TOURNAMENT POKER SPECIALISTS

The Rules of Poker and Etiquette

aka

The R.O.P.E.

Tournament Edition

By Thomas McGee

Introduction

The decision of the Tournament Director is final.

There, now that that is out of the way......

The main reason for putting together a collection of rules for poker is to bring the poker world closer to uniformity of the rules. Everywhere you go across the US and now the world, the rules are different at nearly every event you attend and every card room you frequent. The main focus of The R.O.P.E is tournament poker. While each card room may have its own little differences from house to house, tournament poker is where rules can become more consistent. But just like the rules of baseball, each house still reserves the right to have their little quirks.

There have been many, many, many books written on the subject of poker and great deal of them dealing with rules and procedure. However, very few of those books deal with tournament poker specifically. Most rule sets deal with a mix of tournament and live game rules and attempt to explain the nature of both. Tournament poker is its own animal and is so prevalent now, that it deserves its own rule set.

The R.O.P.E. is a collection of rules and etiquette information derived from the works of Chuck Ferry (Rules of Poker and The Complete Poker Room), Robert 'Bob' Ciaffone (Robert's Rules of Poker), along with influences from poker rooms across the USA, including the Gold Strike and The Grand (now Harrah's) in Tunica MS, the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, MS, the Horseshoe in Council Bluffs, IA, Harrah's New Orleans, the Grand Sierra, Boomtown and the Peppermill in Reno, NV, Harrah's Rincon and the supervisors manual from the WSOP held at the Rio in Las Vegas, NV.

Poker is a fairly simple game with straight forward rules for each game variation and one would think that those rules would be very easy to follow, in theory. But in practice, rules, procedures, etiquette, and common courtesy become at odds with emotions, tempers, results, and money. Through the cloud created by varying recollections of the affected parties’ memories, the rules are there to remedy the situation with as little damage as possible and in such a way that the person called upon to save the calamity, can be as unbiased as possible.

Even with all these rules and procedures in place, like our court systems from state to state, each situation is unique in its own way and has to be evaluated on its own merit with the rules as a guide to make informed decisions, both for players and for staff.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest

- Benjamin Franklin