home tourney
 

When we went to the final table, we were using the Tournament Director software and you couldn't see the screen very well from the table. One of the guys went to see what seat he was to move to and when he returned his chip stack was gone. We were sure they had gotten mixed in the chip leaders stack and didn't think he had taken them on purpose, but the guy who lost his chips didn't know how many chips he had lost.
The players started arguing about what should be done and finally the person that that was directing the tournament said we would just have to chop the prize money between the players evenly because we couldn't do it by percentage without knowing how many chips the one player had. Of coarse the people with the largest stacks were very upset and the short stacks were very happy with the ruling.
Was this the correct ruling under these circumstances????

I need to get some qualified opinions as soon as possible before it tears the group apart. It has taken a long time to get this group together and I hate to think about starting another from the pieces that would be left over.

monoroy1@hotmail.com

Re: home tourney
 

Hope you weren't planning on getting emails as opposed to posting responses here.

First, it sounds like your director has no idea what he's doing. It's a home tourney... if it's friendly these two should be able to approximate what their respective stacks were and work it out.

Worst case scenario, ask the player who got up how many chips he thought he had, and direct the other player to return that many. If he has a problem with it, remind him that he is the one who took another player's chips in the first place, and that another option would be to split his stack 50-50 with the other player.

It sounds like you have a number of tables running and you've got TD software going, so it doesn't sound like a small thing. You definitely have to have someone supervising who makes better decisions than this.

Re: home tourney
 

You can't split the prize money equally between remaining players.

If the chip leader and other player can agree on how many chips he had, then that would solve the problem.

If not then I would give the guy who lost his chips a refund of his entry fee and redraw up the prizes based on the new amount.


Not sure of the conditions you guys are playing under but the screen should of been easy to view from the table, atleast the final table so you can track blind changes and so on.

If the chip leader and other player can agree on how many chips he had, then that would solve the problem

Re: home tourney
 

Yeah, ending the game with that chop was a bad resolution, but hey, a decision had to be made. Unfortunately the guy who lost his chips & the chipleader weren't adult enough to work this out together. Seems like if they had their chips stacked right (in 20s), some sort of estimation could have been made. I think, had this been my home game, I would make a rough determination of what the guy had and grant it to him from the big stack's chips. When he, the big stack, starts to complain about it, tell him anything over should be considered a fine for taking someone else's chips. I am sure there are other particulars that add to this, but how does someone accidently take someone else's chips? How would it be dealt with in a casino, not that that is the almight source for truth and good rulings.

Re: home tourney
 

why was there NO ONE watching the table? It sounds like the big stack just scooped the rube's chips and tried to play it all cool. Confusing how no one else would have seen him TAKE another player's chips, unless it was like 10 or under chips i'm really confused.

Re: home tourney
 

Have to look at both sides. The short stack could of shoved his chips close enopught to the big stack knowing he would take them thinking they were his. Maybe he was so short stacked he tried to get a even split.

Or the big stack could of scooped them up on purpose knowing after they were mixed in , they would not be taken back.

Re: home tourney
 

Eh, with the crowded tables and everybody's propensity to play with chips, we often find our drunken selves in a position of, "uh, whose stack are these part of?" after a big pot. I can see how this could happen without it being an angle shoot. I'm glad it was brought up here, so now I'm prepared for it should it be an issue.

Re: home tourney
 

problem is this wasn't after a big pot, this was them moving to the final table if i'm reading the OP correctly

Re: home tourney
 

I would check with the other players at the table to try to get an estimate of what the player had and then go from there.

I think the decision to split everything evenly was a poor one.

Re: home tourney
 

[ QUOTE ]
problem is this wasn't after a big pot, this was them moving to the final table if i'm reading the OP correctly

[/ QUOTE ]

I was merely listing that of an example of how this can be done non-maliciously. Everybody moving to a new table is another case where people can be unsure which is whose. Maybe it was deliberate, but I certainly wouldn't assume that as a baseline.