I was trying to think how to add some more skill into tourney poker, and I remembered at the 2006 WSOP they handed out big "All-in" buttons that you could use instead of shoving your chips in the pot or saying all-in... you'd just toss the oversize all-in button into the pot instead.

So I thought why not have some more of these buttons, with different "abilities" to help you through the tourney. I am thinking of something like "who wants to be a millionaire" where the contestant had one time use life-lines, like phone a friend, 50/50 or poll the audience.

While thinking it'd be hilarious to actually have those powers in a poker tournament (my friend is Phil Ivey, please call him), I was thinking something cooler.

Say when you start the tourney and they give you your starting stack, you also get 3 big oversize buttons, a green, yellow and red one. At any point in the tourney, when it's your turn to act, you can toss one of those buttons into the pot, which would activate it's power. These would be single-use, that is, once you toss it into the pot and get its benefit, it's collected by the dealer and gone forever.

Green: Pick any player at the table still in the hand, and he has to flip up one card at random face-up and keep it face-up for the rest of the hand.

Yellow: Run it twice. Throw this chip in when facing an all-in, and if you call the all-in, the hand will be run twice according to convention.

Red: Betting ends for you. Any uncalled bet/raise is ignored by you, and you are considered all-in for the purposes of this particular hand (like if you had disconnect protection). For example 10,000 in the pot, you bet 5,000 and opponent puts you all-in for 50,000. You toss in the red chip, he takes back 45,000 and you run it for the 20,000 pot (10+5 of yours and 5 of his). If say there's a third player in the hand and he calls the all-in, 5000 of his chips would go into the main pot, and a side pot between them would be created. The rest of the hand with them would go on as normal.

Each power button would be individually numbered, and coordinated with a player's ID card. When a button is used the dealer confirms the number on the button matches your player ID card. This insures no one can give their power buttons to a friend.

Anyway this is just some quick ideas, they could do anything. Obviously simplicity and an inability to cheat with them are of utmost importance. I think something like this could be super cool. It'd give a good advantage to players late in the tournament who were able to avoid using them and there might be some cool dynamic between players.

Thoughts?

LOL

smoke less weed

lol. The idea of tournament poker and the rules are all arbitrary anyway. Increasing the blinds? Adding antes? Hell even the idea of a "freeze-out" "tournament" was laughed at when someone first put the idea forward. How about a "Sit-N-Go"? Or a "satellite"?

It's all the same ****. So what's wrong with some more evolution?

i like the idea. obv it could take some fine tuning but this could really add a new element to the game. you better patent this idea/concept before others make alot of money off of it

sounds funny..espacialy for live tourneys and TV.

hahaha you must be smoking crack.

Thats a great idea!!! This will be good especially for T.V. Get the ball rolling and figure out how to get this off the ground. Good luck with this million dollar idea...seriously.

Oh yea and stop hating on the OP just because you didn't come up with the idea....not nice.

take this advice.

This would be great for TV, not great for poker.

The way i see it, what is good for T.V will attract more people to poker. Just like the invention of the hole card cam for the World Poker Tour and WSOP. That started the poker boom. So a show like the one mentioned could attract more fish and keep the livewell nice and healthy. I know there are many fish in the sea, but why stop at the sea when we can have a whole ocean?? LOL

MULTIBALL MULTIBALL

i like it.

Would you gain an opponent's buttons if you knock someone out? If so, I'd imagine most people would use them all when their tournament life is on the line. For example, folded to SB who is short, he throws in the Green card, then he throws in the yellow card, and after he shoves throws the red in for spite. So therefore would there be a rule where you can only use one per hand? Maybe 1 per street would be cool...1 PF, 1 flop, 1 turn etc... I actually think this is a good idea.

What about another color chip that you could throw in that would make you invincible. Like for example you have AA first hand of the WSOP ME and 3 people shove all in before you can act. You think you might get sucked out on so you throw this chip in, lets call it blue, and that makes you invincible. So if you don't get sucked out on you win the chips. But if you do lose you just take your 10k back and move on.

This idea is better than shoveaments afaik.

I came

also we should play with an uno deck

eat more bananas

magic cards?

i stopt reading after the 4th alinea, wtf. it aint a television quiz

must be grey

this is a **** idea

How does no one appreciate this more?