After reading some posts by a fellow tournament player who had gone to Vegas recently to play, I decided to go myself (June 15th 2021) to play in a couple of Senior tournaments.

As a senior I have some medical issues so I had to make a last minute decision as to whether to cancel my trip or not. I was up against a bad hip (I needed a cane to walk about three weeks earlier), a failing bladder likely caused by fatigue due to working late into the night the days before I left, and a root canal (the day of my trip). So on top of the fatigue, pain and fear, I was dealing with a lot of medication which while mitigating the pain to some extent and reviving my bladder, made me feel a bit woozy.

So I arrive at the Silver Sevens late at night and it is as I remembered it. The cheapest Vegas hotel near the strip. A place I am at home at, but my wife would never set foot in. The room has no refrigerator which means I will be having breakfast early one morning in order to abscond with some jelly packets so I will be able to make PB&J sandwiches for lunch. The room also has no safe so I will be setting up a safety deposit box at the cage for no fee (and no privacy).

This year for the first time, I brought some organic peanut butter and canned sardines. I had splurged on checking a bag on my flight so I figured I would take some food with me.

To prepare for the $800 Venetian and $550 Wynn Senior tournaments I decide to play some smaller tournaments at the Orleans my first few days. I get on the E. Flamingo bus and pay the $5 for a 24 hour pass thinking I will take another bus the mile or so to the Orleans from W. Flamingo. But instead once at the W. Flamingo stop I walk to the Orleans because there is no bus in sight. I try to stay in the shade of the buildings along the way but it means walking on gravel right by some first floor balconies. Not my best decision and I haven't even played poker yet. Fortunately the guy didn't have a gun.

During the pandemic, while it seemed like I hadn't breathed for a year and a quarter while not playing any poker, I had decided to up my game. Solvers would seem to be the way to go and as a computer programmer and system designer right up my alley. And yet I had no interest. Instead I decided to invest in some Poker "Shades" for $150 or so and concentrate on reading people. I had re-read all of my relevant poker books on the subject and decided I wasn't going to look at the flop, turn, or river when they were dealt. Instead I was going to concentrate on my opponents reactions and glide to the final tables.

About half an hour into the $200 tournament I am putting my poker shades on before the flop (I don't wear them while looking at my cards because they might reflect my cards) and getting a read on my opponents. Except contrary to my plan I have no reads whatsoever. Not only that but I look down at the flop (after examining an opponent futilely) and I see I have bottom pair and a nut flush draw. So I check raise. On the turn, when I look down after again not knowing how it impacted my opponent, I see that I no longer have a flush draw. Now in fairness my eyesight is poor without the poker shades and I have to wear like 3.0 magnifying lenses when I read, but I am a little distressed that I mistook a heart for a diamond and that it cost me thousands of chips. This was exactly the reason I never wore actual sunglasses in poker rooms. I got knocked out of a tournament once long ago when I check raised with sunglasses and what should have been a flush draw and found myself drawing essentially dead after the flop (which ironically I didn't know until I thought I hit my flush on the river and the dealer after he finished laughing explained to me that a flush required 5 cards in one suit)

I don't remember the details of the tourney because on my drugs I am still woozy. I do remember talking to a guy who was at my original table and him asking me about my glasses. I told him I was into reading people and he said so was he. He asked me about my reads on him and I said he was really good and I had nothing. So then I asked him about his reads on me and after hesitating he told me. Well at least that skill hadn't abandoned me. And now I had something to work with with regards to false tells!

I ended up finishing 10th out of over 200 people which was sort of a miracle because I wasn't thinking straight. And just to be clear I did not make the final table which was only 9 people. I got knocked out with 44 vs AQo right after losing AKo to 77 (he was all in for about 2/3 of my chips).

I got a ride to the Rio with a friendly couple (while waiting for the shuttle to the Gold Coast that was never going to come because it was so late) and then took the bus home so I netted $570 from the tourney and -$1 from my 24 hour bus pass.

The next day I buy some bread, Doritos, water, and donuts at the mini-mart across the street and make my first PB&J sandwich.

I decide to play the $400 Monster Stack at the Venetian (because obviously I am really good). Three times. And I bounced three times. I'd like to say the walk there was nice but the heat was brutal and I had no water with me...

From a pandemic standpoint I have mixed feelings. I am breathing again psychologically (from playing poker again) so there is that huge sense of relief. All casino employees including dealers are wearing masks. But something is nagging me about the Covid protocols in the casinos. You have to wear a mask if you haven't been vaccinated but nobody is checking to see if you are vaccinated. So all the people who hate wearing masks and also don't want to be vaccinated are??? Not playing??? Everybody I talk to says they are vaccinated after I say I am vaccinated. And I think to myself who in their right mind would play poker at what would otherwise be a super spreader event if they weren't vaccinated? Not poker players right? Also there are some people who are wearing masks. Like one in 30 or so. When they are at my table I tell them I have been vaccinated so they will feel more at ease. And each one of them tells me that they have also been vaccinated. So again an unsettling feeling runs through me. Its not much better when most of them tell me they are doctors and they are wearing masks to protect their children or their patients or elderly relatives who have also been vaccinated.

I start wearing my mask when I am walking through the casino and/or going to the restroom. I am not alone in this. Also it should be noted that Nevada as a state is not doing well Covid-wise. At least from an infection rate standpoint. So all of this doesn't really explain why I am not wearing a mask while playing poker. It has to do with my poker shades. I don't want them to fog up. Not that I have gotten any reads. But on the bright side if my pupils are dilating in my blue eyes when I hit a hand then at least nobody else knows about it.

I should also point out that I now understand why people hate wearing masks. I had to wear a mask for 6 straight hours on the airplane which was like 5 hours more than I had ever had to wear one before. It was super annoying.

The following day is the dynamic 222 at the Orleans which I thought was $222 entry but it turns out is $300 (so I only brought enough for two entries). I get knocked out at 2:30pm by a half drunk self admitted alcoholic after again failing to make any reads with my poker shades. OK I had him pegged as an alcoholic. I decide not to re-enter because I would have like 30 blinds and I no longer am convinced I'm really good... I walk a mile to W. Flamingo on a street I have never walked on before and was lucky because there was a mini-mart at the corner of W. Flamingo. Which had water. Which somewhat compensated for the 120 degree temperature outside. When I get to my room I am texting with my wife with the TV on and all of a sudden it is 4 hours later and apparently I have passed out. Just exhaustion hopefully. So I decide to take a day off the next day to rest to be ready for the first Senior tourney at the V.

Which I walk to because obviously I am not really that smart. My hip though is doing much better as a result of the walking. And I cleverly bring a bottle of water which is completely empty by the time I get to the V.

My Day 1A tournament does not end well and it is entirely due to the pandemic. A Covid mask cost me a chance for the money. There was a wild guy at my first table who loved to raise and 3-bet bluff. He and I have gotten into it several times and then I doubled up with AA vs AK in the BB when he was on the BTN and raised, I 3-bet a lot and then he jammed. He had a mask around his neck which I didn't think about. Then about 6 or 7 hours later I move to a table where he is playing, only he is now wearing his mask and I don't recognize him. I get in a strange spot where I am in the BB in a three way pot and flop a nut flush draw (yes I double check) and the original raiser bets and masked man 3-bets. Which if I recognize him I will shove 100% of the time and win at least 100,000 chips but I don't so I fold...

The next day is Day 1B of the Venetian Senior tournament which I am ready for. But in a quirk of fate I make 4 mistakes in one hand and lose a big pot. Soon after I decide to make an all in bluff on a T8343 board when I am in the BB vs a pre-flop raiser who actually has the hand I am representing (trips).

Its noon and I happen to have $800 in my pocket so I come back in. What is remarkable is that for the past two hours there have been like 50 people waiting to be seated as Alternates and at this exact moment during a break I ask the Floor what the wait time is and he gives me a rack of chips and a seat card. I put my chips on the table grab my PB&J and Doritos and bring back my empty rack with another empty rack I found and hand them both to the Floor and tell him I have doubled up.

My second entry seems to be going well when this happens: A guy limps in the CO and the SB in seat 9 calls. I check in the BB in the 1 seat so I can't see too clearly at the other end of the table and yes I am wearing my poker shades. The flop comes down all low cards and I flop middle pair. The SB leads out and I think about raising but I decide to just call. But before I place my bet apparently the CO has put out a raise. As I put my bet out I see the raise in front of the CO and am startled by how fast it got out there. The dealer who was looking at me didn't see the out of turn action but realizes it as soon as I have bet (because I guess he turned his head before I put my bet out). Anyway he is startled but doesn't say anything. The SB folds and I think about it and fold. And then the dealer says he thinks the other guy bet out of turn, collects my bet and starts to collect the cards. I say "hang on a sec" and ask the dealer if the other player bet out of turn. He says yes. I call the Floor. Before the Floor gets there I say that I should get my bet back because I should have been given a choice about what to do when the CO bet out of turn. A player to my left agrees with me. The Floor comes over and as is always the case with me at the Venetian he says no, its too late. And walks away.

I am steaming and I don't notice that the dealer has left the table and been replaced. The next hand (or maybe a couple of hands later) a guy bets and a multi-billionaire next to him raises. But he drops a chip before he makes the bet so he makes a string raise. A player or two say something like "that's a string raise" but the dealer claims to not have seen it and is about to move on when I say "wow you don't see the out of turn bet and now you don't see the string raise and you still think its fine to continue. At some point I think you should start paying attention." So this is the part where its definitely me and I have to work on my social skills when I am angry. But still it is remarkable that two different dealers miss the action and try to pretend that its OK to continue without calling the Floor over or rectifying the situation themselves. And the part about knowing the guy is a multi-billionaire is because he then says "I don't care if the extra chip counts as part of my raise or not." And the guy next to him says "yeah because he is a multi-billionaire." And the multi-billionaire nods his head sheepishly. I am not wearing my poker shades at this point so I trust my read on this. Anyway this dealer reduces the bet size and the hand plays out.

Now normally when I am at the Venetian and a ruling goes against me I get it in good looking like I am tilted and get knocked out. OK so its a small sample size of one time. This time for whatever reason I make it to day 2 with 26 blinds.

And Day 2 seems like a charm. I finally get a read on somebody with my poker shades. It is a woman who every time she misses on the flop looks up and to the right like she doesn't want to be there. She is also rolling her eyes which I am very familiar with as I am married. So I bluff every time I am in a hand with her which I try to do every time she is in a hand and looks away. But unfortunately for me she plays tight so doesn't enter a lot of hands and won't call my pre-flop raises when she is in the BB.

Still I manage to get down to about 40 players left when I have my next Venetian adventure. The BB gets knocked out at our table and we are down two players. So the Floor tells us to hold up and brings what would be a BB from another fuller table, seats them in the empty seat which would have been the SB and instructs the dealer that the new player will play the BB, the BTN will not move and then the same player will be the SB. So essentially the UTG player has to play UTG again. Now in my later discussion (or argument if you count tone of voice) with the Floor I do say that it seems unfair that UTG (ironically not me) has to be UTG again and the Floor says "but its a free hand!" like we all want to be UTG. Also I will point out I have never seen this done anywhere else ever. When I said that to the Floor they laughed and said something like "you don't get out much?" which happened to be true for the last year and a half. Nevertheless I pointed out that even though the new BB would end up paying the same BB & SB he would have at the other table, it is slightly unfair that the for the BB he does not have his companion SB with him. The Floor looked at me like I was wasting his time. I should have said "you don't play poker much?" but the undoubtedly one round penalty didn't seem like it was worth it. So I said why not just count the seats away from the BTN the other free seat is and grab a player from another table in that position so nobody gets any free hands and everybody is in the same position they were before? To which the Floor's response was "it's not in the rules." Like this whole thing with the BB being moved into the BB and then SB is in the rules!!! Is it by the way? I don't think so but maybe its me that doesn't know the rules. Also as an aside I would say I would much rather buy the BTN than have to play BB and then SB on consecutive hands. But the Floor also informed me that that was definitely not in the rules (and yes it's not but that was the whole point of my new inventive idea).

So I say all of that because yes with 25 players left I was moved from my BB to another table where I was next to the BTN as BB and then SB. Which obviously didn't affect me at all because on my second hand there as the "SB" with like 16 blinds and AJs I decided to shove all in against the chip leader who had raised 4x because my poker shades were definitely broken. My read was he had like 66-TT and would possibly fold when in fact he had AK and would mostly (always) call. On reflection on my long walk to the cage (where it turned out I netted $232 for the tournament) I should have passed on that opportunity and not blamed my poker shades which in truth did not give me a pre-flop read because I wasn't wearing them.

So the next tourney was the $550 Senior event at the Wynn. Now don't get me wrong. The Wynn is an amazing place to play at. The poker tournament area is somewhere between the hotel rooms and a swimming pool because young women are constantly walking by in bikinis. Also they apparently only hire super models as waitresses. But from a poker standpoint I don't win at the Wynn. Ever (this is not true I did win in 2019 but I don't remember it which means we should probably add Alzheimer's to my list of current maladies). One time in another event at the Wynn I had AJo in the BB. The flop comes A22 and I check and the pre-flop raiser checks. Then the turn is an A. I check and the other guy checks. Now if I had 22 I was thinking I would bet the turn every time because the only way somebody is paying me off is if they had an A and they would call every time. So when a J came on the river I figured I was ahead and maybe the other guy would call with a K. But he raised. So I figure he something like AK and slow played it on the flop and turn. So I jammed. And when he turned over 22 I was stunned.

So I sit down and the guy next to me on my right starts talking to me. Turns out he is from TN and he wants to talk politics. He says AOC is a Communist. I say AOC is a Democrat and he says all Democrats are Communists. The Dealer asks him to stop talking politics and he does. My thinking is that I'm glad he is on my right. I think that from his political viewpoint he will always call me down because he won't allow himself to be bullied or bluffed. And because he will believe that everything I do will be a bluff (I told him I wasn't a Communist). So this all played out perfectly. I had lost about 10,000 chips to a woman who bet very very small on the flop so I called with AQs with a backdoor flush draw. My poker shades read was she was weak. Which If I had done my Mike Caro homework would mean she was actually strong. As in flopped a set strong. So an A on the turn was not a good card. So I had like 15,000 chips and AQo. TN guy raises and I 3-bet pre-flop. He calls. Flop is QTx two hearts. I mimic my pre-flop raise size and he c/r jams. I am convinced he would have 4-bet with AA/KK and that he believes I am full of it and also there are a ton of draws out there. So I call and he has QQ. Lovely.

It happens so quickly that I buy in again. I never get above starting stack. In fact all day I never got above starting stack. Could my day have gone any worse? Yes it could. I go up to a Wynn Floor and ask him about the BB thing having to play BB and then SB in that spot evacuated by a busted BB on the prior hand. And the Wynn Floor sides with the Venetian Floor! My world is starting to tilt. Maybe I am a Communist.

It is my next to last day and I am going to play Day 1C of the $600 Venetian Ultimate Stack tournament (which is the last Day 1). I take a bus on E. Flamingo to the strip and then walk to the Venetian. Conserving energy. But mostly because the bus was there. A $2 investment.

I start doing very very well. It turns out that two players to my left and sometimes three telegraph their pre-flop folds. So I get to be the BTN a lot. Also there is another woman at the table who telegraphs her dislike of flops. And perhaps most importantly nobody is 3-betting. Except me. And they think I only 3-bet with monsters because I turned over AA twice. I beat the guy on my left who has AA and KK. He gets knocked out on this hand by my Q6s in the BB when I flop a flush draw (for real!) and a pair and check raise. Then when I turn the flush I make a blocking bet and he jams.

I go card dead for a while and change tables. I get lucky with AKo vs 77 when I 3-bet jam pre-flop and he calls. I end Day 1C with 386,000 chips which is probably like 50 blinds.

Day 2 goes even better. There are some well known pros. One at my table. He asks my name and I tell him "Mr Rick". Which comes into play at the final table when there is a WPT champion who I played with once for 20 minutes at FW 6 years ago starts calling me Rick. So the CL at the final table raises (and I know he doesn't have a monster because I have a read on him) and WPT Champ 3-bets and I 4-bet shove with KK (so my read makes no difference because I am shoving KK anyway even if CL is super strong) and WPT Champ looks at me and says he knows 100% what I have (AK he thinks) and he folds 77. And then he asks me what I have. And I remind him that he got a guy with JJ to fold at a WPT final table when he had 22 before you couldn't talk about his hand. So I am not inclined to help him in the middle of a tournament. Which made him smile. I don't know if he will remember my name. And I don't know how he knew my name in the first place... But it was nice to finish third. Except for the part where my bladder started to fail at 1am in the morning and I was really really uncomfortable with about 30 minutes before each subsequent break (with my medicine in my hotel room no less). And of course the fact that by finishing in the top 4 I would miss my 6am flight. And losing AQs vs ATo all in when if I held I would be in 2nd place.

But all in all I can't complain. I survived two all-ins when I was behind so I should have finished like 15th or 6th.

And I got to play the game I love.

Not gonna lie, my attention span would not let me read that.

I read it all and your rant about the guy being moved from the BB position to the BB position at the new table makes no sense. This is 1000% standard in any tournament. Any time a player is moved to balance tables, they take the player who’s in the BB next and when they get to the new table they assume the position closest to the BB. No other way to do it...


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They handled the table balancing exactly by the book. Someone was disadvantaged by it, but that's how it works. Same as when they break a table and you're randomly assigned a seat with a worse position. It's set up that way to assure the floor isn't giving preferential treatment to specific players.

There are absolutely un-vaccinated people who play and don't wear a mask. Hell, I've had players brag about it. They simply have no interest in protecting themselves or those around them, and will endlessly spout made up nonsense if you challenge them. I've had players brag about it.

I don't frequent tournaments, so my interest is piqued. If they were to move the would-be-SB from one table to the will-be-SB position at the other, then the first table would be without an SB next hand. Is that what OP is suggesting should happen, and is the missing SB the issue they are trying to avoid by moving the BB instead?

That option only works if you have a dead SB. And it makes no sense to leave the other table with a dead SB. The OP’s rant is silly, every orbit you’re required to be in the BB followed by the SB.


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That floor ruling was also completely standard and iaw the rules. You saw the player bet OOT, but said nothing. You then called the bet you were facing, so the OOT action is now binding. You waited for sb to fold, and folded yourself. THEN you decide to speak up about the OOT action? AND you really thought you should get your bet, a bet that you made in turn, afteryou voluntarily folded your hand and no longer have cards?

Frankly, If it wasnt that it's clear from the BB situation that you are a bit rusty on the rules, it would seem like you were angleshooting trying to get your chips back after folding.

What I was suggesting is that if there were two empty seats open and one would have been the SB and the other was say HJ that they take a HJ from another table and move him into the empty HJ seat. Then they would play the next hand without a SB (which would have happened if nobody moved).

That is clearly not going to happen because as the Floor mentioned its not in the rules and it is much easier for them to just take a BB so they don't have to think too hard about it.

Maybe in the past 12 years or so that I have played a lot of tournament poker it didn't happen because I was never at a table where we eliminated a BB in a spot where the Floors were rebalancing the tables. I play mostly at FW where they don't really rebalance much unless a table has 3 empty seats.

But I have played at a number of casinos in Las Vegas where I never saw this either. Probably because I didn't go deep enough where they were rebalancing frequently.

But in the past, to my recollection they only ever put the new player at the seat nearest the BB or the BB itself if UTG had been eliminated.

That's why I picked this title. I figured I was probably wrong.

I didn't see the player bet OOT (if I had seen the player bet OOT I would have folded immediately not even needing a rule clarification). What I saw was the bet was out there when I looked up after betting and I was startled. It took me a few seconds to realize what might have happened and by the time it was my turn to act I folded and then the Dealer said something after I folded. So I got clarification from the dealer that he had suspected that the bet had been out of turn but did nothing to stop the action when he realized it, and it was on the SB.

Now it is possible that the realization came to the dealer slowly as it did me. But when it was my turn to bet again the dealer did seem know at that point and still didn't raise the issue.

It is possible that the ruling was legit. I was just mad that the dealer hadn't been paying enough attention to the table to stop the action when the OOT action happened. And I would have preferred that the Dealer had raised the issue as soon as he realized it, instead of after the hand was over.

I was not angleshooting. It is not something I would do. I did not wait for the SB to fold to make my decision and then ask for my chips back. I was folding regardless of what the SB did. But yes I believed that had the rules been applied fairly I would have gotten my bet back. And I wasn't alone in that belief.

The situation where they are moved to a table that would have had a dead SB is uncommon and most players probably have never seen it. When I was dealing tournaments full time I'd see it maybe twice a year.

Making up rules on the spot like you propose would just screw a different set of players and sets the stage for endless bitching and accusations of favoritism.

Paying blinds is part of the game. Everyone is required to pay twice a round, every round. Moving the next BB from one table into the position closest to the BB at the next table is as fair and consistent as you can get.


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Amazing post! A+

Ditto. Tho read most of it.

OP I always respect your posts but this was just a crazy jumbled rant. Did you type while still on "a lot of medication"?

Poker players firing $400 a clip on an lol donkament while saving money eating pb and J… done similar stuff like driving 20’mins out of the way to save my atm fee and then playing for multiple thousands.

OP, what have you done with Mr. Rick?

Personally, I really liked the humor in the OP.
Although it doesn't resemble his usual posts indeed.

I don't usually pay enough attention to learn individual posters' personalities, so I had no idea Mr Rick was funny. But this post really was great, very funny. I also find it amusing that people are stopping by to say that it was too long for their feeble brains to handle.

Lol.

Not sure what you are referring to though. I write trip reports every few years or so.

The first one I wrote got removed from "Brick and Mortar" because it didn't bring up any issues/raise any questions that needed to get resolved. So I now have to bring in at least one controversy.

If you are referring to my ridiculous complaint about not getting my money back when I acted in turn after a guy acted out of turn then that is why it was in here. But in fairness to me that did inspire my title. Along with my complete ignorance about a guy being placed in the eliminated BB's seat and having to play BB and then SB. My whole "argument" with the Floors at the V was mostly to find out if it was a V invention or was really a TDA rule because I had never seen it before. After my discussion with a Floor at the Wynn I was leaning heavily towards TDA rule...

I get upset with the Dealer(s)/Floors who fail to protect the players at the V.

I had a very bad experience there several years ago (which I wrote about in a trip report) in which a guy went all-in, I asked the dealer if he was all-in, the dealer said "yes he is all-in" was putting the all-in button out and dropped it in his rack. I called with the nuts (did not turn my hand over), the guy then pretended he hadn't said "all-in" and tried to muck his hand across the table (not yet facing a bet on the turn)! The Floor, without asking anyone if they heard the player say "all-in" ruled that he was not all-in because the dealer's all-in button never made it to the table and gave the player a one round penalty for trying to muck his hand. Seriously. Then about five minutes later another player sitting next to the cheater said he heard the guy say "all-in" (which made at least three of us that had heard him say it including the dealer). So I went to the Tournament Director and asked him to investigate it further because he had a cheater still in the tourney. I also made it clear that I understood I would not be getting any chips. The TD came back to me and told me that the Floor had told him that nobody at the table had heard him say "all-in". Lol. I didn't play there for a couple of years as a result. And now I am hyper sensitive about how the rules get enforced at the V. Though I think they have a different TD now.

In this case (the OOT play) I am clear now that I was not owed the chips. I almost didn't ask for the Floor because I thought my call was what I would have done if there hadn't been OOT action, but then the way the dealer brought it up made me mad. Like why didn't he bring it up as soon as he realized it had happened? For the record I have seen a Floor (at FW) allow a player who had put in a call to take back his bet when the OOT action was announced and the guy ultimately folded. Now that may have been wrong but it made me think that I might have been screwed. Again...

I enjoyed reading your trip report, which was well written, and am happy to hear about your third-place finish.

You're not as verbose in your other posts. I enjoyed this and your other contributions over the years. Peace.

Last comment on this...you do realize that the player who was moved would have been the BB the very next hand if he would’ve stayed at his previous table? Which means he’s paying the BB, followed of course by the SB, wether he’s at his original table or the new one. Why do you have such an issue with this?


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Yes I know that the player moved will pay both the BB and then SB just like he would have before he was moved.

I just had never seen it done in 15 years of playing poker live. So I thought the V had invented it. And I wanted to know if it was a TDA rule or not.

I don't particularly like it though.

The thing is that when you move a player in a tournament it is generally a disadvantage to the moved player. He will be arriving at a table where everybody knows everybody else and in general he doesn't know anyone (or maybe a few players from earlier in the tourney). While it is true that the other players won't know him, that is just 11% of the table that they won't know (in a 9 player game).

So I like the idea that the moved player gets a few free hands on average as compensation to make up for the disadvantage. And to start getting a feel for the table. The other issue is that it came up mostly towards the end of tournaments where they were rebalancing tables frequently. So it seems to be disproportionately used at the highest of stakes.

Also, the player coming in as the BB without a SB is at a slight disadvantage. There are times where it will end up BB vs SB where the BB has positional advantage. That can't happen now. And the advantage goes to the player who will be BB the next hand. He would have been BB without a SB but now he gets a free hand as UTG (which I don't care about one way or the other) and when he is BB he gets a companion SB. It could be argued that because there is no SB that there will be fewer blind steal attempts but I think that is balanced by the fact that it is easier to steal the blinds vs one player than two.

But in the end I don't really care about this. It seems to be a TDA rule and so it will be applied fairly in rooms that do it (and it was applied fairly at the V).

I actually read it all. But almost didn’t. Nice little trip report. Almost lost me at the sardines and pb&js. Thanks for sharing