Hand-for-hand
In tournaments, there may come a time when there are multiple tables that are simultaneously in play while the prize money keeps increasing. At this time, there may or may not be a ranking chart for the players who are still in the tournament.
In tournaments, to determine a player’s rank, the game may have to be slowed down as the rank is determined on the basis of the order of elimination of players from the tournament. This is extremely important as depending on the rank, players may be eligible to receive some prize payout.
In multi-table tournaments, once a table has finished with a round or a hand, then all the players, and the dealer, on that table must wait for all the tables to finish their rounds or hands. This sort of dealing has no effect on the outcome of the game but only ensures that all the deals are simultaneous.
This is also an efficient way of ensuring that people don’t stall and play slowly so that other people can bust out first, pushing the “stallers” higher up the prize money standings. Since other tables can’t play more hands, there is lesser chance of other tables knocking out more people in their extra rounds, as compared to one table which has a staller.
Table 1 has a staller who is intentionally slowing down a game. If at the same time, table 2 knocks a player out at the end of the first hand, that player becomes the last man in the rankings. In each round, table 2 sees one player bust out and after four rounds, the staller, on table 1, allows the first hand to finish and gets eliminated at the end of it. Therefore, despite being busted out in the first hand itself, the staller manages to be knocked out 6th overall, with 5 people from table 2 already having busted out.
Therefore, the hand-for-hand rule prevents such issues as if it were applicable, then table 2 would have to wait before starting off their second hand and despite the amount of time the staller takes, he would end the first hand by busting out, thus getting eliminated and ranked accordingly.
In case more than one player are eliminated in one round, then the ranking is based on the number of chips that the players had in front of them, before the hand began. In case of the same number of chips between two players, a tied rank is awarded to them.
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