Poker Articles

F-Bomb Rule: Part One (Little Boy)
By Tim Lavalli

There is a lot of talk at the tables about the F-Bomb rule. Is it a good idea or not? Is it applied uniformly or not? What about those incidents at the World Series this past summer? And who the hell cares? or not? To some extent, we all have to care because as of right now the F-bomb rule is the law in many poker rooms and at all major tournaments (except perhaps those in New Jersey).

So let’s talk a bit about the rule, how it is applied and why. Then I will tell you about some interesting conversations I have had with several of the players and officials involved in those two well publicized incidents at the 2005 WSOP.

The F-Bomb rule says that you can’t say the “F” word at a poker table without incurring a time penalty. Let’s deal with the word itself first. Well the “F” word is apparently so evil or tawdry that I am not allowed to type it here. So for the sake of this article let’s just substitute some other word. Instead of ‘F***’ or ‘F___’ I am just going to use the word—‘jelly.’ Yes, jelly not jam not marmalade, just jelly. Now you might assume that by choosing jelly, I am ridiculing the F-Bomb rule, not true! I just want to be able to write this article without having to leave the subject out. Sort of like writing about the First President of the United States but never saying G***** W*********.

It is unclear who thought up the F-Bomb rule. Abusive behavior in general is regulated more and more in cardrooms around the world, although not necessarily uniformly. What passes for acceptable behavior in the States will get you booted out of most gaming rooms in Europe and acceptable behavior in the Far East has quite different standards from the US or elsewhere. But specifically why ban a player for saying ‘that’ word? Why not simply a tighter enforcement of the abusive behavior rule?

TDA RULE #7 Penalties: A penalty MAY be invoked if a player exposes any card with action pending, if a card(s) goes off the table, if soft-play occurs, or similar incidents take place. Penalties WILL be invoked in cases of abuse, disruptive behavior, or similar incidents.

Interesting wording in that rule: ‘MAY be invoked’ versus ‘WILL be invoked.’ What exactly is ‘abuse’ or ‘disruptive behavior’ and what are ‘similar incidents’? I know where the TDA is trying to go and lots of players want a game with less of ‘THAT’ type of behavior but who is to decide? While floor personnel are poker’s behavior judges, they appear to have little discretion when it comes to the F-Bomb. At recent tournament events I have attended the only rule announced prior to the event is the F-Bomb rule and at these events (including the WSOP) the announcement was: “This is your warning, use of the F-Bomb will result in a 10 minute penalty, there will be no additional warnings given, this is your only warning.”

Here is the first problem--enforcement. Who calls the floor after another player mutters: “Ah Jelly!” Is it the dealer? Are we now asking the dealers to be cops? Should another player at the table call the floor? Under the rules you can, but do you really want to? Isn’t that just one step above shooting an angle? And as I asked before--who really cares? Are there that many 9 year olds sitting in cardrooms that we need to protect them from the infamous “F” word. Or is it the lady players? And if it is the ladies, which ones? Annie? Clonie? Liz?

But for the moment, let’s just take it for granted that we have and will have an F-Bomb rule of some sort. Here is what I am hearing at the tables from many, if not most, of the poker players. (You tournament directors and casino managers remember the poker players; the ones who put up the money for the events and feed the rake hole and ultimately pay your salaries.) Players are saying the rule is wrong and wrong for two reasons.

Wrong Reason #1: The F-Bomb rule is not equally enforced. Anyone who has sat at the table in the last six months has heard someone say “F-this” or “F-That” or even “JELLY! that card or bet or flop!” and nothing happens. The dealer does nothing or they say: “I didn’t hear that.” So first, the players are saying: “either it’s a rule or it isn’t.” Quite frankly I have no idea how anyone ever expected to fairly and uniformly enforce such a jellyin’ rule.

Wrong Reason #2: The rule is meant to punish abusive behavior but it is being used to punish speech. You all remember that little thing called the First Amendment; you know that one that talks about Freedom of Speech. The players are clear on this one. If anyone says F*** You! to a dealer or staff or another player, they should get a penalty. Even the meanest, nastiest, jellyin’ players agree with that but when a player takes a horrible beat, the worst kind of suck-out, the one-outer on the river and they say: ”J*** me!” Is it really any worse that Damn! Or Shucks, Darn, or …well you get my drift. Directed abusive language should be controlled but come on boyz, it is still a poker room. Have we not gone just a bit too far here? It’s a word; no one pulled a gun, or a box-cutter. A current online poll on one of the major poker forum sites has 85% of the players opposed to a penalty for “just saying a word.”

On a personal note, I think the tournament staff and dealers do a good job with most rules and most enforcement. Somewhere back in ancient gambling times some public relations idiot thought that “the customer is always right” was a good rule for a casino or a cardroom; they were wrong. The idea that a dealer should take the stupid crap they are required to take from a minority of jellyin’ morons posing as poker players or blackjack players is just nonsense. No tournament director should put up with some of the stupidity that players get away with at the tables. I think the F-Bomb rule was a way to start to turn this inequality around. I just think it was the wrong place to start. Cleaning up the game should begin with real abuse not silly word games. But this is not the fault of any dealer or brush or floor you ever encounter in a cardroom. The decisions start a whole lot higher up the corporate food chain (have those people ever even played a hand of poker in a cardroom?).

The real issue is that some of these rules, of which the F-Bomb is just the first example, were not completely thought through, which is to say they have not been tested in the real world ‘on the felt’ before tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars are being won or lost based on the new rule. Both major incidents at the 2005 WSOP illustrate different aspects of this problem; what I like to call: “No rule before its time, time, time.”

Two F-Bomb incidents at the WSOP this year have caused quite a stir. There were, by informed estimates, over 200 penalties handed out for the use of ‘jelly’ and all of its derivatives during the entire WSOP, I have heard no estimates lower than 200 and several much, much higher. These two examples, however, illustrate why the rule needs some rethinking. Incident #1: The Mike Matusow 4 X F-Bomb. By now you have seen this on ESPN or at least you have seen the ‘edited for television’ version. Let’s review what happened.

Mike Matusow did or did not throw his cards at the dealer. Most, if not all, players at the table say Mike did not throw his cards at the dealer. Some players do admit that Mike did roughly muck his cards and that on the rebound, off the third rail; they did strike the dealer’s hand. But the floorperson (and WSOP Super Satellite Director) Louis Jones was called and after everyone was polled and all stories heard, Mike was given a warning; basically no harm, no foul. Then while discussing the incident with the player next to him, Mike utters the infamous and first of several F-Bombs. The dealer calls the floor, as the dealers (employees) are instructed to do. The dealers were warned of the consequences of not calling the floor (possible loss of job). At this point the same floorperson, Louis Jones, who was called for the rough mucking incident about two minutes earlier (I know it appears like less time on ESPN); Louis comes back and hears not just from the dealer but from another player (the one Mike was talking to) that indeed he did use the F-Bomb. Louis gives Mike the mandatory 10-minute penalty.

Mr. Matusow does not take this well. He says over the course of the next several minutes: ‘you must be jellyin’ joking,’ and ‘it’s a jellyin’ stupid rule,’ and finally to Mr. Jones ‘Jelly You!’ That last bomb for some reason is the one no one seems to want to report in print or on the Internet, it was a direct statement to Mr. Jones and clearly is exactly the kind of behavior no one wants condoned. With each of these violations, the penalty climbs from 10 minutes to 20 then 30 and finally 40 minutes away from the table. In fact, it could have and technically should have been more.

TDA Rule #33: Penalties available for use by the TD are verbal warnings, 10, 20, 30, and 40 minutes away from the table and may be used with discretion. These may be utilized up to and including disqualification.

Later, while discussing the incident with his superiors (fellow TDs with more experience), Louis was told by several of them that they would have penalized 100 minutes (10+20+30+40) and at least two senior tournament floor staff told him that on the final “Jelly You!”, Mr. Matusow would either have been disqualified from the tournament or at least gone for the rest of the day. Remember this was day one of the WSOP Final 10K Event and Mike Matusow went on to win $1,000,000 for 9th place. Now that’s one big jellyroll put at risk with not one, not two, not three but four F-Bombs.

Louis told me that he felt a disqualification from the Final Event was just too much and that he thought at the time he was acting “in the best interest of the game and as fairly as possible.” Clearly a penalty had to be given and also fairly clearly four penalties had to be given, if you got a rule (and someone breaks it on TV) you have to enforce it. Louis also told me that he believes the entire incident was a publicity stunt for the television cameras. To Mr. Matusow’s credit he later gave Mr. Jones a hug and told him he understood that Louis was only doing his job. Later, by the way, does not mean 40 minutes later.

Back to the F-Bomb rule as it relates to the 4X incident. Should the dealer’s job now include the task of “potty mouth police?” Is there going to be a punishment for dealers who don’t report incidents? Are the penalties for repeated use in a single television taping going to be: 10+10+10+10+10+10 or are they 10+20+30+40+disqualification? Is it really in the “best interest of the game” that floor personnel make decisions based on . . . hmmm, based on what? Well according to TDA Rule Number ONE:

[TDA Rule #1: Floor people are to consider the best interest of the game and fairness as the top priority in the decision-making process. Unusual circumstances can, on occasion, dictate that the technical interpretation of the rules be ignored in the interest of fairness. The floorperson’s decision is final.]

So, OK just like every other sport there will be times when the referees, umpires, officials, zebras make the call that decides the game, at least for individual players. We can live with that, we have to. In the 4X WSOP incident clearly because Louis Jones was considering the “best interest of the game” and was very aware it was the Final Event of the WSOP; he strongly resisted the urge to toss Mike Matusow out on his butt. Result: Mike wins a million bucks (and someone else does not). One might well say that every place in the entire 2005 WSOP Final Event was affected by that decision because well, they were. It is also true that every bad call of an all-in and every river suck-out changed the finishing position of every other player. The players more than the tournament officials determine the outcome of any event; that is the way it should be, but what about those situations where the official does or could or might actually determine the winner with a call. That nearly happened in the second, less publicized F-Bomb incident at this year’s world series of poker, which I will take up in F-Bomb Part II.

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