Former host of this segment — and a personal friend of mine — Matt Savage, recently took to X to talk about players leaving one chip behind when going all-in.
That situation has been happening more and more lately. And of course, there was a lot of feedback about why it's a viable strategy and that tournament directors shouldn't touch it.
Well, I think we need to touch it, and fast.
A tournament director’s perspective
I want to talk about it from a tournament director's perspective so that people are aware of what we're thinking and why.
First off, most of us understand that leaving one chip behind can be a legitimate strategy. People taking advantage of the big blind ante to try to make a comeback with one chip are not the ones we are trying to stop.
But there are situations where leaving one chip behind is causing problems.
Here’s how tournament directors like me approach issues like this: If everybody was doing it, would it make the game miserable?
If the answer to that is yes, then I try to find a way to stop that version of the thing from happening.
Here are two of the issues that are happening:
- Players are doing it to stall and get a pay jump.
- Players are hiding the chip when going all in. Other players in the hand don't see it, and they're making mistakes, such as flipping their cards over too soon. This player is angling and trying to take advantage of the situation.
These are the solutions:
- I'm not going to let you use it as a pay jump. If you're trying to take up as much time as possible, then I'm going to stop it. If somebody busts before you in another hand, I'm going to treat it as if it's the same hand. I'm going to split the payouts so there's no advantage to doing it.
- I'm not going to punish the person who flips their cards over because that is something the person with the one chip behind has caused. If a player is committing such an obvious angle and it's happening a lot, I will start punishing the person who's doing it.
We are working on ways to stop players from using it to make a pay jump or angle shoot against their opponents.
What the future holds
What happens in poker is when people see something and realize that it works, they start doing it without understanding all the implications.
All we are trying to do, as operators and tournament directors, is make it so leaving one chip behind is only used as a viable strategy option.
That’s the approach I expect operators and tournament directors to take in the near future.
Want to test your rules knowledge? Got a tricky ruling or situation you’d like my take on? Drop it in the comments — I’ll feature the best ones in future columns.
Justin Hammer is the Live Events Director for PokerAtlas, online Tournament Director for the Texas-based poker app Hijack, and a Tournament Director for Thunder Valley Casino Resort. He also brings his expertise as a consultant and minority owner of Desert Bluffs Casino in Kennewick, Washington.
With years of experience across live, online, and casino operations, Justin has established himself as a trusted leader in the poker world.
For more info visit PokerAtlas.com, HijackPoker.com, and bluffs.poker. Follow Justin on X.
