Will the New Rule Changes Make the 2025 WSOP a Phone Free Zone?

At the end of the event, Tamayo held the glittering WSOP bracelet aloft and banked an incredible $10 million after the performance of his life.

Then the arguments started.

In 2024, Jonathan Tamayo’s WSOP Main Event victory was tinged with controversy. Consulting his experienced rail full of professionals on key decisions, studying in-time GTO charts and analysis, Tamayo’s rail-team assistance provided him with a very real RTA that many observers disagreed with. A year on, the World Series of Poker have responded by announcing a series of rule changes that will affect every player who travels to Las Vegas this summer.

The ‘Tamayo’ Rule

“Failure to do so will result in penalties up to and including disqualification.”

After the controversy of 2024, the WSOP Main Event of 2025 is going to look very different. Gone will be the technological trauma of 12 months ago. In fact, all electronic devices are under threat a year on from Dominik Nitsche, Jonathan Tamayo and ‘Laptopgate’. After Tamayo’s rail spent their time tracking real-time sim analysis via laptop during the Main Event finale, the WSOP have acted in the strongest possible terms.

The WSOP have added a policy stating: “Once participants have reached the final three tables in any tournament, all approved electronic devices must be removed. An announcement will be made to participants once they have reached the final three tables to remove all such electronic devices. Failure to do so will result in penalties up to and including disqualification.”

While technology has been banned, Rule 116 could be even more controversial if applied in its most literal instead of liberal sense by WSOP tournament director Jack Effel (pictured above) and other members of staff. The 2024 rule regarding the discussing of poker strategy with friends (or, of course, a poker coach) on the rail during a hand has changed in a big way.

In 2025, players aren’t allowed to discuss strategy with an outside source “at any time while the tournament clock is running, and participants are not on break.” That means that unless you’re on a designated break time, you can’t talk strategy. This could be very difficult to enforce, with players chatting to their friends on the rail about a hotel key or the latest NFL news hard to distinguish from poker guidance between hands.

Where’s Will Kassouf when you need him? Jack Effel, who is responsible for staffing, event structures, payouts, rule enforcements, and has to oversee tournament operations at the WSOP, might get his old friend on the phone.

A Heavy Ban-Hammer and Loud Alarm Clock

Anyone playing in the World Series of Poker event this summer might want to turn up the volume on their alarm clock. Rule 16 has changed, and now translates as the following; if you register for an event and fail to arrive at your seat by the start of the first level after the first official break, your stack will be removed from play, and you won’t be eligible to compete in that event.

If you fall foul of Rule 16, there are no rebuys, no re-entries and no lion-taming show for the camera excuse. If Phil Hellmuth changes his no-show stance and buys into the WSOP Main Event, he’ll need to do it in good time to take his seat if he wants to add to his 1989 world championship victory.  If players are kicked out, they will be refunded and their entry will be removed from the prize pool but this will be scant consolation to the removed player.

It’s a tightening up from last year where players had until the start of the third level but the 2025 policy applies to all games, regardless of the length of the blind levels, so keep an eye on structures and don’t sleep in!

Players will want to be on their best behavior all round. Rule 18 now states that “Individuals who are excluded from casino facilities owned or operated by Caesars Entertainment, Inc. or any of its affiliates/subsidiaries, either through a trespass, government program or by their own request, are not eligible to participate in any WSOP Event”.

Pretty clearly, this means a far more serious punishment than before, when being banned from one event would be the end of the matter. Any cheating or abusive behavior is likely to be acted on extremely swiftly, and especially early in the series, you can expect to see a player or players used as an example by the WSOP as they impose the rule.

Don’t be that player!

The Button and Blinds

In the past, players who got to the end of long WSOP tournaments would find themselves in a redraw for the button at the final table stage. It’s all change on this front too, as Rule 85 now makes it clear that the redrawing procedure starts a lot earlier.

“At the start of an Event, the button will begin in the seat with the first chip stack to the dealer’s right,” it says. “There will be a draw for the button with 3, 2 and 1 table(s) remaining. Tournament play will use a dead button. Dead Button is defined as a button that cannot be advanced due to elimination of a Participant or the seating of a new Participant into a position between the small blind and the button.”

A big change, but if you make it deep in a WSOP event, you’re likely to be happy anyway, so it’s a fairly easy one to enforce and we don’t foresee any drama around that one. The same can’t be said for ‘Blind Dodgers’. This refers to the old trick of stalling in the act of changing tables.

Here’s how the trick works. You’re reallocated to a new table. You’re short-stacked. You walk over and see that your site is about to be in the blinds. To avoid sitting in the two worst positions at the felt, you amble the last few paces, then look around confused, maybe even walking to another table ‘by mistake’, timing your return just right to arrive in late position, avoiding paying the blinds.

Yeah, the WSOP got wise to it, buddy. Rule 86 now quite sternly states:

“A Participant who intentionally dodges his or her blind(s) when moving from an existing seat must forfeit both blinds (and big blind ante if applicable) and will receive a one (1) round penalty.”

Effectively, any dodging of the blinds will ensure that the sneaky cheat will be forced to pay two rounds of blinds rather than one had they just walked to their seat and embraced the fate as they were destined.

If you’re heading to Las Vegas, be lucky. But also make sure that you play by the rules. In 2025, if you don’t, the decision to play or not might be taken out of your hands.