With the
Clock Countdown incident @WSOP 2010 a new procedure for the 2011 series leads to a new clock countdown procedure.
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Rule 20. Calling for a Clock
Once a reasonable amount of time has passed and a clock is called for, a player will be given a maximum of one minute to make a decision. If action has not been taken before time expires, there will be a 10-second countdown. If a player has not acted by the time the countdown is over, the player's hand will be dead.
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At this years WSOP Floor personnel will no longer do a countdown. They will each carry a timer that is set for 1min + 10 secs. The timer is set in front of the player. The player can watch the time countdown. When the buzzer goes off and the player has not acted, their hand will be declared dead.
Rule 20 calls for a countdown of a maximum of one minute to act, then if no action has taken place, then there will be a 10 second countdown. This is a total of 70 seconds. If you have one minute to act, then why the extra 10 seconds? I have no knowledge of why the extra 10 seconds is there, but perhaps Dave, Linda, Jan or Matt can add extra insight. I suspect it is because during the one minute countdown portion, the player is unaware of how much time has elapsed and only the Floor person is aware of when the countdown started. Then, as a courtesy, the verbal 10 second countdown, was counted allowed.
With this new WSOP procedure, this extra 10 second courtesy is unnecessary. You could set a timer to 1 min and then after the buzzer goes off, the hand be declared dead. The player knows exactly how much time there is to act, and the Floor and all other players know exactly when the hand is dead.
I motion to eliminate the extra 10 seconds of allotment.
Timers are cheap, and if the house doesn't wish to spend the extra couple dollars for a timer, every single cell phone in the world has a timer built into the device.