Poker info XII
An interesting situation that happens during poker tournament games is the hand-for-hand condition of play which comes into effect when multiple game tables are in progress and the tournament is witnessing a build-up of prize money as payouts and the players are assigned a ranking.
In all tournaments, the poker players get their ranks based on the exact order in which other players are eliminated. Ranking is important as payout depends on it and this slows down playing of hands. The concept of hand-for-hand states that all hands of play in the tournament, irrespective of which game table any player is present, must be done simultaneously. So, if in one table a hand of play is over, the dealer must wait till all the game tables have their hands of play complete. However, hand-for-hand does not have any effect on the fortune of the games in individual tables, it only stipulates tat dealing of cards must be at the same time.
There is another significant reason why hand-for-hand play is the preferred mode of play in tournament games. Sometimes player may deliberately make the course of a particular hand of play slow so that while play in other tables continues and participants get eliminated, they themselves get a better ranking and have a higher chance of winning sizeable amount of the payout. Although sometimes, a player may genuinely need more time to play his hand, even then the effect will be the same giving him an unfair advantage. To prevent this situation from arising, hand-for-hand play mode has no alternative and thus universally followed by the various poker tournaments. This also ensures that all the game tables which are active in the tournament involves the same number of hands of play and that no player can stall the game to gain any benefit.
