[Rick Nebiolo]

There are two sets of rules at the Bike regarding button placement and posting of blinds. Top section (including NL) uses the standard rule where you are responsible for posting all blinds every round and offers advanced options such as "buy the button" and posting a single blind as a new player between the small blind and button. Note that the I personally campaigned for the advanced options along with a reduction of the penalty for moving away from the blind.

Bottom section (8/16 and below) carries over a policy that was used when there was only one blind (which was a policy I successfully lobbied to change as "one blind" is the type of action killing blind structure favored by nits). When the Bike had one blind and the player on the button got up the button slid forward and the player that was supposed to take the single blind now gets the button and "fades" the blind that round. This was deemed "player friendly" (not by me - I maintain it is a violation of proper poker procedure). That said, the fact was with one blind few noticed or complained since there was always a single blind in front of the button and the person that escaped the blind probably thought he was benefiting from some sort of mistake.

When I convinced management to go back to two blinds in bottom section it was mandated that the policy of allowing a player to "fade a blind" continue. In other words, if the player on the button or small blind gets up, the blinds or button move forward and now two players get to fade either the big blind or small blind. Are you following? Naturally I campaigned against this, albeit unsuccessfully.

As an aside, the worst problem with this "blind fading" policy was that when someone had an "out" button and was about to post the big blind and re-enter, if the small blind or button got up the big blind would slide past him and he would either have to wait another round or post the big blind and dead small blind two hands later. Still following?

When buy the button and the other posting options were implemented in top section, I decided to wait and make sure the bugs were worked out before campaigning for their introduction into bottom section. Several months passed, BTB and the other posting options were well-received and the bugs were worked out (the one minor exception/problem is beyond the scope of this post). I then campaigned to have one set of rules apply to both top and bottom section, including BTB and the improved posting options. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful.

So I guess my question is "What limit were you playing?"

Regards,

Rick