other way to bitch about it, e.g., that I didn't take a democratic vote and send out a notarized update to the group informing them that I wrote down a totally standard rule. So I just say "Yes, it's a rule" and proceed to help get the game running. (No one else was complaining, just waiting for my lead.)
Danny starts at my table, where we're 5-handed. He loses a big pot to me (two pair versus flush, hardly a cooler) and spends every other hand after that complaining under his breath about having to play short-handed. I don't respond or even acknowledge what he's saying because I have lost patience with his whining.
A player busts in level 2. We go back to 10-handed. By chance, Danny ends up having to take the big blind a few hands into 10-handed play, and he complains about it because he "just paid" the blind at the other table. (Another player chimes in that everyone practically just paid the blind at the other table because it was so short.) We play a few hands, and the second late player shows up, earlier than we expected.
Danny again starts advocating to "filter her in" to make one 11-handed table. At this point, he's on a short stack (~2K from 7K start) and is openly irritated about having to play short-handed because the blinds are eating away at him. He's clearly pushing to go 11-handed to make his stack last longer, on top of the fact that he doesn't like short-handed play. He's also bitching that he just paid the blinds at the 5-handed table, and then the blinds hit him again at the 10-handed table, and now they might hit him again when we split up.
I have everyone draw cards to pick tables, and I declare that Danny will be the button on whatever table he lands on. There's no real justification for this ruling; I just did it so he'd shut the fuck up and stop trying to undermine everyone's confidence in the game.
He busted out shortly afterward and left the club. He was probably sore about it, but I don't really care. I'm beyond frustrated with this shit, especially after he bothered me about it and I already made the call. He kept going and going, forcing me to make the call more than once—i.e., implying that I did wrong and should reconsider, in front of everyone—in a spot where there shouldn't have even been a question. TD should have been able to manage it without a hitch or a doubt, and he would have if Danny hadn't whined.
Is there a moral to this story? Not really. Mostly venting. Feel free to participate in the very scientific poll.
When I took over the club, there was no documentation establishing how many players to a table. On more than one occasion, Danny has tried to pressure me or the TD (players volunteer to run each individual tourney) to collapse the game into one table when it got down to 11 players.
He has basically said there's no real rule about it, and it's up to the TD. To be fair, there were hardly any written rules when I took over, but the guy I took it over from never mentioned the TD having discretion to collapse tables when he wants to—which is a truly awful rule, especially when the TD is playing. We had only ever done 10-handed tables when I played with the other guy as honcho, and 10-handed (if not 9) is pretty standard for NLHE, while 11 is very uncommon and frankly uncomfortable.
That was last season. Fast-forward to this season, and I actually put "Max table size is 10 players" on the blind schedule. Second game of the season, we get put in a weird spot where we have 10 players to start, but we have a player we expect to show up as much as 1 hour late. Incidentally, another player shows up late too, by a few minutes. So we organize into one 10-handed table, almost get started, and have to break into 5 and 6 all of a sudden.
The whole time, Danny keeps pushing to go to one 11-handed table. Not because it's a rule or there's any real reason to do it, but because he just doesn't like short-handed play. He keeps harping on about "But is there an actual rule about it?" Apparently he had not seen that I added this to the blind schedule, but it really didn't matter. I didn't want to show him the rule and have him find some other way to bitch about it, e.g., that I didn't take a democratic vote and send out a notarized update to the group informing them that I wrote down a totally standard rule. So I just say "Yes, it's a rule" and proceed to help get the game running. (No one else was complaining, just waiting for my lead.)
Danny starts at my table, where we're 5-handed. He loses a big pot to me (two pair versus flush, hardly a cooler) and spends every other hand after that complaining under his breath about having to play short-handed. I don't respond or even acknowledge what he's saying because I have lost patience with his whining.
A player busts in level 2. We go back to 10-handed. By chance, Danny ends up having to take the big blind a few hands into 10-handed play, and he complains about it because he "just paid" the blind at the other table. (Another player chimes in that everyone practically just paid the blind at the other table because it was so short.) We play a few hands, and the second late player shows up, earlier than we expected.
Danny again starts advocating to "filter her in" to make one 11-handed table. At this point, he's on a short stack (~2K from 7K start) and is openly irritated about having to play short-handed because the blinds are eating away at him. He's clearly pushing to go 11-handed to make his stack last longer, on top of the fact that he doesn't like short-handed play. He's also bitching that he just paid the blinds at the 5-handed table, and then the blinds hit him again at the 10-handed table, and now they might hit him again when we split up.
I have everyone draw cards to pick tables, and I declare that Danny will be the button on whatever table he lands on. There's no real justification for this ruling; I just did it so he'd shut the fuck up and stop trying to undermine everyone's confidence in the game.
He busted out shortly afterward and left the club. He was probably sore about it, but I don't really care. I'm beyond frustrated with this shit, especially after he bothered me about it and I already made the call. He kept going and going, forcing me to make the call more than once—i.e., implying that I did wrong and should reconsider, in front of everyone—in a spot where there shouldn't have even been a question. TD should have been able to manage it without a hitch or a doubt, and he would have if Danny hadn't whined.
Is there a moral to this story? Not really. Mostly venting. Feel free to participate in the very scientific poll.
Last edited:
