I just added a "rule" that late players that have notified me that they are still coming will have their seat selected and blinds will be posted on their behalf until they arrive and they have up to the end of the 2nd round to arrive or their chips will be removed from play. Nothing new, but what do you do if you have say 8 players in attendence come game time but you expect 4 more to be arriving within the late period? Do you play on a single table until the players arrive or do you split up into 2 tables to accommodate the total 12 players (including the 4 expected late arrivals)? if you play on a single table, how do you blind off 4 chipstacks? Basically, what's the best way to handle this situation?
Two tables of four and blind em till they show or as your house rules states the beginning of the second round and combine tables. I don't know about removing the chips from play you could always evenly distribute the chips to the remaining players unless of course you are looking to end the game a little quicker by having fewer chips in play.
You need to follow your own rules. Assign seats for 2 tables of 6 players each. If they don't show up in time, remove their chips. You might want to put 2 of each of the late people on each table to be fair to the other players, and also maybe put the late people across the table, so that the free blinds are not in the same area of the table.
As it turned out I only had to have a chip stack for 1 late player. I ended up with 13 players to start (14 players counting the late player)...so it was 7 people at one table and 6 at the other until the late guy arrived to even the tables out.
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