New TDA Rule May Cause Controversy in Poker Community

The Tournament Directors Association is a group made up of people who are officials and personnel of poker tournaments. The association works to create uniformity in the game with certain rules of game play. Members of the group include staff in a managerial capacity at poker rooms, tour circuits, poker leagues and more.

The group meets every two years with the TDA Summit and this year just so happened to be a new Summit meeting. With the meeting, the group creates new rules and regulations for tournament poker. The latest rule change may be one of controversy and one poker pro is already speaking out.

The new rule is titled “First Card Off The Deck” and signifies that a tournament hand will be considered dead if the player is not at the table when the first card of a hand is dealt by the dealer. The previous rule stated that the hand of the player would be dead if they were not back at the table when the last card of the hand was dealt. This new rule is one of nine that were crated during the most recent Summit meeting.

The new rules will most likely be picked up by major tournament events and poker rooms and many players may not be happy about the new “First Card” rule, this includes poker pro Daniel Negreanu. The pro has stated that the new rule change will not be positive for the game of poker and was completely unnecessary.

Negreanu stated: “Hearing rumors the TDA has completely lost their mind looking to ‘fix’ things that aren’t broken. Over policing a poker game is silly. One rule is designed to just p— off your customers, TDA, and it’s not fixing a current problem we face in poker. I have never heard a single person ask for such a change.”

Linda Johnson, a long-time member of the Poker Hall of Fame and TDA board member, commented on Negreanu’s statements, replying: “What this rule says is that a player can no longer come behind another player and still have a live hand. It’s happened to all of us. This takes away any kind of integrity issues from the dealer or the player.”

Negreanu disagreed and came back at Johnson, stating: “You don’t change the rules that have been a part of poker for 40 years without complaint.” 

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