I believe in fairness and reducing unnecessary variance. Players often complain (rightly so) when they just paid the blinds, and now their table breaks and they are moved into the big blind again. This is even more punishing now that most events have bb ante. I have a VERY simple solution to this problem. When a table breaks, have the floor tell the other dealers to finish their hand and hold up. While hands are finishing have the floor take a look at the other tables (this can easily be done in less than 45 seconds) and then look at the available seat cards and see which seat card will 1) be the next big blind, 2) be the next utg, 3) be the next button, and 4) be the next cutoff. Then give those corresponding seat cards to the players in the corresponding position of the breaking table. Then for the remaining seats, randomly distribute them. This way 4 of the players from the breaking tables will get the exact spots they deserve (although the button likely still will be one position short). The other 2 to 5 players will then get positions close to where they would have been. The would-be small blind should be seated around 6th-7th as they already paid the big blind, and thus the sb will be part of the pool of players remaining to get random seats. ( you could even consider seeding utg+1 as well, or even all 6 to 9 players)
I think the above method could be done very quickly (especially when there are only 4-10 tables ) and the players would all be in favor of it. I bubbled an $816 payout due to having the button on a breaking table and moving into the blinds again. Online poker sites seed players from breaking tables into the closest corresponding spots in their new tables. So live events should try to do the same when they can do a pretty good job with minimal effort by the method above.
Plus it will eliminate players dodging blinds!

Heard of paragraphs?

How will it eliminate players dodging blinds? They will still do the same, walk by their new table and keep walking if they see they are going to in the blind.

Stop blinding down to 2bb, problem solved. Instead of a random seat draw you're saying you 'deserve' a specific seat? In that case I deserve for my set to hold vs a FD because I lost the last one. In the name of reducing variance, Dealer can we turn the deck over and find 2 bricks?

Why not just have a rule that if your table breaks, you are allowed to wait until the button passes at your new table before being dealt in? This is usually the rule for must-move cash games, and this seems like a similar situation (where a player is forced to move tables).

[ ] NVG worthy thread
[X] MTT worthy thread
[X] Ridiculous idea that wouldn’t work in big field events (WSOP) where your new table may be half a football field away
[X] OP was high when wrote his epiphany.

Because the seat card they get will be equal to the seating position they would have had at their breaking table, and dealers are holding up for new players to arrive. I clearly stated that in my post.

waste of time. poker is filled with variance. this isn't a rounding error on the variance scale.

If the Chainsaw isn't worried about this, neither am I

Dealers cant "hold up" every single time a table breaks. Idiotic suggestion.

No comments on my suggestion here?
It seems to me that it would almost entirely remove the incentive to angle-shoot the timing of sitting down at a new table, but not slow the game down or make things any more complicated for tournament directors.

Here’s an idea nobody has mentioned:

Why not just have a rule that if your table breaks, you are allowed to wait until the button passes at your new table before being dealt in? This is usually the rule for must-move cash games, and this seems like a similar situation (where a player is forced to move tables).


OP, your idea would be a ridiculous amount of time and effort for literally zero benefit to anyone other than one or two people.