The TDA and the Pros and Cons of the FCOTD Rule by Matt Waxman

Disclaimer: My apologies for less than stellar grammar. Hoping it doesn't cloud the lucidity of the viewpoint I'm trying to share.

The TDA and the Pros and Cons of the FCOTD Rule

This summer during the 2013 WSOP, the Tournament Director's Association met in Las Vegas to reconstruct the rules of which staff and players alike abide by throughout the duration of any given poker tournament. The occasional TDA Summit is a very necessary meeting for the good of poker. The group is comprised mainly of tournament directors and maybe even a few poker professionals. I'm am not positive, but I believe they don't even receive any personal financial benefits for the time they dedicate to bettering our game. For this I am very thankful, and if you play poker, you should also display some gratitude. Unfortunately, there was one significant rule change that has been causing quite the ruckus in the poker community. In case you don't already know, its being referred to as the FCOTD (First card off the deck) rule.

FCOTD: The hole cards are declared dead for any player not at their seat by the time the first card off the deck is pitched.

There are a few aspects of this FCOTD situation which do not sit easy. Although some have voiced their opinion about liking the rule change and even more are impartial to it completely, no one actually had a problem with the old rule -to be at your seat by the LAST card dealt-. There was also no real effort of the TDA to reach out to the more opinionated and outspoken poker professionals such as Daniel Negreanu and/or Matt Glantz who also have the game and player's best interest in mind, before they voted to change it. I would argue that either of these guys along with a few others would be better suited to design the rules of a poker tournament than the directors who are paid to enforce these rules.

The TDA has many plausible intentions for changing the rule. The most significant reason is to prevent cheating. If a player can walk behind someone who may be able to finish looking at their cards before the pitch is over, they'll have time to get back into their seat and play their hand knowing another players hole cards. Another positivity about the FCOTD rule is that a dealer can't slow down the deal to save a players hand that they are friendly with. These are two problems that would diminish with the FCOTD rule in action. 

In response to the aforementioned pros, I say that its a player's responsibility to protect their hand and have the awareness of people walking behind them. As for the dealer playing favorites, I would encourage any player who saw a dealer do this to inform a floor person. Warn the dealer about this behavior just like a dealer would warn a player for something like folding out of turn or prematurely exposing their cards. Why shouldn't a dealer's job constitute a certain amount of integrity, just like any other working professional? The floor is not going to be giving out dealer penalties, but actions like this should not be permitted and a rule should be designed to protect players from taking advantage of each other, not to ensure a dealer is doing their job proficiently - that is the responsibility of the venue/casino. 

More than anything, the debated rule change is simply an inconvenience to a player who is out of their seat often to socialize, make bets, exchange money, talk on the phone, go to the bathroom or even take a picture or sign an autograph if you are one of the famous faces in the poker world. Claiming that being deprived of these things is detrimental to poker would be an asinine statement. If anything, the rule may even help some of the easily distracted players to buckle down and focus even harder at the table, but that is irrelevant. 

The problem is that a very drastic change was made without sufficiently consulting any of the people you are trying to help! Does this one rule make me not want to ever play poker again? Obviously not. My problem resides within the principles of which the rule was derived. IF IT AIN'T BROKEN, DON'T FIX IT! Everyone that mattered (the players) was content with the former rule. Now that there is a new rule, there are a lot of unhappy customers. 

The Tournament Directors are a very valuable part of the poker community. They put forth an effort to regulate poker for the benefit of all players - professionals and amateurs. The majority of them being players themselves, should absolutely make up a part of a union which decides the integration of new rules for the betterment of poker, they just shouldn't comprise the ENTIRE group. What it all comes down to is that poker players are paying for a service., a service that pays the TDs and Casinos we play at very well. In any service industry, the customer is always right. The focus should be aimed at getting as many people into a poker tournament as possible and having them happy to be there. That is whats best for poker, and doing what is best for poker should be the number one priority. 

Games are slower because dealers are waiting for players to get back to their seat. People can walk behind others at their table and take advantage of them after catching a glimpse of their whole cards. Both of these problems reside within the mechanics of a poker tournament and not the structure that the rules provide. After these two concepts are excluded, I can't think of another reason why the new FCOTD rule should exist. Although I wish that we could poll every entrant at the next TDA approved tournament there feelings on the FCOTD, that is a long process and this is only one rule. Although it may provide some incite for this particular debacle, the root of the actual problem at hand goes unscathed. All things considered, the most viable solution is having more poker players involved in the decision-making process for which the rules we play by are determined.

Thanks for reading,

Matt Waxman

Matt Waxman holds a World Series of Poker bracelet, a World Poker Tour title and a WSOP Circuit ring.  

He has amassed more than $2.5 million in career earnings and is currently ranked 74th on the Global Poker Index.

Thanks to Matt for doing a guest post on WhoJedi.com. 

- WhoJedi