If It Ain't Broke...

Daniel Negreanu has been a bit grumpy today, and the foul mood began pretty much as soon as he arrived to play this afternoon. Most of his sourness comes regarding a few small rule changes to the EPT this year, and as is often the case, his views makes a lot of sense. Foremost in the changes is the fact that a player's hand is ruled dead if he's not in his chair when the first card is dealt. That differs from the TDA rule which allows for a player to play his hand as long as he's there when the button receives his last card.

Also of note are a few subtle differences regarding the sharing of information and the showing of uncalled hands. After listening to them engage in a long conversation, we see that Negreanu and Jason Mercier don't seem to understand that rule change fully (and certainly not the logic behind it), but we haven't heard the official explanation from the staff. Suffice it to say that it represents another difference from the TDA rules, and another annoyance to the more experienced players in the field. And the way Negreanu and Mercier describe it, the change almost protects collusion rather than weeding it out.

That first rule (about killing hands) was demonstrated rather pointedly as Negreanu and Mercier were in the middle of conversing. At adjacent tables, Mercier was standing up, looking over his shoulder to converse with his fellow Team Pro. While they were chatting back and forth and lamenting the new rules, Mercier was quietly dealt a hand, after which the dealer quickly pulled his cards into the muck. Just a moment after his hand disappeared, Mercier spun his head back around to see the rest of the table playing on without him.

"You could have told me you were dealing, bro," Mercier gave the dealer a 'what-the-?' look.

"Wait, you just got a dead hand?" Negreanu got all wide-eyed again. "That's absurd."

Mercier could just throw his palms up to the sky with a shrug, sitting back down to avoid a repeat the next time around.

Tags: Daniel Negreanu Jason Mercier