Here's a Poker Rule I Bet You've Never Seen

Bored and bored and bored some more on Saturday, I decided to make the 45-mile drive over to Rockford, IL on Saturday and play in a couple of small live MTTs run by Rockford Charitable Games. Bad financial decision, since I went 0-for-2 in a $170 and a $120, respectively, but this isn't about the cards themselves. Rather, I wanted to draw attention to the rule the organizers of the event had in play for the final tables, one of which I made before being bounced.

When we reached ten, we were told it was time to redraw for the final table, and they indeed collected the remaining players from two tables at the front of the room and shunted us over to a quiet corner in the back. So, the ten of us drew for new seats at random, right?

Ha, ha, no. Here's a good one: The new dealer dropped the dealer button down on Seat 10, then asked the players who had been involved in a blind on the last hand on the previous table. That included three of the players, since one of the blinds had been the player who bubbled the FT.

Anyhow, the dealer then pulled the eight, nine and ten from the cards he had pulled from the deck for the draw, then had those three players draw for those three seats, the hijack, cutoff and button, respectively. The other seven of us then had to draw for the seven other seats, which were the two blinds and the five other EP or MP spots.

Umm, wrong. If you're going to do a redraw, you do a redraw. Not this half-and-half crap because somebody's buddy drew bad in a previous redraw and cried about it. That's what a redraw is. Given that the average M at this point was about 7, a 'random' redraw must indeed be random, and the fate of the draw itself must be left completely, not partially, to chance.

In case you're wondering, I drew the three seat and went out in seventh spot, short of the money. No biggee. I just thought that this 'redraw' was stupid-funny and needed to be shared. Truth is, Rockford Charitable is big enough that they should know better and know how to use proper redraw and table procedures. In this case, they don't.