Moving the button
 

Forgive me if this has already been discussed...

Where can I find authoritative rules on how the button should be moved an blinds posted when people leave..? I've had a couple of situations where certain places have had strange rules, causing some strange incidents... For Example:

1) At a small casino in CA, the person on the button chose to sit out the hand... They then moved the button and made an additional person post the big blind... The following hand, the original "leaver" came back... They made her post a missed small blind... For that hand, five people were at the table and four posted blinds of some sort...

2) At a certain online site that really sucks but has the most fish, they move the button to the person on the right every time, regardless of who left and came in... Today I was playing and posted the big blind... The following hand, I expected to post the small blind, but ended up being the button... Apparently the person who just posted the small blind left, and instead of having a dead button, they made me the button... And the person who was to be the big blind was the small blind...

These both seem odd to me, and don't match what my limited experience tells me to be correct... Where can I find the authoritative rulings on this..?

Re: Moving the button
 

From what I've seen, it varies a lot. The most common procedure is that when the person who last posted the big blind leaves or sits out, that seat gets a dead button, and the blinds are posted just as they would have been if the person who left were still in the game. However, at a B&M I played at recently, the button was moved to the next seat, and the button posted an extra blind. This was a spread limit game with a single blind. This is an advantage for the button, because he gets to post his blind on the button instead of first to act. Getting to skip your small blind was good for you, and good for the person who would have been the big blind. You got to skip you small blind and you got the button one hand earlier than you would have eotherwise, and the other person who got to skip his big blind. However, it could certainly be argued that this isn't fair to the other players, because you and the small blind did not post your fair share of blinds for that round. It is more fair to use a dead button, or move the button past the open seat but have the button post an extra blind. In a two blind game, it seems that the button should only have to post a small blind, not a big blind, because he has already posted a big blind.

Re: Moving the button
 

When I did a search for a post dealing with a moving button, this was the first post I saw. Being from West Fargo ND I have played in the freeroll tournament “Dakota Poker League” Being at a live tournament (the players are forced to deal) I want to summarize how I understand the rule about the moving button.

Using the moving button rule
Primary objectives are
Have each person be the button once only each round.
Have each person pay all blinds owed before the button PASSES him or her.

So from position of Big Blind

Player 2 (two spots to the left of the button)
- - - pays big blind.
Player 1 (one spot to the left of the button)
- - - pays the biggest blind yet to be paid.

Button will pay ALL blinds not yet paid.

In the case that the Button has not yet paid the big AND small blind,

the Big blind bet is a live bet while

the small blind bet is a dead bet (I suppose this would be similar to the paying of an ante)

This should result in all active players paying all blinds each round.
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