Casino Card Dealer screws up - What should have happened next?

[AndyH1964]

Playing texas hold 'em at Gala Casino last night when something happened that I've never seen before:

Rebuy tournament, 80 players over half of the field are out.

Action: It's folded to me in mid position. I fold. Player to the left of me with appx 10x BB raises, player to his left with big stack goes allin, all fold back to original raiser, he goes allin too and shows QJ. The player to his left shows Ace 10.

The dealer then decides to shuffle the cards in the middle but doesn't touch the two allin players cards.....oooppppssss.....she was miles away!

She says she hasn't shuffled the cards at the top of the pack.

Player with QJ says it's a mis deal.

Tournament director is called


Tournament director said.....it's a mis deal, players take their chips back and redeal (small blind and big blind who folded have big smiles on their faces)

Surely this cannot be right????

[bigc82]

Would have to agree its a misdeal.

[Seb]

Player with QJ is a timewaster. The odds have changed but how would you know?

[*Yes*]

[Seb]

[AndyH1964]

I cannot believe this is a misdeal.....if I was running the tournie I would say, shuffle the pack, cut and deal the board...

OK...lets say its you who went allin with pocket Aces and the player to your left (Mr Zwerty) calls with Ace King. Mrs Zwerty, the dealer, accidently shuffles the pack.....

[Seb]

People get funny about misdeals that can have no possible effect on outcome, so I can see how they'd go mental enough over this that someone made a rule for it - if they did.

[darrensprengers]

Link

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[Joe The Elegance Beevers]

I do not agree that this is a misdeal at all. You should always try and get as close to what the natural result would have been.

This is a tournament, not a cash game, and it is in all players interests when a player is eliminated. There is a chance of that here. Just imagine if it was the bubble.

Two players have valid hands. The dealer must reshuffle and deal a flop, turn and river as far as I am concerned. If it is possible to leave out the discards then that would be done.

Rulings should always try to avoid an angle shoot or cheating. As OP says imagine one player has AA and one AK. If the dealer is a friend of the AK player then he can simple 'start shuffling' and the hand is void....? Just imagine...

edit: In fact it may not even be necessary to reshuffle if the top of the deck is intact. Deal as much as possible with the undisturbed stub and then shuffle if necessary.
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[Alex B]

I had pretty much the exact same post as Joe in the draft box - so, what he said.

Why would this ever be a misdeal with so much action and nothing fundamentally wrong with the deck?

Calling a misdeal provides what protection against what improper sequence of events?
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[Jon MW]

It's never a misdeal

Loads of poker players get all hung up on the fact that they won't get exactly the same cards - but that's irrelevant.

It's exactly the same probability - and that's what counts.


EDIT to reinforce:

[Seb]

I assumed she shuffled the muck back into the deck.

[darrensprengers]

[pembo]

[Alex B]

Cloutier has a story from a tournament something like he lost to a 1 outer that required a dealer error to cause the muck to be shuffled back in to the deck.

IIRC he never said the ruling was wrong.
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