For mini-casinos in Seattle, and other Washington cities, a new betting rule is effective July 1st. Unfortunately the gambling commission has created a mess of a rule.

The new law specifics that a player can bet $40 maximum (same as current rule) or go all-in for up to $500.
This is a fine an interesting rule as long as everyone at the table has less than $500 left. But what happens when one player has more than $500 on the table? It appears that they cannot wager $500 because they are not making an all-in bet.

Hopefully a cardroom in Seattle will interpret this rule differently or think of a way to overcome the obvious flaw.


http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=230-15-135

Effective July 1, 2009

WAC 230-15-135
Wagering limits for nonhouse-banked card games.
Card room licensees must not exceed these wagering limits:

(1) Poker -

(a) There must be no more than five betting rounds in any one game; and
(b) There must be no more than four wagers in any betting round, for example, the initial wager plus three raises; and
(c) The maximum amount of a single wager must not exceed forty dollars, except that an all-in wager in the game of Texas Hold'em may not exceed five hundred dollars for house-banked card game licensees meeting the surveillance requirements specified in WAC 230-15-280; and
(d) An all-in wager is when a player wagers with all of their remaining chips on the current hand;

My interpretation is just that you can lose max $500 per hand. So say you have $1000 and the betting went

$50 preflop
$100 flop
$200 turn

The max you can bet on the river is now $150, even though you have $650 chips left.

I'm sort of confused by the wording but I assume that you can bet $100 (not "all-in" but over $40) as long as you're playing HE?

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Either that or it just becomes like a X-500 spread game where you can bet $500, get raised to $1000, reraise to $1500, reraise to $2000.

no, DUCY?

this doesnt make sense to begin with, no non tribal casino that I am aware of spreads that kind of a game anyway. As long as it doesnt affect rules at Muck, Sno, or Tulalip I could care less.

My interpretation is that you can only max bet $500 dollars per bet. Say for instance are preflop and you raise $500, someone could reraise and make it $1000 to go, and if you wanted to reraise you could make it $1500 total. Am I wrong or have we had lax interpretations at the established tribal casinos that spread the game

My interpretation is that you can bet $40/$40/$40, and decide to go all in up to $500 on the river if you wish. But unless you decide to go all-in pre-flop, the most you can bet is $40.

This would open door to some idiotic LAG plays, which might be good. Aces going all in for ~$500 on the flop because it's either that or betting the maximum $40.

It doesn't effect the tribal casinos.

Several mini-casinos run a 2-40 spread limit game that could now allow an all-in bet greater than $40.

I think this rule is interesting because nobody is going to spread a game with a such weird twist and so it opens the door for poker players to complain to the gambling commission.

Spreads what kind of game? 40 spread limit?

My interpretation is that the Washington State Gambling Commission doesn't really understand the games that it's regulating and that its mission is to try to put the gambling genii back in the bottle in WA state.

An obviously insane law based on complete lack of understanding of the game.

Here is a possible work around:

Allow players to rebuy up to a certain amount once each betting round during a hand, and to remove chips from the table at the end of any hand.

For instance, a cardroom could lay a $2/$5 no-limit game with a $300 buy-in and a $200 rebuy. Bets per the law would be $5-$40 spread limit or all in. If a player goes all in, they can rebuy immediately and put up to another $200 on the table (they must rebuy immediately), available for their next chance to bet. This makes each player's effective stack size $900, i.e. they can theoretically bet $300 before the flop, $200 on the flop, $200 on the turn and $200 on the river if they go all in each betting round and rebuy for the max each time. Then, after the hand is over, the winner would remove chips from the table to bring their stack down to the $300 starting stack size or optionally the $500 max-allin-bet size.

Not ideal, but makes for a game that is legal per the crazy law, but still has action close to a real no limit game.

I thought you were talking about the 1-3. 3-5. 5-10 NL games spread at tribal casinos. I didnt know you were all talking about the 2-40 spread games. Which leads me to my next question, what casinos in Western Washington spread 2-40 on a regular basis?

Hollywood Casino run 2-40 spread everyday

how is it there brick, i was there a few months ago but list was too long. Is it what one would expect it to be

It's a fun game. The type of play totally depends on the line-up. Sometimes it plays tight with $40 bets taking down most pots and othertimes is plays wild with multiple players calling $40 multiple times.

Your biggest opponent in the 2-40 spread is the rake, not the other players. The Other players are terrible.

I agree.