- League Membership
- Every scheduled event will be counted as a League Game.
- As long as you are in good standing with the League, your games played will earn you points. If you fail to abide by the rules of the league or for serious offences (cheating) your membership will be revoked and any fees previously paid will be forfeited along with any points / standings you may have accrued during the current season.
- No fees will be charged for being a Member. Everyone who plays in our League will be playing as an invited member from a current Member and will start earning points in the League from their first Tournament.
- A League Prize Pool will be collected from each Tournament which will be $5/per player. This is apart from any costs associated with the game including Buy-In and Bounties and any side-games from each tournament / game played and is for the League itself. This will be set aside from the Tournament Prize Pool consisting of the Buy-Ins, Rebuys and Top-Ups.
- Each Season will be broken up into 4 Quarters. These will be named after the 4 Suits of the deck and run as Q1 Diamonds, Q2 Hearts, Q3 Clubs and Q4 Spades.
In addition, Titles will be awarded to players who place in the top 3 of each Quarter as well as for the season as follows:
Quarterly Titles (Top 3 for Each Quarter)
1st Place:
Q1 – Diamonds: “Diamond Duke/Duchess”
Q2 – Hearts: “Heart King/Queen”
Q3 – Clubs: “Club Commander”
Q4 – Spades: “Spade Sultan/Sultana”2nd Place:
Q1 – Diamonds: “Gleaming Gem”
Q2 – Hearts: “Heartbreaker”
Q3 – Clubs: “Club Conqueror”
Q4 – Spades: “Shadow Spade”3rd Place:
Q1 – Diamonds: “Diamond Dealer”
Q2 – Hearts: “Heart Hustler”
Q3 – Clubs: “Club Challenger”
Q4 – Spades: “Ace of Spades”Season Titles (Top 3 for the Entire Season)
1st Place: “Steelcity Poker Legend” – Reserved for the player who consistently dominates, symbolizing resilience and mastery over the entire season.
2nd Place: “The Iron Ace” – Signifies strength and near-championship level for a player who finished strong across the whole season.
3rd Place: “The Steel Shark” – For the player with sharp skills who stayed competitive all season and took a top spot.Each Quarter, the top 3 players will receive winnings from the league fee pool as follows:
- 1st Place: 40%
- 2nd Place: 30%
- 3rd Place: 20%
The remaining 10% from each seasonal league fee will be set aside to cover the costs already incurred setting up the League (quality chips, website, etc.) as well as maintaining current equipment, hosting the website and maintaining it as well as future investments (purchasing a decent poker top to play on).
Note: This pot will be used by the League Director(s) at their discretion, without requiring approval or accountability. It is expected and acknowledged that running a League like this takes a lot of time and effort beyond simple man hours and this is reflected in this cut from potential profits.
There may be additional bonuses and awards given as these funds exceed the running costs and purchasing required to get it up and running at the discretion of the League Director(s).
If you fail to protect your hand, you have no redress if it becomes fouled or the dealer accidentally kills it.
- If you say it, you must do it.
- If you verbalize an amount for a raise and do not specify it will be assumed to have been the minimum that it could be:
- IE: if the blinds are 100/200 and you declare a raise to “1” the minimum will be believed to be 1000 because 100 is below the 200 big blind.
- There is no such thing as a “Call/Raise”. If you declare Call first, you have called. Think before you speak, and act accordingly.
- The Betting Line is an imaginary line that extends from 8 inches from the end of the table all the way around the table.
- Moving one chip beyond the betting line is considered a call unless otherwise stated (change will be made as required by the dealer).
Note: Any chips moved past the Betting Line are no longer your chips and are considered part of the pot.
Note: Any cards that are moved past the Betting Line are no longer your cards and are considered mucked / folded. - Players chips and their cards are to be kept behind this line (closer to the end of the table) where they are sitting.
- When making a bet, carefully select the amount of chips you wish to bet and in one motion bring the chips beyond the Betting Line.
- $30 buy-ins, $20 to Tournament Prize Pool, $5 Bounty Pool, $5 League Seasonal Pool
- Bounties
- All players start the game with 1 bounty chip (That’s the $5 bounty pool).
- If you knock out another player’s starting stack while possessing your own bounty chip, you gain their starting bounty chip.
At no time does any player lose any bounty chips they earned from knocking out another player. - If you are knocked out by a player without a bounty chip and you still possess your own bounty chip, congrats, you retain your chip and can cash it in.
- At the end of your tournament life, you may cash in each bounty chip you possess, for $5 each (taken from the Bounty Pool).
- Re-Buys are $25. Full Amount goes into the prize pool.
- Re-Buys are Limited One Per Person, Per Tournament and can be used up until Play-offs (see Tournament Structure)
- The Dealer changes with every hand and is determined at the start of a tournament via drawing the highest card for the deal.
- The Dealer is responsible to control the hand – to that end they are both entitled and required to:
- Ensure the blinds are known prior to dealing.
- Ensure the blinds are paid prior to dealing.
- Cut the shuffled deck ensuring the cut card is concealing the bottom card of the deck.
- Deal the cards
- Carefully deal 1 card to each player, from the top of the deck, starting with the player to their left (small blind) to any player still with a stack (regardless if they are sitting out or not) ensuring that the cards are dealt without revealing them to any players.
- Carefully deal the 2nd card to each player as above.
- Oversee the first round of betting – starting with the first active player to the left of the dealer.
- Advise the player the action is on them.
- Enforce any verbal declarations as actions – On their turn, each player may:
- Check (A player may check only if their action precedes any bet. This is the equivalent to passing their turn.)
- Call (a player must either fold, call, or re-raise if a preceding player has made a bet or a raise of any kind)
To make a call, the player must place the raised amount of chips (or their full chip stack if they are under that amount) beyond the Betting Line. - Raise (declare a raise up to any amount above the current big blind)
To make a Raise, the player declares their intention to Raise, and either:- State the amount they wish to Raise, collect that amount into a stack and move that amount of chips beyond the Betting Line without splashing the pot.
This amount must be at least equal to the current big blind value. - Collects the amount they wish to raise into a stack and move that amount of chips beyond the Betting Line without splashing the pot.
This amount must be at least equal to the current big blind value.
- State the amount they wish to Raise, collect that amount into a stack and move that amount of chips beyond the Betting Line without splashing the pot.
- Re-Raise (any amount above the previously raised amount if re-raising. unless the player is going “all in”)
To make a Re-Raise, the player declares their intention to Re-Raise, and either:- State the amount they wish to Re-Raise, collect that amount into a stack and move that amount of chips beyond the Betting Line without splashing the pot.
This amount must be at least equal to the previously raised value. - Collects the amount they wish to raise into a stack and move that amount of chips beyond the Betting Line without splashing the pot.
This amount must be at least equal to the previously raised value.
- State the amount they wish to Re-Raise, collect that amount into a stack and move that amount of chips beyond the Betting Line without splashing the pot.
- Fold (discard their hand into the discard pile as designated by the dealer)
Any chips previously moved beyond the Betting Line are now part of the Pot.
If there is change to be made the dealer will provide it at the end of the betting round.
- Announce any bets / raises to the next player.
- Ensure that any bets or raises made are met and ensure any change required is paid. Carefully add the new chips to the pot.
- Carefully collect any folded cards to put aside.
- If a raise is declared and all other players fold their hand(s), the winner is decided and no more cards need be dealt.
- Gether the cards into the deck without revealing any cards to the best of your ability.
- Burn 1 card.
- Reveal the Flop (3 cards).
- Oversee the 2nd round of betting (see above).
- Burn 1 card.
- Reveal the Turn (1 more card – 4 now displayed on table in the order they were produced)
- Oversee the 3rd round of betting (See above)
- Burn 1 card.
- Reveal the River (1 more card – all 5 cards now displayed on the table in the order they were produced)
- Oversee the final round of betting (see Above)
- If there is one or more caller, the showdown commences (see below)
- Dealer clearly reveals the winning hand and pays the winner their chips.
- In the case of “Splits” any uneven left over is given to the player who is immediately to the left of the dealer.
- Ensure the hand is being played without unnecessary delays
- if a player is taking longer than 20 seconds to declare an action, the dealer will advise them they are waiting on their action.
At any time after that moment, anyone still in the hand can call for the time clock to be started.
- if a player is taking longer than 20 seconds to declare an action, the dealer will advise them they are waiting on their action.
- Control the time clock – 1 Minute
- Once called for, a player has up until the end of the 1 minute time clock to act.
- Failure to act prior to the end of the time clock will result in the hand being declared dead (folded).
- When the hand is done, carefully collect all the cards to ensure no folded cards are revealed.
Shuffle them up and get them ready to hand to the next dealer, with the cut card on the top and being careful to not expose the bottom card.
- Misdeals
- The following circumstances cause a misdeal, provided attention is called to the error before two players have acted on their hands.
(If two players have acted in turn after the blinds, the deal must be played to conclusion):- The first or second card of the hand has been dealt faceup or exposed through dealer error.
- Two or more cards have been exposed by the dealer.
- Two or more boxed cards (improperly faced cards) are found.
- Two or more extra cards have been dealt in the starting hands of a game.
- An incorrect number of cards has been dealt to a player, except the top card may be dealt if it goes to the player in proper sequence.
- Any card has been dealt out of the proper sequence (except an exposed card may be replaced by the burn card without such action causing a misdeal).
- The button was out of position.
- The first card was dealt to the wrong position.
- Cards have been dealt to an empty seat or a player not entitled to a hand.
- A player has been dealt out who is entitled to a hand. This player must be present at the table or have posted a blind or ante.
- The following circumstances cause a misdeal, provided attention is called to the error before two players have acted on their hands.
- Exposed Cards
- If one card is exposed prior to the burn, the exposed card remains exposed and will become the burn card – continue dealing and when completed, deal the next card to the player whose card was exposed. Take the exposed card ensuring everyone has seen it and place it on the top of the deck to become the next burn card.
- A card that is flashed by a player plays. To obtain a ruling on whether a card was exposed and should be replaced, a player should announce that the card was flashed or exposed before looking at it. A card dealt off the table is considered an exposed card.
- If a card is exposed due to dealer error, a player does not have an option to take or reject the card.
- If you drop any cards out of your hand onto the floor, you must still play them.
- If the dealer prematurely deals any cards before the betting is complete, those cards will not play, even if a player who has not acted decides to fold
- Dead hands
- Your hand is declared dead if:
- You fold or announce that you are folding when facing a bet or a raise.
- You throw your hand away in a forward motion causing another player to act behind you (even if not facing a bet).
- The hand does not contain the proper number of cards (2) for any reason.
- You have the clock on you when facing a bet or raise and exceed the specified time limit.
- Cards thrown into the muck may be ruled dead. However, a hand that is clearly identifiable may be retrieved if doing so is in the best interest of the game. An extra effort should be made to rule a hand retrievable if it was folded as a result of false information given to the player.
- At their discretion, the dealer may allow a player whose cards were mucked via error to quietly advise a player who is not in the hand what their 2 cards were and that player can carefully without revealing any other cards retrieve the 2 cards specified and return them to the player.
- If the cards are not easily identifiable, unknown or not found the hand is mucked.
- You move your cards beyond the Betting Line.
- Your hand is declared dead if:
- Betting and Raising
- Check-raise is permitted in all games.
- Unlimited raising is allowed.
- Any wager must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise in that round, unless a player is going all-in.
- A verbal statement in turn denotes your action and is binding. If in turn you verbally declare a fold, check, bet, call, or raise, you are forced to take that action.
- Rapping the table in turn with your hand is a pass.
- Deliberately acting out of turn is not tolerated. A player who checks out of turn may not bet or raise on the next turn to act. An action or verbal declaration out of turn may be ruled binding if there is no bet, call, or raise by an intervening player acting after the infraction has been committed.
- A player who bets or calls by releasing chips into the pot is bound by that action. However, if you are unaware that the pot has been raised, you may withdraw that money and reconsider your action, provided that no one else has acted after you.
- If you make a forward motion into the pot area with chips beyond the Betting Line and thus cause another player to act, you may be forced to complete your action and all chips moved in that motion can be considered part of the pot as a bet / raise / call as the case may be.
- String raises are not allowed. To protect your right to raise, you should either declare your intention verbally or place the proper amount of chips into the pot. Putting a full bet plus a half-bet or more into the pot is considered to be the same as announcing a raise, and the raise must be completed. (This does not apply in the use of a single chip of greater value.)
- If you put a single chip in the pot that is larger than the bet, but do not announce a raise, you are assumed to have only called.
Example: If the blinds are 200/400 and a player bets 400, another player putting in a 1000 chip without saying anything will be taken as merely calling the 400 bet. - All wagers and calls of an improperly low amount must be brought up to proper size if the error is discovered before the betting round has been completed.
This includes actions such as betting a lower amount than the big blind. - Be clear and concise when betting – If you verbalize “Raise 5000”, you are in fact Raising by 5000, vs “Raise to 5000”. Verbal is binding and the wording is important.
- The Showdown
- A player must show all cards in the hand face-up on the table to win any part of the pot.
- Cards speak (cards read for themselves). The dealer assists in reading hands, but players are responsible for holding onto their cards until the winner is declared. Although verbal declarations as to the contents of a hand are not binding, deliberately miscalling a hand with the intent of causing another player to discard a winning hand is unethical and may result in forfeiture of the pot.
- Anyone who sees an incorrect amount of chips put into the pot, or an error about to be made in awarding a pot, has an ethical obligation to point out the error. Please help us keep mistakes of this nature to a minimum.
- All losing hands must be killed by the dealer before a pot is awarded.
- Any player who has been dealt in can request to see any hand that has been called, even if the opponent’s hand or the winning hand has been mucked. However, this is a privilege that can be revoked if abused. If a player other than the pot winner asks to see a hand that has been folded, that hand is dead. If the winning player asks to see a losing player’s hand, both hands are live, and the best hand wins.
- DO NOT SHOW YOUR CARDS TO ANOTHER PLAYER
If you show cards to another player during or after a deal, any player at the table has the right to see those exposed cards.
Cards shown during a deal to a player not in the pot should only be shown to all players when the deal is finished. - If everyone checks (or is all-in) on the final betting round, the player who acted first is the first to show the hand.
If there is wagering on the final betting round, the last player to take aggressive action by a bet or raise is the first to show the hand.
In order to speed up the game, a player holding a probable winner is encouraged to show the hand without delay.
If there is a side pot, players involved in the side pot should show their hands before anyone who is all-in for only the main pot.
- Revealing Cards
- You are not allowed to reveal your cards to players while a game is still in play.
- If you reveal either of your cards to any player, you must show them to all players.
- No Splashing the Pot
- When Betting and/or Raising and/or Calling, neatly put the chip total in one fluid motion beyond the Betting Line.
- Do Not Make Change in the Pot
- As specified above, once you commit chips beyond the Betting Line, they are no longer your chips. The Dealer will make change as needed when the betting has concluded. The same is for blinds as well.
- Payouts
- Prize Pool ($25 from each player, plus any rebuys of $25, plus any $10 top-ups)
1st place: 50%
2nd place: 30%
3rd place: 20% - Bounty Pool ($5 from each player)
At the end of the night, Each player can trade in any bounty chips they have earned and redeem them at a rate of 1:$5 – 1 bounty chip for $5.
- Prize Pool ($25 from each player, plus any rebuys of $25, plus any $10 top-ups)
- Heads up Game Limits
- 25 Hands (No Deal Making)