I had a situation come up playing in a late night tournament online that I’d considered before but never thought it would happen. Hypothetically, if a tournament is down to 1 player with time remaining to register, is the tournament ruled over? Does the ruling change if it is a rebuy tourament?

I was playing a late night turbo bounty freeze out on broz with a 30 cap registration limit and entries until end of level 7. I ran like I’ve never ran before (of course in a $20 tournament) and got down to heads up. Our next hand, we got it all in and chopped then a couple more joined. Had I won the hand, would the tourney had been over?

I went on to win the damn thing with 90% of the bountiez

Why would the tournament be over if registration is still open?

And this seemed like a lot of work to post 'Hey guys, I won a tournament and won a lot of bounties'

If it's addressed in the rules, then that's what happens.
If software closes the tourney, then that's what happens.

Without any info, I assume that once there is a single player, the tourney will pause and wait for another player to register. If nobody does before the expiration of registration, then the tourney ends and the single player is the winner.


** Curious about this question. Player A & B are HU after eliminating all other players. Player B busts and Player A is sitting with all the (currently in play) chips. Then Player Z registers and busts. I'm thinking that Player Z is now the 2nd place finisher, and Player B is the 3rd place finisher.

That’s a really good question, I hadn’t considered.

I shouldn’t have included that part because it detracts from the question which was serious.

I play at a local card room that does guarantees with 100ish runners but only 2 tables usually to start. I’m sure the floor would side with the house and keep the game going but it would be a sneaky way to take down the guarantee and just agree to play a cold hand and everyone fo all in first hand.

If registration is open then it is open. There should be no reason to shut down the tourney when it gets down to 1 player.

I would guess though that not many players would want to register while the game was going. It would be very difficult to survive vs a single player with like 30+ buy-ins.

However, assuming that more than one place gets paid I would consider sign up during the break (if it was a live tourney) before registration ends and then battle for 2nd place. In an online tourney I would register just before registration ended if 2nd place money was worth it. But in general I don't like registering shortstacked.

Congrats on the win! To win 90% of the bounties is awesome. I once chopped a big bounty tourney ($100 entry + $100 bounty) 3 ways at the Borgota without winning a single bounty (except for my own which I got to keep at the end).

I've been in tourneys where I was moved to a short table, busted the others, and sat there alone while other tables played ... until someone bought in and play restarted. I assume the same would have happened here.

this was a thing that happened on carbon years ago, their tourneys would end when there was 1 left even tho late reg was still avail

I remember this too but couldn't find the thread. It doesn't make sense to me (especially as it relates to an online tournament with no staff overhead — I would sooner suspect that to be a bug than to be an intentional decision) but it is a thing.

In that case, Player B should rebuy and if/when they bust, they would be back in second place!

"Congratulations, your tournament ended in the money (maybe), but we don't know what place you finished or how much money you won .. please stand by for late registration to close so PhilH can squeak into 2nd place with 1 second to go."

The tournament really needs to end .. how do you even handle a money bubble with late registration still open? You can't since you have no clue how many more Players are going to come into the field.

If you allow another Player into the field they are essentially on a freeroll even if you limited their 2nd place 'prize' money to their entry fee less rake. GL

https://www.wsop.com/legal/house-rules-nj/:

(This quote persists no matter what you change your location to, but it is always attached to the "house-rules-nj/" slug.)

Not in the case of OP since it was a freezeout.

That just sounds like they have a problem understanding how to rebalance tables.

However, they probably don't want to fill tables during the late reg because then they'd have to break down tables to rebalance once the 9N+1th player registers (for 9-handed, i.e., the first new player who no longer fits in the existing tables). So they should probably just take enough players from the other tables to run about 7-handed or so, and spread the new registrants across those tables.

If done well, the couple of seats empty plus the rate of bustouts should be calibrated to the new registrants.

So if I understand this, in such a tournament you could buy in right before it gets down to 3-handed and be guaranteed fourth- (or at least fifth-) place money?

It would seem so. I'd be interested to know how the software handles it.

Registration should end when players get into the money.
That would solve the problem.

Probably even a little before.
Like in hand-for-hand for instance.

More generally, I think this goes along with the message that late registration is a privilege or an accommodation, not a right. It's no different than if the facility has a limited capacity; in that case, no one should have a problem with filling the tournament then turning away the tardy.

How do you know what "in the money" is if you don't know how many players the tournament will have?

I like the epistemological element to this question, but I think the naïve solution works here: You calculate the number paid based on the number of players already registered, and when you get down to that number remaining, you stop registration.

Yes, another response to that question is: You do know.

If you seal the tournament room so no one can enter or leave, you end up with Schrödinger's Tournament, where registration is both closed and still open.

Most tournaments have a preset time for registration, you would piss off the people who planned to late register. More importantly to the casino, it would cost them money. Can't use that option.

And just too bad for anyone who booked a trip to the casino to play a tourney based on the published registration schedule?