Ok folks, I have an interesting question for you. This happened the other night in one of my tournaments and I was caught off guard with the question. In our tournaments players are allowed 1 re-buy if they have 5,000 or fewer chips (up to the first break). We run 20 minute blinds and were in the third blind round (300/600) about 5 minutes from calling the first break. One of the players realized that he had 5,200 in chips and would be able to steer clear of getting involved in a hand, wanting to take an early break, but couldn't re-buy. He called me over to the table and asked if it would be legal for him to voluntarily splash the pot 200 out of his chip stack. The current hand had the flop showing with 4 players involved, but he had mucked his cards pre-flop.
I've thought this one through and can find no rule anywhere that precludes the action he was requesting. One of the live players started lobbying me in favor of letting him splash the pot since they are his chips and can do anything with them he wants. Other players were in favor of the action as well. So, I ultimately allowed him to splash the pot 200 and do the re-buy, but I'd like to get some feedback on this one.
One added note, the player who was lobbying me to allow it had flopped the nut boat and went on to win the hand. I found it pretty interesting that I've finally found a poker player who could take chips from another player who wasn't even in the hand, but that's another story.
Notwithstanding being able to tell the player to call the next blind and then fold, I'd like to hear your thoughts on allowing a player to splash the pot so that they can do a re-buy.
The can of worms has now been opened, let's hear your comments.
Thanks
Pepper