IN7 · 2026-10-21

IN7: One Empty Chair Changed the Deal

Update the player list before the next deal. Distinguish a player leaving the session from someone briefly stepping away from the table.

Five name cards remain around the table, but only four friends are ready for the next practice round. Yusuf has left for the evening. The dealer follows the name cards and begins making a fifth hand for an empty chair. The old setup has survived longer than the player it represented.

Confirm the current group

Before dealing, the host asks who is taking part in this round. Yusuf’s name card is moved off the active table, and the deal is prepared for the agreed four-person exercise. This change belongs between rounds. It is not permission to reinterpret an unfinished hand without discussing what happens to it.

Someone fetching water is a different case. If Neha will return to her seat, the group can wait or follow the pause arrangement they agreed. Removing her because she is not physically seated for a moment would confuse a temporary absence with leaving the game.

Update all the places that matter

The seat list, score sheet and next-player marker should refer to the same active group. Leaving one of them unchanged creates a second version of the table. The host reads the four names aloud once, giving anyone a chance to correct the setup before cards become private.

At the end, the notebook still keeps Yusuf’s earlier results. Removing a name from the next round does not erase completed participation. A clear table record can say both things: he played the earlier round, and he is not in this one. That is more useful than treating every name ever written as permanently active.

IN7: One Empty Chair Changed the Deal

Confirm the current group

Update all the places that matter

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