Friday, 29th March 2024 08:06
Home / Uncategorized / EPT Deauville: Local betting rules
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The French do things their own way and why shouldn’t they? It is their country after all. They eat when they want for however long they want, which is certainly something that the PokerStars Blog team can get on board with, much to the concern of respective partners back in the UK who are all too aware of our expanding waistbands.

When it comes to poker there are a couple of differences, as required by domestic French law, which can take a little getting used to. Deals are not allowed. No chops, no backroom deals, no final table drama as tournament staff and high stakes associates get involved in the brokering of big money negotiations. That will be of little concern to the majority of players right now, beyond as a point of conversation, a series of unlikely ‘what ifs’ about the back end of a final table that is a long six days away. The other rule might cause a little confusion however, particularly if you were one of those rock-up-late-looking-frivolous types and had missed the announcement: it’s a change from the international standard in the rules of betting and raising.

In French gambling legislation the minimum raise must be double the previous bet not double the previous raise. In the vast majority of cases this isn’t an issue – a an open raise to 150 at the 25-50 level is infrequently three-bet to anything less than 300 – but later on in the tournament and in post-flop play it certainly might cause some problems if you’ve forgotten to factor this into your strategy. No min re-raising it is then.

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No minimum re-raising for Team PokerStars Pro Pierre Neuville

As for other local flourishes I’m little disappointed that one of them has been struck off. At Deauville last year an ambient soundtrack featuring the likes of Air and Sebastien Tellier played quietly over the PA system giving proceeding a more relaxed movie-like quality, accompanied by the chirruping riffle of a room full of poker players, of course. It looked set to return this year, the very same playlist was smooching out as the players signed their waver forms and checked their stacks were fully loaded up to the requisite 30,000. PokerStars Blog photographer even picked out a French-electro rendition of Hells Bells by AC/DC. Good spot. Alas, after a bilingual shuffle-up-and-deal speech the music was turned off leaving the 346 players seated to play on in peace.

So to surmise: bring headphones if you want music, make large bold bets so as not to trip yourself up and play for the win, you can’t chop three-handed.

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