By Kelli Mix | Published on February 2, 2010

Ruling! #12 – Asleep at the Table

The Scenario

A player falls asleep at the table due to his medication and is unable to be awoken. He is in the big blind and there has been no raise pre-flop. What should happen?

Kelli’s Ruling

Wow, that must be some heavy medication! In this scenario the player would be treated the same as a player who walks away from the table after the cards are dealt. Once he does not respond, the dealer should muck his cards and deal the community cards. If the player continues to be unresponsive the floorperson can rule that the player be treated as an absent player, meaning don’t even deal the cards to the player. Most dealers however will typically just keep dealing and mucking the cards in case the sleeper finally wakes up.