XCAL Founders Club Saturday Night Poker

*FOUNDER’S CLUB OR APEX MEMBERSHIP REQUIRED*

XCAL In-House Poker Tournament Rules

This is a Texas Holdem tournament. One $200 buy-in per person and one optional $200 rebuy-in (only one re-buy per person), with each person receiving $1000 in chips. Payout will be in the top 8 places. Play will start at 7pm and finish at exactly 11pm. If there is no winner at 11pm, placement will be determined on chip stacks.

• Entrance Fees: All entrance fees will be paid before play begins. The “house” will not take any percentage; therefore, all money is in play.
• Seat Assignment: Your seat will randomly be assigned to you. You will be given a card with your table and seat number on it. That is your seat until the tournament director tells you otherwise. Unlike in cash games, there are no seat changes until your table is “broken” as players are eliminated, and the remaining players are consolidated.
• Blind Levels: The way tournaments differ from cash games is that the blinds increase at regular intervals. Blinds will increase every 30 minutes.
  • This is to force play and get the action going. You can usually get a sheet from a floor person that tells you the schedule of blind increases and what the blinds will be.
  • Online you can find this information in the tournament lobby.
  • If the blinds increase and your dealer has already cut the cards, the blinds will increase on the next hand.
• The Deal: The deal proceeds exactly as it does in a cash game. The two players to the left of the button are the small blind and the big blind. After each hand, the button moves one seat to the left. The button is determined in the first hand completely randomly.
• Absent Players: All players must be dealt into the hand and their blinds/antes forced into the pot whether they are at the table or not. If the player is not present by the time his second card is dealt, his hand will be ruled dead.
• Breaking Tables: As players are eliminated, the tournament director will start breaking tables in a pre-determined order. If your table breaks, you will be assigned randomly to an empty seat at one of the remaining tables.
• All-in Confrontations: When two players are all in, and the action is completed, both hands must be exposed face up before the rest of the board is run.
• Calling the Clock: A player can request the pit boss to force a player to choose an action in a set amount of time (typically 90 seconds). If the player fails to act in that time, his or her hand is folded. Only a player seated at the table at the time the current hand was dealt can call the clock.
• Multiple Busts: If two players go broke on the same hand, the player with the greater amount of chips at the start of the hand finishes in the higher position.
• Showing Cards: Intentionally exposing a card is illegal in tournament play, and a hand can be ruled dead as well as a time penalty issued.
• Inappropriate Play: Inappropriate play, such as swearing and or throwing cards, is punishable by a penalty.
• Coloring Up: The lowest chip denomination in play will be removed from the table when it is no longer needed in the blind or ante structure. All lower-denomination chips that are of sufficient quantity for a new chip will be changed up directly. I.E if you have five $25 chips, you would get one $100 chip and have one odd chip. The method for the removal of odd chips is as follows:
  • Starting at seat 1 (if there is a professional dealer, this will be the player directly to the dealer’s left), deal this player one card face up for every odd chip they hold. Continue clockwise around the table until all players have one card for each of their odd chips.
  • Add the dollar amount of all odd chips together. You want to replace the odd chips with chips of the next lowest denomination. For example: If there are eight $25 chips, you want to replace them with two $100 chips.
  • If there are an odd number of odd chips on the table: If the amount of the final chips is equal to half, or more, of the value of the next lowest chip, these chips are replaced by the higher value chip. If the total value is less than half, the odd chips are simply removed from the table.
  • Give the first replaced chip to the player with the highest value card by rank. With every player only eligible to receive one chip, continue giving a chip to the player with the highest value card until all chips are gone. This is known as a chip race.
• Hand-for-Hand Play: As the play approaches the bubble (when the money starts), play may go hand for hand. This means that all tables will deal a hand, and the next hand will not be dealt until all tables have completed their hand.
• Heads Up: When two players are left, you have reached heads-up play. In this scenario, the small blind is the button and acts first before the flop but last on all ensuing streets.