Hellmuth loves to rail against...well, just about everything :)(credit: Wikipedia)
Sometimes it pays to fight against the rulings in a poker tournament, even if there is no way to change the outcome. Daniel Negreanu does it, Howard Lederer does it, and so should you.
You have likely seen Phil Hellmuth rail against players, but he doesn’t often rail against rulings. Some may say this is because rulings seem to always fall in his favor, thanks to his super-star status and his clout. But other poker pros are not afraid to stand toe to toe with tournament officials when they are being taken advantage of, and the amateurs of the world should follow their example.
Tournament directors and dealers are not infallible; they are perfectly capable of making mistakes, misinterpreting the rules, or even making a biased ruling.
But, you may point out, once the ruling is made the will never reverse it. This is mostly true, and in fact you might as well say it is 100% true, as the few times they reverse a ruling are very far between. However you set a precedent by making a stink (just make sure your stink is on the money; there is nothing like causing a scene and then realizing you were in the wrong.)
Negreanu has been interviewed in the past for his confrontations with tournament officials, such as the time he arrived late, having pre-paid, and sat down to a chip stack that had been lowered thanks to the blinds; no problem. The problem came when a new player bought in during the first two blind levels (which was legal) and got more chips than Daniel. In the end there was nothing that could be done (they weren’t going to take chips from the new player or give them to Daniel) but by calling attention to the bad ruling, Daniel tried to make sure it wouldn’t happen again, which is good for everyone.
Play Daniel himself at his home online, PokerStars