Negreanu Slams New "First Card Off The Deck" Rule
July 3, 2013 2:58 pmThe Tournament Directors Association (TDA) is made up of over 2,000 industry professionals whose objective is to create a standardized set of rules for poker tournaments. Last month, the TDA convened at the Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and amongst the most contentious modifications to the rules made concerned the “first card off the deck” rule.
Previously a tournament player’s hand would be deemed dead if they were not at the table by the time the last card was dealt to the button, but now that rule has been changed to refer to the first card dealt by the dealer.
Often, many of the rules are later adopted by the biggest poker tournaments around the world, including the WSOP, and after the latest
rule modifications was announced, it immediately drew strong criticism from one of poker’s biggest stars, Daniel Negreanu, who commented:
“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 piss off your customers, TDA, and it’s not fixing a current problem we face in poker..I have never ever heard a single person ask for such a change”
Soon after Negreanu made his opinion known, TDA board member and Poker Hall of Famer Linda Johnson responded to the Canadian poker legend’s criticism by rebuking him for “name calling” and explaining that he didn’t fully understand the whole issue. As Linda Johnson explains:
“..first of all 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..Another reason it’s good because of favoritism. A dealer looks up and sees Phil Ivey coming to the table and may decide to slow it down to get his hand to him on time. Conversely, a dealer may look up and see a guy who doesn’t tip or doesn’t treat them nicely and will speed things up to kill his hand. This takes away any kind of integrity issues from the dealer or the player.”
Nevertheless, Negreanu still remained unconvinced by the TDA’s arguments and even went so far as to declare its favoritism reasoning as “bullshit.” “You don’t change the rules that have been a part of poker for 40 years without complaint,” explained Negreanu.