Situation in my room today. Our room uses the dead big blind rule, no buying the button etc.

Recreational player misses big blind, returns to table on the next hand where he would have been the small blind.
Wants to rejoin the game immediately but is told he has to wait for the button to pass him.
He requests to move into an empty seat in middle position. Dealer asks him to post a big and small blind since he missed his BB (and thus would miss the small blind too), wants to only post the BB and not the SB. Player goes mental and has to be escorted out.

I've never encountered that before.
How should this be handled?
Should the player have been asked to wait until the button passes him before he moves?
Can the player rejoin the game immediately if he moves before the hand starts? Does he have to post both blinds or is 1xBB sufficient?

It was handled perfectly. Player is a mental baby in an adult body, goes mental over a rule he doesn't like, and got escorted out.

I presume you mean the dead button rule, since there is always a big blind under any rule set I've ever seen.

The normal rule is if you miss the blinds and want to post, you post both. Here he has missed both, in any realistic sense. However, there is another rule that if you move to a better position (relative to the blinds), you have to post to get a hand. And that rule usually requires you to just post the big blind, and not also post a dead small blind. The question here is which rule applies? I can see valid arguments for either side. If I were another player at the table, I wouldn't really care which rule was applied. I also do not know the correct answer as to which rule should apply. And the correct answer in one room might be different than another. Honestly, I've never seen this situation occur in 32 years of playing poker, so I suspect the correct answer isn't written down anywhere. As such, the answer is whatever the dealer says. If you don't like what the dealer says, ask for the floor. If you don't like what they say, you're screwed.

It's not a situation that comes up often, but having to post both blinds seems standard to me. That's what he would have posted in a room that allows buying the button or if he'd just waited one hand and come in after the button.

I think the only issue here is not allowing to buy the button. There is nothing about the dead button rule which would preclude that.

But if the room truly doesn't allow it, then once he misses the BB he gets a missed BB button. He comes back and wants to BTB but can't. So he moves seats and takes the missed BB button with him. If he wants to get rid of it, treat it like any other missed BB button - he can wait for the natural BB to get to him, or he can post both.

To greg's point about moving away from the button, it is true you usually have to post (or, in some rooms, deal off the number of seats you skipped), but in this case you haven't yet missed any blinds and don't have a missed blind button. I don't think this should trump the missed blind rule.

Oh man, I hope OP doesn't mind me borrowing this thread for a quick question about what should be a common scenario. It's not really worth its own thread, but it seems like everyone I ask — including seasoned industry employees — gives a different set of answers! (I deal, but not in a professional setting, so I stay out of the Breakroom thread.)

The scenario:

• We are playing a cash game.
• The house follows the dead button rule.
• In Hand 1, a player misses his small blind, such that there is a dead small.

In Hand 2:

1. Can the player play his button?
2. If YES to (1), does he have to post his small blind?
3. If YES to (2), is it live or dead?
4. What is the reasoning for (3)?
5. Does it matter why the player missed his small blind (e.g. busted in the big blind versus got up for coffee)?

I have seriously heard every combination of answers Thank you!

To answer the new question - the reason you're getting different answers is it's handled differently in different rooms. I've seen the following:

1) Can post small on the button and it's live
2) Can post a dead small on the button
3) Button stays where it is, player can post a second SB. So it would be Button-SB-SB-BB
4) Has to either buy the button for BB+SB or wait a hand and post a dead SB behind button
5) Has to wait for button to pass, then can post a dead SB

#3 is my preference, but it's a little confusing to players and not many rooms have this option. #4 seems to be most common. #1 gets abused - people sit out their SB on purpose so they can post it from the button instead.

If a player missed it because they busted then many rooms would treat them as a new player and not give them a missed blind button. They would have whatever rights a new player would in that spot, which could include them posting a single BB or waiting a hand and coming back for free.

4 & 5 are the ones I've seen most often.
I experienced 3 once a couple years ago, but can't remember where. That's also the one I would use if I were creating rules/procedures.

why doesn’t the room allow buying the button? seems like a silly rule.

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Thanks for the thorough response. It looks like Option #3 is the one not covered by my post / reached by my imagination. I see why it is preferred.

The most interesting question to me is whether and why the blind is live or dead. Responses to that part are all over the place.

The incident that effected this question happened at an Encore Boston Harbor $1/3 game. A player had busted in the BB and then left to buy more chips downstairs because that's what we make you do in Boston.

The floor was called for funsies / curiosity. It's just a dollar, and he was nearby. The floor ruled that the player could post the small blind from the button and that the post was live. His reasoning was that any amount up to the big blind is live, and then the spillover is dead.

It sounded made up on the spot, but I couldn't find an argument against that reasoning. It's a clean rule.

You seem to have missed the first half of that sentence.

I don't like it. A missed SB should almost always be posted dead IMO. Otherwise people can abuse it to always post it IP. (Yes, there is a case to be made that it's not worth it since they also have to miss at least one hand.)

From the OP .. IMO the Dealer mixed up the 'reasoning' for the post. This Player needs to post in accordance to the policy in place for changing seats .. not missing a BB. If the move to MP was beyond the standard 2-seat allowance, then they need to post 'something'. The Dealer should use the ".. moving away from the Button/Blinds .. " type of language with no need of mentioning that they missed a BB. And yes, if they just leap frogged one Player .. who really cares as it just shows the rest of the table the type of person/player they are dealing with.


As for the missed SB spot ..

1) I am a huge advocate of allowing 'any' Player to receive a hand .. as long as they want to pay the price to be in the hand. So yes, I would allow this Player to take their Button .. at a price.

2) Most of the rooms in our area wouldn't allow this Player to play the Button. But I've influenced a few to allow the Player to post a dead SB as long as they Straddle also.

3-4) Dead .. can't imagine allowing a Player to post live $$ in position after choosing to not post it out of position.

5) If a Player gets into the habit of missing the SB in lieu of the post, then yes .. we do care why and will have a bit of a chat. But at least the 1st time around, we really don't care what happened .. as long as 'something' happened (most likely a phone call or something else that took the Player away from the table). I'm not really in favor of a Player just electing not to take the SB and then wanting to get right back in the next hand.

Is that wishy-washy? Yes, the Dealer needs to make a decision or even call the Floor if Player disagrees with the spot. But as I said above .. as long as a Player is willing to pay a 'room' price, then get them a hand .. get them back into the game they came to play. GL

If the guy didn't wanna post both blinds, just tell him "It's ok no problem you don't have to post both, just wait until you're the natural BB". Case solved. Hopefully he got home OK.