in poker what does it mean when tables are now playing hand to hand?

Answer 1

Simply, if players are close to the prizes, it's unfair if one table is playing slowly and the other is playing quickly. This is because the quick table will make the players post blinds faster.

Hand to hand means that every deal is synchronised. Nobody gets an advantage by playing for time.

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Answer 2

Well, in some tournaments (particularly those found online), to ensure fairness, each table will play an equal amount of hands. Think about it, if one table gets 50 hands before blinds up and another gets only 30, some players would have an advantage just because of the table they're on.

Of course they still have to ensure that the time limit is followed, so if table 1 is at 34 hands, and table 2 is at 34 hands, they will play hand by hand and make sure the hands on each table start at the same time, thus nobody is ahead when the timer is getting near to the end.

You may also notice "Waiting for Table 32 to catch up." This is another example of keeping all the tables on the same amount of hands, as if table 2 and 3 are around 50 hands, and 1 is falling behind at 46, it needs to catch up a bit.

Answer 3

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