Hi guys:
I see your point, but I'm not necessarily convinced that we need to be absolutely certain who the intended beneficiary of a chip dump is, before ruling it a chip dump. I actually misinterpreted the original question here, because I assumed that that the dumper was all-in... But I'm not sure I'd rule differently even if he still had chips behind.
Let's say for example, that the the dumper was colluding with a big stack at the table, perhaps it was player 5. While it is true that any of the four remaining players could theoretically call, we don't know if the plan was for player 5 to shove over top, making it that much less likely for the others to call, and making it more likely that player 5 would pick up the dumped chips. In fact, it could have been any of the other players to whom the betting was reopened for that matter. Or perhaps the dumper did not care who got the chips, so long as they didn't go to a player who had already folded. Or even if the dumper didn't have a particular person in mind, but just wanted to go home, the action certainly fails to protect others in the tournament.
I guess my point is that I don't think as a TD, I should be put into the position of trying to workout who exactly he might have been trying to dump chips to, and to what extent he expected the dump to succeed given that the pot up to that point was multi-way, before feeling justified in ruling that the action amounted to chip dumping and warranted disqualification. It clearly looks like a chip dump to me, and unless the player has a really good answer to the question "so you've seen three callers before you, you throw a whole bunch of chips into the pot and then fold before anyone else has acted, it looks to me that you are just throwing away chips to the players left in the hand, why did you do it", I doubt he can say that it didn't look like a chip dump either -- and if it is a chip dump, the penalty is spelled out clearly in the Rules.
