Player Present / Eligible for Hand
26: At Your Seat
A player must be at his seat by the time all players have been dealt complete initial hands in order to have a live hand. A player must be at his seat to call time.
27: Action Pending
A player must remain at the table if he has a live hand.
Just want clarification of how you are enforcing Rule 27. The wording isn't completely clear as to the penalty involved (Rule 26 definitely implies that hand would be dead if not "at your seat"). I believe however, that Rule 27 implies that walking away from a live hand would require the hand to be killed. Additionally, a penalty can definitely be enforced, as walking away then gives players behind (or even ahead, esp. if the button walks away) a definite advantage.
1) So when would you declare the hand dead if one were to walk away? I recently saw a situation where a live hand briefly walked away in order to get a quick view of an all-in situation at another table, when it was down to 2 tables in a big tournament. Players at the first table of course were asking for his hand to be declared dead.
2) If a player starts to leave a live hand with action pending, should a dealer or another player "remind" the player to stay? Or would that cross the line of one player to a hand?
3) What is your nominal penalty for leaving with action pending? I think it might depend on how it affected the play (i.e., did someone else gain a huge advantage knowing the other hand was dead?).
4) BTW, I believe Rule 26 (at your seat) is written to imply that one is within the vicinity of his "seat', not his chair. I believe the WSOP rules (Rule 80) clarified this situation to specify how close, and to distinguish "seat" from "chair" Basically, the person must be within reach of his chair. I know of at least one situation where the TD was interpreting Rule 26 as requiring that the player be sitting down in his chair when the last card is dealt to the button I believe that to be too strict. I think it would be good if the TDA qualified Rule 26 similar to how the WSOP did, in order to give better definition to this rule.
Thanks,
Steven