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You are the Tournament Director Series 3: Chip Stack Missing at Start of Final Table

This one was sent in by Desi Graham, Assistant Manager, The Fortune Rooms, Bangor.

‘Hi, I have an interesting situation that happened in our club, and would like to see it put to the Tournament Directors.

Players are called to draw for seats at the final table before going on a break. Everyone draws a seat number and goes on their break. I’m just about to call the players back when I noticed there’s only 9 stacks on the table instead of 10.The players come back and there is in fact a stack missing. How do you rule?

This is what I did.

As it was a freezeout I was able to count the chips in play and it matched the chips on the table. All I had to do now was to find out who had them. As the player who was missing chips is a respected regular member I asked how many chips he had and he said 16,000. I gave him 16,000 chips and went to do a camera check. From the camera check I saw a player mixing the 2 stacks together when switching seats so I then took the 16,000 from his stack, although I couldn’t be 100% sure that it was 16,000 as our cameras don’t pick up that much detail in the poker area. I also didn’t want to delay the game as it could be half an hour maybe to go back on the cameras.

I hope this one makes it to the tournament directors, as it’s a bit of a strange thing to happen and would be good to see the different rulings, thank you.’

Matt Savage:
I would have checked the camera first, but I think what you did here is fine, no extra chips got into the tournament and both players accepted the ruling... Shuffle up and deal!

Thomas Kremser:
Desi was lucky enough to have a camera so he could see where the chips were going even he didn’t know exactly how many. I would have made the same decision.

Dave Lamb:
I like what happened to correct it. Presumably this was an honest mistake so estimating the numbers of chips to be returned is a reasonable solution.

Jeff Leigh:
Again a horrible situation. Firstly you need to work out how many chips should be in play.2/ try to see from the camera what happened and 3/ Speak to the other players to try and get as much specific detail as to how many chips “they thought” the missing stack had. You would then have to use as much info as possible to make a fair judgement. You would also have to speak to the offending player to see what his “defence” was, and whether he was trying to steal someone’s chips. Probability is that it was a genuine error.

Jack Effel:
The tournament does not restart until this issue has been resolved. In these situations you have to make a decision based on what knowledge is available from the players at the table, and what the surveillance tape reveals. I would review the tape to see which player’s stack was mixed up, and try to determine if 16,000 was the correct amount. If the tape was unclear as to the amount, I would talk to the two players in question, and make a decision based on their information. The missing player’s chips would be returned to him.

Thomas Lamatsch:
You made the right decision and also the right procedure. You can’t be 100% sure, that it was really 16.000, but better to penalize the player mixed up the chips, than the affected player.
Tip besides, let always a dealer seated on the table and chip runner bringing the chips of the players to the final table.

The Mob Verdict

This is an unfortunate situation that appears to have been settled fairly easily and amicably.

The best thing we feel is to collect as much information as possible from cameras (where available) and from the players and any dealers or floor staff.

Jack says:
“The tournament does not restart until this issue has been resolved.”

This is important as otherwise the bad situation could be compounded and made worse.

Verifying the total chips in play is obviously an important step.

We would ask not just the two specific players we thought were involved but all players independently what chips they thought they had. We believe having just made the final most players would have some idea what was in their stack and perhaps in others.

Thomas Lamatsch also suggests that a dealer should be seated at the table at all times and chip runners, or racks, can help prevent situations like this happening at all.

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