Hand for Hand
As we said in the last post, no one wants to finish on the bubble, just one place out of the money. Some players will stall to avoid that terrible spot. You see if you are a short stack then the longer it takes your table to complete a hand the more likely it will be that someone on another table will bust-out and you will creep into the money. Tournament directors have had to devise a way to stop this practice. What most rooms use is the practice of playing “Hand for Hand”.
When the tournament reaches the point where there are one (or in some cases two or three) more player(s) to bustout before the money, the tournament director will announce: “Dealers hold up after you complete this hand.” When all tables have finished their hand, the players are counted and the TD announces: “We are one player away from the money (or 2, 3, etc. whatever the house decides), we are now playing hand for hand.”
Each table then deals and plays only one hand and then players are recounted. Everyone in the tournament has to play one hand and then another until the bubble is burst. This means stalling does you no good. There is one issue with this method, what if you are one place away from the money and two players bust out. There are two way to handle this (ask which way the house does it, if you are short stacked). Either the player with the larger stack to begin the hand wins the money or the two players divide it.
Here’s hoping you get to play a lot of Hand-for-Hand situations.
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #91
