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You are the Tournament Director: A Fouled Deck

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The Situation:
Early stages of a WPT event, blinds are 25/50, starting chip stack 10,000. UTG raises to 200 and gets four callers. The flop comes down Ace of clubs, Jack of spades and the three of hearts. After a lot of betting and raising three players are left in the pot. Players A and B are all in and there is a side pot between B and C.

The hands are turned over:

Player A has Ace of hearts and ace of diamonds in his hand.
Player B Jack of hearts and Jack of diamonds in his hand.
Player C has the three of diamonds and the three of spades in his hand.

The turn is the seven of clubs and the river is the three of spades giving player C quads. However he also has the three of spades in his hand! Upon checking the deck there are 52 cards and the 3 of clubs is missing. How do you rule and why?

Matt:
I would return everybody their money back, all bets from the start of that hand. Because it’s a foul deck and I don’t go back any further than that one hand because it wasn’t discovered until that hand so I would not go back any further.

Thomas:
Any deck of cards that does not consist of the right 52 cards is not ok. The moment this is discovered, the last hand is a misdeal. Any hands played before are valid.

Jack:
It is a fouled deck. I recreate the pot and give all players their money back.

Liam:
It’s a very difficult one. It happens quite a bit, that’s why dealers are supposed to check before they start to deal them and the players should be checking the cards as well, that’s why they’re fanned out. A lot of people are at fault there that they didn’t notice there was a 3s instead of 3c. It’s the most complex situation I’ve heard of but the hand would have stand and the 4 threes wins. There were only four threes in the deck, so from that point of view it’s not any advantage; he just got a 3 spades instead of the 3 clubs.

Mel:
These are getting harder and harder. Give me a brandy lol
In all fairness the hand should be ruled dead and chips given back to players. Everybody will grumble at this ruling but it’s the fairest thing that could happen. Get a new deck and check all 52 cards. I’m actually surprised somebody noticed that there were two 3 of spades in the deck.

Marty:
It’s in the early stages which is a bonus, the ruling would be everyone on the table starts with a chip stack of 10,000 again, and a new pack of cards is fetched (assuming the deck hasn’t been changed so far) every hand has used this bad deck.

The Mob Verdict

This situation didn’t specifically happen in the early stages of a WPT event and we made it up although similar situations have happened many times.

Matt, Thomas, Jack and Mel all gave the same response. The hand is voided and all chips are returned to the players but all previous hands stand and the deck is changed. This sounds fair to us.

Liam would agree if there was an extra card in the deck but as there are the correct number of ‘threes’ in the deck he believes that the hand should stand. This sounds ok but what if a flush came into play or someone was drawing to a flush. Then the correct number of spades or clubs wouldn’t be in the deck.

What Marty says is interesting as the question was phrased ‘early stages of a WPT event’. What he says has merit but could be problematic especially if a player has won or lost a big pot previously or even been eliminated.

We believe that, although likely, it is impossible to know whether the deck was fouled for any previous hands. For this reason any previously completed hands should stand and this is the only hand that should be voided.

Liam says ‘that’s why dealers are supposed to check before they start to deal them and the players should be checking the cards as well, that’s why they’re fanned out’ and he absolutely right. Dealers should have the proper training and the cards should be changed on each push (dealer change). When the new dealer sits down the cards should be fanned out in order and thoroughly checked. It’s a good idea for the players to watch the process and speak up if they see an incorrect deck.

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