Players must be 21 years of age to play.
No purchase, including food or drink is required for play, however your support of our bars and restaurants is important and is essential in keeping us going strong. No cover charge, or “buy-in” may be applied to players by either the host or the Lonestar Poker Tour (LPT).
No currency of any kind, circulated or non-circulated is permitted on the tables as prohibited by state law.
LPT owners and off-duty directors are permitted to play in games and are held to the same conduct of play as all players.
Respect of the hosts and LPT’s property, fellow players, hosts staff and tournament directors is required at all times.
It is assumed that all players participating will act in an “adult manner”. For as many different players as there are participating, there are equally that many styles of play. Demeaning, derogatory and disrespectful behavior towards players and hosts will not be tolerated.
Players are expected to drink responsibly and avoid overindulgence.
While we understand that this is a bar, please limit the use of foul language. This may be disrespectful and offensive to other players.
Imposed penalties for violations of LPT guidelines are at LPT’s discretion and may include removal from the tournament, even for a “first” offense if the player has been repeatedly reminded of that or multiple other violations or if the behavior is such that it threatens a player, the league or a host in any way.
Players are responsible for payment of all food and drink items purchased. Failure to pay a tab before departure may result in suspension from play until the tab is paid and the host directly notifies the league owner.
Players are expected to respect host rules regarding food and beverage purchases including cash on demand tabs, credit card/picture ID hold for tabs, bottled water purchases, etc.
Cell phone usage at the tables is prohibited at any time during active tournament play. If you have emergency business on your cell phone, please step away from the table.
Concerns regarding the LPT are to be directed to LPT owners as quickly as possible.
Concerns regarding active play at the table are to be brought to the director’s attention immediately.
Error correction cannot occur once a hand has ended and a pot awarded; it can only be clarified for future reference.
Tournament director decisions and penalties are final and may vary slightly depending on the situation as it is evaluated by the director.
Directors will do their best to be as fair and consistent as possible. They make the best decision based on the info they are provided.
If it is determined later that the wrong action was taken, LPT owners will do all possible to rectify the situation, knowing that some situations cannot be retro-actively fixed.
Situations occurring without any clear-cut established guidelines for resolution will be handled as fairly as possible and when possible with full consensus of players involved.
Concerns regarding the host or host staff are to be directed to the LPT owners.
Any player having a concern regarding a hand, pot count, etc, during an active hand, has the right to request play halted until the concern is clarified/resolved.
Rule clarification can be called by any player at any time; on or off the table.
In the event a director is called for clarification, play stops and all cards and chips are to remain as they are until the director states play can continue.
Directors are always available to clarify procedure before, during and after play, however directors may only enforce while play is still active.
Repercussions, verbal or otherwise, against a player for requesting director clarification will not be tolerated.
Players must be signed in 15 minutes before each tournament.
All players signing in under the New Player Sign In are required to list a first and last name. Nicknames may be used for a first name however a legal last name is required.
Hand written sign in and sign out is to be clear and legible for points to be awarded. This applies to all players.
Table seating is random and is controlled by the computer software.
Spouses, significant others, or family members are to be distributed to different tables at initial seating, whenever possible
Do not call the host location to sign you in.
If you do not sign out once you are eliminated, you will forfeit your total points for that tournament.
Players may leave the tournament at any time and are required to sign out and turn their chips into the director. Chips are never permitted to be distributed among remaining players at the table.
Each player is issued one set of chips at the start of play. Players are never permitted to re-chip or obtain additional chips.
Players may not relinquish their chips to another player nor may another player sit as a substitute for a player on an active table.
Blind times are 15 – 20 minutes long, depending on required tournament length.
If blinds are called and a player has not yet begun to shuffle the next blind level is expected to be posted.
If break is called and a player has not yet begun to shuffle the table is expected to start the break.
Breaks are given after every three sets of blinds for 5 – 12 minutes.
Once final table has been achieved, breaks are five minutes in length and consistent with normal schedule.
Players are responsible for returning on time; cards will be mucked in a player’s absence regardless if they are in the blinds or not.
Dealer duties shall rotate clockwise around the table. Players seated to the right of any player with an inability to shuffle/deal are asked to assist with dealer duties.
Cards are to be cut by a player to the right of the dealer.
Cards must be cut once and only once with no less than 1/3 of the deck remaining in either pile.
Dealers are expected to control the action at the table.
All cards and chips will be on or above the level of the table and visible at all times.
Cards and chips are to remain on the table during breaks.
Food and drink are permitted near the tables. It is preferred that food never be on the tables during live play.
A dealing player is asked to move his/her drink from proximity until after the deal is finished.
Players need to be aware of drinks kept beneath and next to chairs.
All raises must be equal to or greater than the big blind.
Pot splashing is prohibited. Chips are never to be slid, rolled, tossed or dropped into betting area.
String betting is prohibited. In the case of betting or raising players are only permitted to reach once for chips unless it is determined that a player’s verbalized action is not consistent with the chip count placed in the betting area. (I.e. a player verbalizes an 800 pt raise but only places 700 in the betting area.)
Players placing more chips into the betting area than required to call and not verbalizing a raise are only held to the call amount.
Players acting out of turn lose the option to raise. They are only held to the action preceding them.
A player acting out of turn as a result of the previous out of turn action is not penalized.
A player in the big blind may not initially post more than the big blind. This is considered out of turn action.
Players are asked to verbalize all actions.
Only single term actions are permitted: Check, Fold, Call, Bet/Raise
The LPT does not permit “double action” (I.e. “I call and raise you.” – the player may only call since that was the first action verbalized).
Players are bound to their verbalized action.
Example: A player stating a raise is bound to raise at least the appropriate minimum amount even if that amount is double what was initially believed to be the appropriate raise. Folding is not an option once action has been announced.
Players are never permitted to touch the muck pile even after the hand has ended. This can be viewed as cheating regardless of what a player verbalizes as his/her intention of doing so.
No peeking at “what would have been”. If the cards were that good, they would’ve been played.
A player is NEVER permitted to reveal another player’s cards for any reason.
Discussion of hand contents, mucked or otherwise while play is in process is prohibited.
Only active players are permitted to sit at an active table. Observers must remain at least 6 feet away from any player.
Advice of any kind from players on or off the tables is prohibited.
Pocket cards are to be viewed by the holding player only. Cards intentionally shown to any player, on or off of the table may be required to be shown to all at the table.
Players are expected to maintain control of their cards at all times. Any player tossing their cards, at any time during play, in such a manner that they land on the muck pile results in the hand being mucked, even if it would’ve been the winning hand.
The “board/community” cards are not considered part of the muck pile
A card accidentally exposed during the initial deal becomes the first burn card. Deal continues with the next player to receive a card and the “missed” player receives the last card dealt.
If a second card is exposed the hand is considered misdealt. All cards are collected, shuffled and dealt.
Cards accidentally exposed by the dealer during the hand will be randomly placed back into the deck, shuffled one time, cut and readied for the next deal of the cards.
Players are not permitted to “chase the rabbit”.
The “cards speak for themselves” rule applies when determining the winning hand. A player does not have to verbalize the winning hand to claim the pot.
Both cards from the winning hand must be shown for the pot to be claimed, unless all other players have folded.
In the case of heads up play, the dealer is always small blind.
A player may not post big blind two hands in a row.
A player last posting small blind and now in heads up must post big blind.
There are no “dead” blinds in heads up play.
For any and all rules not included above, please click here for a complete list of “Roberts Rules”.Robert's Rules of Poker