How to Run a Professional Poker Tournament

Here is  short article on how to run a poker tournament. it includes basic information on how to run your bar poker tournament, or your Texas Hold'em home tournament including blinds structure, blinding out players, and balancing tables.

It's too short to give in depth information, but it is a good start for beginning tournament directors of home and bar games.

Harrah's Poker Room Expansion

Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City poker Bad Beat is up to around $160,000.00 right now.

They are doing construction to expand the poker room. The Reflections Cafe was moved across from the pool and a McCormick's and Schmidt's seafood restaurant is moving into the old spot. Expect for a small portion which is being taken out and added to the poker room. The poker room is also taking over the old retail store space that was adjacent to it.

I've heard the new space will include a cashier and horse race betting. But the expansion will add new tables and make Harrah's the fourth largest poker room in Atlantic City.

Showboat Poker Room Moves Downstairs

Since it first opened a couple of years ago, the Showboat poker room has been one of the prettiest poker rooms in the country. It now looks even better.

Showboat recently moved their House of Blues poker room from upstairs across from the music hall, to the main casino floor in the House of Blues gaming area behind the Spirit bar. The new poker room is more spacious and has windows with a view of the boardwalk.

I was concerned about the move. The old room had bathrooms next door and a cashier's cage in the poker room. For the new room both are on the far wall, but not too far away. The added beauty and space make up for the extra walk to the cage, and about the same distance for the bathrooms.

I was also concerned about the noise level, but the poker room seems clear of the slot machines that don't stop making noise. There are the kids that like to hit the windows as they walk by, but I'm happy it is quiet.

I had my misgivings when they announced the move, but I am happy with the new room. Very happy.

High Hand of the Day

Harrah's in AC has a High Hand of the Day prize. I'm at Harrah's enjoying the WSOP Circuit event. Today my first hand of the day made the High hand of the Day - I had quad 6's with a King. It didn't last; a straight flush became the new high hand a bit later.

In the Harrah's poker room the prize for the best hand of the day is 20,000 Reward Credits, which is $200 to spend on your Total Rewards card.

IRS Tournament Reporting Requirements

The IRS has made changes to the reporting requirements for poker tournaments. From what I can tell it seems that the IRS is not requiring the casinos to issue W-4G forms on your winnings as long as the casino keeps internal records of your winnings and does yearly reporting to the IRS.

If the casino does not have your taxpayer ID number on file and does not submit records to the IRS then they must issue w-4G forms to all tournament winners.

IRS Bulletinn: Poker Tournament Winnings Must be Reported to the IRS

Doyle's Room is back

Doyle's Room is back in the U.S. From what I can tell, they must have switched to Microgaming's software and are now taking U.S. based customers. I went to the site and entered my old information and got my account back, including my old balance. I have money still there.

Give it a try. Sign up for Doyle's Room.

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Clocking in and out

Each Casino has a method for keeping track of comps. I've only worked out the details for a few of them. But here is some information that might be of interest.

At Harrah's and Showboat they require you to clock in and clock out at the front desk. If you do not clock out then they throw away your comp points. If you clock in in the morning and clock out at night then if you play in a tournament in the middle you risk having all your points thrown out if there is only one table of players remaining because of the tournament and it breaks down due to lack of players. If they run out of players they sometimes throw out all the cards they track points on.

The Tropicana handles tracking for you by scanning each person's poker club card each hour. As long as your card is at the table, whether you are or not, you will get credit for comp points. At the Trop, poker comp points are on a different computer system than the Diamond card points for the slot machines. (Comps on table gains like blackjack are actually done by a third system and at the discretion of the pit boss)

At Caesars while they ask you to clock in and clock out, they apparently go to each table and collect cards ever three or four hours and rescan all the cards because the clock everyone out automatically. So apparently you can pick up an extra hour or two here and there by not clocking out.