Poker Tournament Directors Association XII Summit 2026

The Poker Tournament Directors Association (TDA) recently met for its 12th biennial summit. The meeting was held at the PokerGo Studio in Las Vegas on June 29 and 30, and there were more than 200 participants. The attendees discussed changes to the official TDA poker tournament rules, and we have a report on what's new.

All-in Shenanigans

A lot of the rules changes pertain to all-in or almost all-in situations. The new adjustments aim to make the action clearer and prevent angle-shooting.

When going all-in, a player must now either physically put all of their chips in the pot or none of them. Declaring all-in while only putting a portion of the stack forward is no longer allowed. Should someone attempt to go all-in with only a portion of their chips, the dealers will be instructed to push their chips back when putting the all-in button in front of that player.

Players are allowed to leave one chip behind or otherwise go "almost" all-in. This has been ruled to be a legitimate strategic maneuver, and so those cardrooms that have been prohibiting this action are incorrect to do so. However, the onus is on the player making this move to make their intentions clear. They must not conceal any chips they leave behind, and if the dealer incorrectly places the all-in button in front of them, they must correct the dealer.

If using the big blind ante, it is the chip stack remaining after the ante is posted that's used to determine finishing positions should multiple people be eliminated in the same hand. This follows the commonsense notion that a player who is in a position to knock out another player is in a better position than one who lacks enough chips to do so.

The Tournament Directors Association 2026 Summit

Player Actions

Several of the rules pertain to what players are and are not allowed to do during the tournament.

The TDA has clarified the rules around abusive table talk. It's much more obvious now from the rules that such behavior is not tolerated and can be penalized.

If someone acts passively out of turn heads-up, by checking or calling, then if the action changes before it gets to them, they cannot then change to an aggressive action (betting or raising).

Arranging chips in stacks of 20, which had been a recommendation, is now mandatory. This makes it easier for opponents to see how many chips a player has.

Players who have chips in their hands or in a rack have to immediately proceed to their table. This includes players whose previous tables have broken as well as tournament alternates.

Tournament Administration

A few rules pertain mostly to tournament staff and how they will handle certain situations.

Random table breaks are now broadly accepted as a way to consolidate tables. In any case, the order of table breaks should not ever be posted in advance.

When blind levels increase, dealers are permitted to raise the blinds without explicit instructions from the floor. The floor should still be announcing every increase, but in the absence of this announcement, dealers can still proceed with raising the blinds.

Chip penalties have been introduced as an additional disciplinary tool to complement round penalties and other measures at tournament staffs' discretion. Apparently, a whole new section of the rules will be devoted to this topic, which makes sense because removing chips from play has implications not just for the player penalized but also for average stack sizes, total number of chips in play, et cetera.

Miscellaneous

A lot of discussion surrounded new telecommunications technology. While it hasn't been made an official rule, it's likely that Meta glasses will be banned from every cardroom.

During live streamed events, players are required to show their hole cards before the flop. Hiding or otherwise obscuring the cards is not allowed.

The TDA spent a lot of time during its summit on rules for mixed games, and it seems this will be a continuing focus for the next several years.

There was a debate over whether certain events should be called Women's Events or Ladies Events, but it does not seem that a consensus was reached.

More About the TDA

The Tournament Directors Association started its life in Las Vegas in 2001. It was founded by Matt Savage, Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and David Lamb. These prominent poker individuals recognized that the rules for tournament poker varied greatly from one cardroom to the next, creating confusion on the part of both players and tourney organizers. The TDA was formed to combat this tendency by standardizing the rules.

TDA Co-founder Matt Savage

Members of the organization include professional tournament directors, experienced players, cardroom managers, dealers, and representatives from regulatory bodies. The TDA meets every two years in Las Vegas to consider proposed rules and changes. Membership is free.

Compliance with the TDA rules is a voluntary affair, but most cardrooms and tournament directors will go along with rules even if they strongly oppose some of them. This is because there's a widespread understanding that having a standardized set of poker rules that both players and organizers can rely upon is more important than trying to make every rule perfect.

Responses

Reactions from people who participated in the TDA summit were largely positive. Co-founder Matt Savage, who is the Executive Tour Director for the World Poker Tour, posted on X following the event:

Director Toby Stone of the European Poker Tour commented:

The beauty of the TDA Summit is the mutual exchange of knowledge. Our core focus is always on making tournaments safer, fairer, and more enjoyable for the players. While the EPT is proud to already implement a lot of the cutting-edge rules and security measures being discussed, the summit is about lifting the global standard together.

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July 8, 2026 – by Max Golden, Editor-in-Chief