So I thought I was going to a $400 Foxwoods tourney at 11:00am. Turns out it was an $1,100 tourney and I was late getting there. Lots of traffic on 95 North.

I decide to play anyway and unfortunately I am assigned to a "new" table. This means that I am lumped in with other late arriving players. I try not to do this because in my experience those late filled tables are almost always much more difficult than random tables. Players who intentionally come late tend to be much better than the average player.

This tourney was no exception. My table had some great players and really not too many weak players. A guy walks over to his seat at about 11:25am and looks at the table and asks for the Floor. He then asks the Floor if he can unregister from the tourney. The Floor says that he can, and the player goes to the cage to get his money back.

About 20 minutes later the Floor escorts him back to our table. Apparently he tried to re-register for the tournament in order to get a better table. When they figured it out they brought him to an empty seat at our table. His new seat was seat 9 (there were only 9 players per table) his original seat was seat 1.

I later talked to management and told them I thought that once you unregistered from a tournament you shouldn't be allowed back in. Even though they put him at the same table, it was the equivalent to a seat change which should not be allowed either. The TD said he would think about it.

The postscript is that when the guy sat down to play I told him he was "on warning". I meant to say "on probation" but it came out wrong. He told me to STFU and mind my own business. And then he tilted off his chips fairly quickly. I am glad I spoke up because basically he was trying to take advantage of the system at the expense of everyone else.

The irony is that at FW when I registered for a different tourney, the woman at the cage asked me if "Table 3 seat 5" was OK with me. In theory they want to make sure that somebody with impaired vision can see the board or someone in a wheelchair gets enough room. But the way it plays out, anyone could scope out the tables at a tourney and either seat select at a particular table or even try to get a different table. This basically happens every time I register at a FW tournament...

And the last thing is that when you bounce and rebuy, it is hit or miss as to whether you get to choose your new table/seat card. This weekend the Floor asked me to pick from two cards that were face up. One was the seat I just came from and the other was a different table. I asked him to turn the cards over and "shuffle" them and give me a random seat.

I'm curious how this plays out in other rooms. Or if anybody has any comments. I think I will be writing a suggestion to FW regarding all three scenarios and see what they do...

We give seat changes (at same table) to accomodate players with physical issues.

Its rare, but I have been known to allow for a table change for ultra-regs and only so husbands dont have to sit with wives, or along those lines...but they have to be everydayers and only so they can avoid family members. But we are not a casino and our tourneys are more of a social event than anything.

I want to add I would never allow a table change so people CAN play at the same table.

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I've never heard of not being able to unreg and rereg. I even heard one player at the WSOP brag about doing it so he didn't have to be in the 1 seat. I'm not against the idea, or at least to adding some penalty such as a 1 hour delay.

Some tournaments allow people to ask for a new assignment if they're sent to the table they just busted from. One tournament I worked the feeder table at they had us ask people if they were rebuying and if so from what table. We would remove those seats from the stack and spread the rest face down for them to pick from. I'm very surprised that you were shown the cards face up and allowed to pick between them! That seems like a very bad policy to me.

A new angle I noticed recently was at a mid sized (8-10 table) tournament. A pro arrived a few levels in after the initial seating was finished and everything was going through a feeder table. He got his ticket then sat at an empty table and waited for seats to only be open at tables he liked, which took at least a half hour. Then he went to the feeder table and got an assignment.

1) Un-Reg and re-Reg are small angles IMO but within the system at most places. I wouldn't allow a player to un-Reg once the first hand is dealt in Level 1 unless they were wait listed.

2) Re-entry seats 'should' be at a different table but may not be available. Random is not always random.

3) Never heard of a feeder (must move?) table. Not sure the purpose.

4) Huge angle by the Pro IMO, once your spot opens up your chips should be in play. If he wants to wait to register when seats open up at favorable tables then that's different. But to register and then somehow delay/avoid taking his place seems out of line.

Not understanding the feeder table concept is certainly cloudy my comments. GL

A feeder table is just an empty table with regard to players, but there is a dealer sitting there with starting stacks and seat cards. The seat cards are for seats where players have busted, or the seats not yet sold. You buyin at the cage, get sent to the feeder table, show that dealer your entry slip and ID, and they then give you a stack of chips and a seat assignment.

The guy who waited around for 30 minutes was seeing which tables had empty seats. Once the empty seats were only at "good" tables, then he walked up to the feeder table dealer and got his stack and seat assignment. Now he knows he won't get one of the "bad" tables.

Cheers, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

Why would you allow an "ultra-reg" couple to switch tables, but not afford the same courtesy to a recreational couple? This makes no sense to me, especially when you state that your tourneys are "more of a social even than anything."

Then why have an anti-social policy that only affects those couples who are there specifically for the social/recreational aspects of the tourney?

Because rooms like hs cater to locals without regard to game integrity.

Thanks ... So not a 'must move' .. Good

Interesting that a player can reg and then just wait around .. not be forced to sit down when the reg number is 'up'.

It is interesting that stacks that are part of the original registration will be blinded off if the seat is empty and yet the wait/late list folks get the benefit of a full stack ... even if they delay their start longer than they 'need' to. What this suggests is that there may be no priority to wait/late regs in tournaments where the feeder table is used .. just 'walk up' service.

I'm not advocating a wait/late reg be forced to post 'missed' blinds, but it certainly seems that their seat selections are far less random, if not random at all. GL

Maybe I missed it but I didn't see where he said anything about stacks being blinded off. Are you just assuming this. In my room we don't put out any stacks until the player takes a seat (or the floor will have us put out a stack for a sold seat at the end of the registration period). You can register and not come back until the end of registration and sit down with your full stack.

Might be a Mid-west thing? In all tournaments (casino and charity) if you buy in before the start of Level 1 and are part of the 'room max' of tables (tables x 10) then your stack is blinded off from the start as a 'sold seat' whether you are in it or not.

If you late reg or are put on the wait list before Level 1 starts then you would walk into a full stack. Some places will give you an 'amount of time' to get to your seat when your number come up but if you aren't there then your stack goes into play for blinding off.

Only one place that I know of will make a wait/late player post missed blinds during their first hand. This room wants to discourage late reg for some reason so those players get hit with a 'penalty' so to speak. GL

I understand some places do this. I'm just saying you shouldn't assume it is the case here. I suspect that it isn't based on the fact the player was able to unregister after the start

Wow. I get hounded by players every time because they want me to extend my late reg longer than it is. It is 2 hours currently and that isn't enough I guess. Is the standard longer than 2 hours elsewhere?

I don't think that policy i sto discourage late registration (unless they are making them post every blind they missed). I have seen where late comers get a fullstack and either have to wait until the naturral big blind before they start playing or post a big blind. But this isn;t to discourage laye reg. its to discourage the late registramt from waiting for the blinds to pass before taking a seat.

In my room daily tournaments have registration periods that are two hours to three hours into the tournament (bigger guaratees get the longer registration periods.)

Special events get longer registration periods than that as the guarantee goes up the length of time to enter goes up.

At Foxwoods it depends on how long the levels are and starting stacks.

In their typical daily tourneys with 20 minute levels and 15,000 starting chips they allow late reg (and re-buys) for 2 hours plus the break (until level 7). if you buy in during the break you would have 19 BB's.

In their bigger tourneys with 30 minute or 40 minute levels the late reg could be 4 or 6 hours. And you still get to buy back in with over 20 blinds at worst.

In the $1,100 you could buy back in at the start of Day 2 with like 17 BB's or something.

At Parx in their Big Stax tournies (with multiple Day 1's) you can buy in at the start of Day 2 for about 9 BB's and they automatically seat you on the Button. They say they get about 20 Day 2 entrants per tourney and usually one gets to the money.

My personal opinion is that if you allow late registration for less than 20 BB's then you should also provide a card that has "1-800-GAMBLER" on it...

I remember playing in a one-table tournament in Puerto Rico that allowed late registration until... well, I'm not sure exactly when they cut it off. I do remember that just before I got knocked out someone just bought in and started with about 3 1/2 big blinds. If I remember correctly on his first hand he limped in.

Tour stops tend to be 8 levels, though occasionally they are as low as 6 or as high as 12 especially if they get a lot of chips and/or slow structure. Starting stack can sometimes be as little as 8 big blinds at the end.

There are valid reasons to unreg/rereg. Say someone registers a day or more in advance, but the start time comes around and for whatever reason they don't want to play. Maybe the field looks small, they're in a day 2/3 of something else, they're playing against a whale in a cash game, whatever. An hour or 2 later the field looks better or they busted the other tournament so they decide to play after all. I don't know how common this is, but any TD will be happy to have them come in so a blanket ban on rereg might be a hard sell.

Each of those things can be addressed by either the player not registering in advance if they care about those issues. In the alternative early registration could be done seperate from seating assignment so that he could preregister but not know where he is to be seated once they get a seat assigned it's to late to unregister

Agreed. And being low man on the management pole I am stuck enforcing a few non-standard rules and regulations. Such is my life at the charity rooms, but that may all change soon.........

However, if say a new couple comes in and asks not to be seated at the same table, I just tell them to buy their tickets at the same time. They get handed out in order by table (edit- not 'in order' the order is random but each card in sequence is at a different table) (though seats are random) so if two people buy at same time they cant be at same table. The only time its an issue is if we open a new table because alt list is long enough, then no one gets a table change anyways no matter who they are.

We never tell people this is what we do. It only happens if the couples (which include mothers and daughters, any immediate family) buy their tickets at different times, and since we have known these players for years we know they are legit in their requests. All in all it may happen once a month or less, and I would say its <5% likely that it would happen to a new couple to the room anyways (in fact I personally have never had to reject a table change request for this reason).

I should state, in regards to Alternate Lists. Anyone can 'defer' their position on the AL if they choose for any reason. Though it never has, I can see this having probable issues as stated in the examples above. However, as an angle I see it more about people wanting to play with a specific person for collusion reasons rather than people picking an easier table to play against (which is super speculative IMO).