You Make the Call, Part 3

If there's one thing that poker players love, it's money. If there are two things that poker players love, they're money and a good controversy. After the call of "ten more hands at each table," Miami John Cernuto and Ted Lawson summoned a floor and wanted to know why so many more hands were being played.

The "X more hands" procedure is an anti-stalling procedure. It prevents any player from stalling at the end of the day solely to make it to the next day. Typically, with fifteen minutes left on the clock, a number between 3 and 7 is drawn. That number represents the number of hands to be played at each table before bagging the chips.

For some reason, Venetian staff today decided to make that number 10 hands. A typical hand of no-limit hold'em, from shuffle to pot being pushed, takes a minimum of two minutes. Playing 10 hands at each table would take an absolute minimum of 20 minutes, and more likely would take 30.

Several of the Venetian floors huddled and conferred about what they should do, recognizing that Cernuto and Lawson had good points and valid gripes. In the end, it was decided not to change anything and play out the last 10 hands.

For what it's worth, the tournament clock has been on triple zeros now for several minutes and not a single table has finished the required 10 hands.