Rule 65 ClarificationAfter a controversial situation at the recent GUKPT Brighton (Frazer/De Mel) with speech-play (a player stating "I will have to call if you bet" out of turn before his opponent had acted on the river) and whether this "conditional statement of intent" was or wasn"t binding, I took a look at the APAT rules.
http://www.apat.com/termsandconditions.php APAT Rule 65 states:
"Player's verbal declarations in turn are binding. Action out of turn may be binding."
The GUKPT rule which caused the problem states:
"rule 44 Verbal declarations in turn are binding, verbal declarations out of turn will be binding if the action to that player has not changed when it is their turn to act, check, call or fold is not considered an action change. "
Rule 30 of TDA is identical to the GUKPT rule 44 out of interest:
APAT's own rule "action out of turn may be binding" needs to be strengthened and has been changed as follows:
"Verbal declarations in turn are binding, DEFINITIVE verbal declarations out of turn will be binding if the action to that player has not changed when it is their turn to act. Check, call or fold is not considered an action change. " By definitive we mean "I WILL call" or variations thereof such as "I have to call if you bet" not "I Might call" or similar.
We believe that asking an opponent what they are going to do if a certain course of action is taken (e.g will you call if I bet?) or volunteering the information out of turn (i.e that one intends to call if a bet is made), is unethical and repeated violators should be punished. We are in favour of banter, but keep it within certain boundaries, which is what we are seeking to do by updating this rule, to reduce confusion for players in our live championship events, as to what is permitted and what is not in the area of conditional intent.
APAT's rules will be available for all to view at Walsall, and have been updated on the site.
We also continue, behind the scenes as an Association, to use our best endeavours to moved towards standardised rules across different compnaies/venues to reduce confusion for players. More progress reports on this in due course