Are spectators too close to tables?

[Nick C]

At the last Summit, Barry Greenstein made a brief appearance and voiced his concerns regarding a few issues he had with tournament clock management. He also mentioned  the close proximity of fans in the gallery. I think a rule that puts more distance between the gallery and tables, and restricts excessive celebration and noise should be introduced. Players jumping from the table and running over to friends and family members is getting out of hand.

Any thoughts?

[chet]

Nick:

I don't think it is appropriate for the TDA to try to establish rules for the physical layout of a tournament facility.  I believe that is an issue between the TD and the event management.  Do you expect the TDA to say to event locations/management that they must have at least X feet between tables and the gallery?   I see no possible way for the TDA to enforce same.

As to your point about players getting up and leaving the table to celebrate or converse with the gallery, the TDA already has two rules that, in my opinion, should suffice, those are Rules 26 and 27.  My point being that if the player doesn't have an active hand or if the player gets up during the dealer change or shuffle, who cares as long as the player is back at the appropriate time?  If this activity is causing a problem and/or if the player isn't in compliance with these rules, killing the hand once or twice should cure the issue, don't U think?

[Brian Vickers]

In my room, we have 16 tables and they are in close quarters.  Our rule is that players in cash games may have a player sitting behind them as long as they do no communicate while the player has cards.  In tournaments however, players must remain "a table length" away, which we enforce as "players may be no closer than the edge of the nearest table."

Our reasoning is, if a player in a cash game doesn't like a spectator sitting close to them, they have the option to change seats or tables, but a player in a tournament who doesn't like it wouldn't have that option available to them.  Also, because players in a tournament are generally under more pressure, especially near the money bubble, and we want  to limit the distractions to those players.