Matt Savage advocates for electronics bans at poker tournaments

Top poker tournament director Matt Savage says the coming Tournament Directors Association (TDA) summit will discuss a ban on headphones at the poker table. Some reacted with outrage, but I’m in the opposite camp. I say, bring on the bans, not just of headphones, but of electronics in general. Let’s take poker back to the Stone Age, baby.

Okay, maybe not quite that far. I’m happy to keep smoking away from the table, something I was starkly reminded about recently when perusing some old World Series of Poker photos that an enterprising Reddit user touched up with AI. But I’m all in on taking technology mostly out of the game.

As technology becomes ever more powerful, but also easier to access and harder to spot, the risk of electronics-assisted cheating continues to rise. The next generation of headphones apparently will include some native AI functions and a built-in camera, which prompted Savage’s post.

Savage says he’s in favor of the headphone ban and will push for it. At the same time, he doesn’t expect universal adoption or even a formal rule.

I don’t always agree with Savage. In fact, I think he’s off his rocker with some of his takes. Matt Stafford is still an overrated product of his coach, and leaving a chip behind with pseudo-shoves is a completely normal and sensible poker play, Matt. But we’re aligned on this one. Start with the headphones and keep the bans rolling until it’s nothing but humans engaging with each other at the table and using their brains to make decisions.

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Banning Electronics in Poker Streamlines and Simplifies Enforcement

Savage seems to think banning headphones wouldn’t garner a ton of support among the poker bosses who attend the TDA summit, but I find myself wondering why it wouldn’t. It seems like banning electronics would simplify the job of those who have to enforce the rules.

Currently, for example, dealers have to juggle keeping the action moving while making sure the players who have their phones out are not in the hand. That player can use his phone, but not this one, for the next 45 seconds, anyway. That player’s phone is in his pocket, so that’s fine, but this one has it on the rail, which isn’t allowed here. (But it might be in the last room they worked in.)

Isn’t it easier to just say no phones allowed at all?

With the advent of easy-access cloud solvers, preflop charts, shoving ranges, etc., phones at the poker table already create a weird dynamic where there’s an incentive for players and staff to kind of snoop and make sure players aren’t accessing these tools. Nobody wants to be cheated, but nobody wants people looking over their shoulders.

Simple solution: don’t allow any electronics.

This also removes the headache of staff trying to police exactly which electronics are allowed. It’s not realistic to ask them to figure out where the lines are between different products. They already have enough of a job making sure the poker room runs efficiently.

Creating a Better Environment at the Poker Table

I’m not even coming at this issue from a purely theoretical standpoint. I’ve actually played in a poker room where phones are just flat-out banned at the table. And let me tell you, it was not only fine, but a great experience.

South Dakota was a very early aggressor against phones at the poker table. This Card Player article from 2014 suggests **the policy is more than a decade old. **

I don’t recall ever playing in a room where no phones were allowed, so it took some getting used to when I drove to Deadwood for a then-Mid-States Poker Tour event in 2022. Dealers warned me multiple times as I kept glancing at my phone out of habit in between hands.

But once I got used to keeping my phone in my pocket, I noticed an amazing phenomenon. Players actually engaged with each other between and during hands. Crazy what it does for the poker environment when four players at the table aren’t staring at their phones.

Take away the three with sunglasses and headphones as well, and people might actually start having fun, creating a better environment for everyone. One where recreational players have a good time and are excited for their next buy-in.

As an aside, I think any such electronics ban should be combined with a restructuring (preferably an elimination) of the ridiculous rules forbidding table talk. Does anyone seriously think this mechanism is a net positive and prevents collusion? We just watched two players massively collude without a word spoken. Let people say what they want in a heads-up poker pot.

Don’t Like it? Play Poker Online

I say people might actually start having fun at the poker table, but there are certainly some players loudly voicing their dissent with the idea of banning headphones. Some have threatened to quit playing live poker tournaments.

To those players, I say, good riddance. Like, check out this response to Savage’s post:

As a rec, I will just stop playing. Not sitting in silence or listening to dumbfucks at the table talk for 8 plus hours. It takes the game from fun and enjoyable to miserable.

If you want to torture pros in high rollers. Or at final tables maybe. But for a whole tourney. Im out

— Adam Smith (@whoisAdamSmith) May 9, 2026

This guys sounds like a blast to have at your table, doesn’t he?

If you really can’t function at a poker table without headphones, you should try this thing called online poker. It’s been around for almost 30 years, and you can play naked in your living room if you want. Music at full throttle, nobody will stop you. I have every confidence the live poker scene will move on without a hitch sans your contributions to the ecosystem.

Poker has already dealt with at least one high-profile cheating scandal alleged to have been connected to a guy’s phone. No policy is ever going to be foolproof. But let’s make this as simple as safe as we can. Disallow not just headphones but all electronics at the poker table. It’s easy to enforce, protects players from cheating, and promotes a more fun environment at the tables.

Everyone wins except for the players who hate live poker anyway, and those are the last people to whom the game should be catering.

Mo Nuwwarah

Deputy Editor

Mo has been reporting on the poker industry since 2013, excepting a foray into the sports betting space from 2021-2025. He's a regular in live tournaments and cash games at buy-in levels around $400-$2,000.