Changing Limits In Tournaments

Although it should be quite elementary and simple, changing limits in tournaments often causes arguments and stress when it just doesn't need to.

The current standard is that the tournament director gets on the microphone at the end of a round and announces that the limits have increased, and says, "If you have begun to riffle the cards, complete the hand you are playing." Inevitably, this causes arguments over not only what exactly a riffle is (vs. a shuffle, mixing the cards, or whatever), but whether it indeed has commenced.

It is not one of poker's giant issues, but I have an easy solution that stops the problem right away. In a perfect world, I would have a large clock ticking down with a buzzer going off at zero, as is done in sporting events, but I will take a stopwatch beep with the tournament director yelling into the microphone, if necessary.

In basketball, for example, when the buzzer sounds, the period is over – unless the ball is in the air. In tournament poker, a level would be done unless at least one card has been dealt. That's all. It's that easy.

What about changing decks? Just change on the dealer switch, not on the level switch. That way, those casinos that change decks on the level change do not have to worry about wasting a perfectly good shuffle. It makes more sense, anyway, for a new dealer to use a fresh deck.