By Matt Savage
Every two years the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) meets in Las Vegas to discuss tournament rules and procedures. This year’s TDA once again returned and was sponsored by the beautiful ARIA Resort and Casino. A special thank you to ARIA and Sean McCormack, Director of Poker Operations, for providing the venue.
The TDA was founded in 2001 by myself, Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and Dave Lamb. The current board members include me, Mike Bishop, Jack Effel, Johnny Grooms, Neil Johnson, Lloyd Fontillas, and Tab Duchateau.
The goal of the TDA is the same as it was in 2001. To standardize rules and procedures for the benefit of all players so consistency is achieved and they will know what to expect when playing tournaments at all levels.
The 2019 TDA Summit registered a record 283 attendees made up of tournament directors, card room managers, players, and dealers from over 30 countries and six continents. When the TDA was founded in 2001, the Summit was attended by 25 TDs from North America. The TDA has a membership of more than 3,100 from 78 countries.
The title sponsor of the Summit is Genesis Gaming and Bravo Poker Live, with additional sponsorship from the World Poker Tour, Faded Spade Cards, Seminole Hard Rock, Card Player Cruises, HPT, Chipco, WCPC, and the WPA.
The TDA poker tournament hosted by PokerGO in the PokerGO Studio drew over 100 entries and was a great time. Special thanks to Paul Campbell and his dealers and staff for hosting.
In my next article, I will get into the many topics discussed in this year’s TDA Summit including Big Blind Ante procedure standardization, dealers counting bets and raises, face covering, chips visibility, seven and nine-handed final tables, removing two-motion raises, and stud procedures.