Some tournament directors had the bright idea of trying to create an 'F-bomb penalty' back in the mid 2000s.
It basically said you can't say the F-word at any time at the table or in the tournament area and players were given instant penalties for it.
I was never a big fan of it and didn’t use it, but it did gain a lot of steam around the industry.
I remember a specific situation where John Bonetti, a legendary poker player, got an F-bomb penalty while on a break. He was telling a bad beat story and used the word.
When I heard about that, I said, 'enough is enough'. You can't be penalized for saying the F-word while on a break. We are adults here.
Don’t be abusive
Let me be clear. I do not support any automatic penalties or anything that doesn't make sense to me in how it's enforced.
My stance on it (the same stance as the TDA) is as long as you're not being abusive towards another player, a dealer, or a staff member, it is not an automatic penalty for using the F-bomb.
As long as you're not abusive, it will not be a penalty in one of my tournaments. A lot of times, when it is abusive, it’s trying to stop something that might become a very volatile situation when you're using those F-bombs against somebody else.
Certain words are abusive. Anything that has any kind of racial overtones or things like that would be an automatic penalty in my book.
I know that some bring up the C-word as being a very big penalty. But I tell you, in Australia and England, that's part of the common vernacular.
It's just one of those things where if it is abusive or somebody at the table finds it abusive; it could be a penalty.
Different people get offended by different things, as Larry David in 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' usually discovers.
My challenge
I challenge you out there today. Many of you were not around when the F-bomb penalty was instituted and then dismantled.
In your opinion, are there any other rules that you see in the TDA that may need to be overturned or are over the top?
A funny F-word story
I have a story about the actual F-bomb penalty where a player was speaking in a foreign language; he was speaking in Vietnamese in California, which has a big Vietnamese community.
I was called to the table the first time and said, ‘You need to speak English only at the table.’
Then I got called to the table again and said, ‘Listen, you have to speak English at the table. You cannot be speaking Vietnamese.’
He looked at me and said, ‘F**k you.’
I said, 'You know what? That's English.' And I didn't give the player a penalty, though many thought I should have at the time.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
I ask all the fans and players to directly submit interesting situations and videos to me on my X account. Your question could be the next Savage Rules!
Matt Savage is the WPT Executive Tour Director, founder of the Tournament Directors Association, and a respected member of the poker community. Matt is a five-time GPI award winner and a nine-time Poker Hall of Fame nominee.
You can follow Matt on X. For more info, visit PokerTDA.com and WPT.com.
Images courtesy of Amirali Mirhashemian/Unsplash/Max.
