Everywhere in the world, poker is hot. The poker industry is still on an uphill climb and more and more people are getting into the game. This doesn’t mean, however, that the rules you use in Las Vegas are the same rules being used on the other side of the Earth. And any serious poker player knows that confusion on the rules in the middle of a poker game (or even worse, in the middle of a hand), can cause a great deal of frustration—not to mention a mountain of chips.

Thanks to the Federation Internationale de Poker Association (FIDPA) and the International Poker Rules (IP Rules), this problem should no longer be a cause to tilt. Professional poker players Marcel Luske and Michelle Lau established FIDPA and IP Rules to make sure that there is an international set of rules and standards for poker games.

The IP Rules consist of 80 rules and also incorporates the Tournament Directors Association’s 40 rules. Standardization should promote fair play, consistency and clarity, particularly since tournament directors are required to disclose modifications prior to the tournament. FIDPA will be endorsing card rooms and tournaments that adopt the rules. So what is the first card room to be endorsed? No surprise here. The Bellagio, of course.

So the next time you start scouting for a game in Asia or anywhere else in the world, you can more or less be assured that the game you’ll be playing is exactly like the game that you play back at home.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 11:51 am and is filed under Land-Based Casino Poker, Online Poker, Poker Industry News, Poker Players. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.