I was at foxwoods last night playing 1/2 NL. After about four hours or so of table time, Chris Smith came over and sat at our table since Kimberly Lansing was already playing there. Chris (who is a regular 25/50 - 100/200 NL player) said he got drunk at dinner and just wanted to play around at 1/2 for the evening, so he sat down and bought in for the maximum (of course) which was 300.

He got stacked twice which is sort of funny, but he was laughing most of the time since the buyins here are typically a preflop raise at his regular game. Anyhow, after he busted one time, he pulled out $400 from his wallet and was getting ready to buy back. I pointed out to him that the max buyin was 300, so he got 300 in chips and left the last 100 sitting behind his stack on the table [this is mistake number one]. Non foxwoods regulars should note that 100s on the table play under normal circumstances.

About half an hour went by, the dealers had rotated, and Chris was involved in a pot with a guy at our table who had turned the nut straight. Chris pushed the kid all in, and of course he called and chris was drawing dead. Chris pushed his chips towards the kid, and I sort of bit my tongue as I saw the $100 sitting there on the table. Eventually a few others at the table noticed what was happening and started wondering whether or not the kid who won the pot was entitled to the $100 that chris had, but should have never been allowed to put on the table in the first place. Since the dealer at the table now was not the same dealer who cashed the previous buyin, she had no way of knowing what the problem was.

Of course, Chris just shipped the $100 over because he realized it was his fault, plus I think it was mostly a waste of his time to argue over pennies. Fully understanding that the problem could have been avoided by the $100 not being put on the table in the first place, what is the correct decision?

When everybody at the table accepted the $400 buy-in, that's action offered and accepted. It's definitely too late to rectify it after the money has been in play in a hand.

I'm relatively new to casino games.

Do players at the table have the authority to allow someone to buy in for more than the table max?

So if a $300 capped table all agrees to let everybody buy in for $5000, that is okay? What happens to the next couple of players to sit down?

You can't blame new players, players who were absent, players who weren't paying attention to a rebuy going on between hands, or a new dealer for not knowing the $100 is somehow not in play. Chris made a mistake in putting it on the table, dealer made a mistake in letting the $100 sit there. Chris created the dilemma, so he is definitely on the hook for the $400.

Correcting an overbuy can be done later. But NOT after you've lost a hand. If you pull out $5000 in a $300 cap game and 10 minutes later lose to a deep stack, you don't get to point at the rule and claim only $300 was in play. But if someone before a hand begins complains about the stack, it needs to be corrected. I've seen this happen somewhat regularly when someone rebuys and significantly exceeds the cap and a player at the far end of the table doesn't notice for a couple hands--the player is asked to trim the overbuy between hands.

A) $400 <> $5000. $400 doesn't significantly change this game, particularly since it's covered by at least one player.

B) Obviously if all the players agree to a limit change, the floor should change the limit unless he has an strong reason not to. If he has multiple $300 cap games going, he should definitely allow the table to change to a bigger structure.