Poker term hand-for-hand describes a period in a poker tournament where every remaining table plays one hand at the time. The next hand doesn’t begin until the current one finishes on all tables.
Hand-for-hand usually happens when a poker tournament is on the bubble. For example, there are 90 players left in the tournament but only 89 get paid.
At this point, the tournament will switch to hand-for-hand, with all ten 9-handed tables playing one poker hand at a time. Once a player busts on any of the tables, the bubble will burst, and the play will resume as normal.
The reason for hand-for-hand is to prevent players from stalling on the bubble and make things fairer for everyone. With one hand taking place at a time, it doesn’t matter if one table plays faster, as they will only begin the next hand when all other tables finish.
