The Situation: Dealer, I Saw All Their Cards
I was playing in a live tournament recently when this situation sparked some debate. I felt it was a pretty standard ruling but the argument got fairly heated at the table.
We were playing 10 handed, I happened to be sitting in the 1 seat and was in the small blind, thus received my cards first. As the cards were being dealt, apparently the dealer was dealing with the deck tilted up allowing the cards to be exposed as they were being dealt.
Before the dealer got all the way around on the 2nd hole card to the players, an honest lady in the 4 seat told the dealer that she saw all the cards dealt to seats 1, 2 and 3. She couldn’t identify them specifically but said they were all low cards.
The first 3 seats then looked at the hole cards and confirmed there was not a face card in the bunch. At the same time, the rest of the table decided to look at their cards. Of course luck would have it the gentleman in the 8 seat had picked up a big hand.
The floor was called over and it was determined that since there was no action yet, the dealer should pull all the cards in and re-deal. I hadn’t encountered this type of situation before but felt that was the correct decision.
The guy in the 8 seat was upset and felt we should play out the hand. He later revealed he had picked up pocket Kings. To fuel the fire, the guy in the 7 seat said he had pocket 10’s. So of course the 8 seat thought he would have doubled up at a crucial time.
The players continued to debate this situation during the next hour or two. The 8 seat was annoyed at the 4 seat for bringing it up during the hand or bringing it up at all for that matter. The 4 seat was just being honest which I give her a ton of credit for. She could have gone on all day seeing the cards of three players, or at least until a new dealer arrived.
The 8 seat felt the issue should have been addressed after the hand or in between hands, not during.
But the question is, was it correct for the floor to bring all the cards back in and re-deal or should we have played it out? Even though the rest of the table knew seats 1 through 3 had low cards.
Like I said, my opinion was pull em back, since there are essentially six exposed cards, four of which were in the blinds. But since I was one of the hands exposed, I may be biased. I’m willing to listen to arguments the other way if I’m missing something.
Your impressions?
August 27th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Bryan – I believe that the actions of the floor person in pulling the cards back and re-dealing was not only correct but was also fair. We’ve all played with players like your Seat 8. Almost always when there is a mis-deal and the dealt cards are pulled back in, one player whines about not being able to play premium hole cards.
Seat 4 realized that she had an unfair advantage by seeing those hole cards. Seat 4 realized that the dealer had inadvertently given her that unfair advantage by how he/she were dealing. It just happened that two premium starting hands were dealt to other players. It is easy for Seat 8 to argue that the hand should have been played through as
(1) his cards weren’t exposed and (2) he had a premium starting hand. I doubt if he would have made the same argument if he had 5-2 off suit.
I use a wheelchair and many times by being lower in my seat I see the dealer flash a card while dealing. I immediately inform the dealer that I saw the card. I am not a saint but I believe in fairness.
Randy Moder
August 27th, 2010 at 10:46 am
First off, “The Situation” is the coolest nickname of all-time. Secondly, kudos to the lady in seat 4. She acted in the best interests of the game and in fairness to all players involved.
I agree with Randy. We’ve all played with people that will take on any advantage they can. What would have happened if he was the one in seat 4?
August 27th, 2010 at 11:09 am
obv re-deal imo. 4th seat is correct in pointing out the dealers error.
August 27th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
I heard the argument Bryan and felt bad for the poor lady I also agree with the directors decision 100% of the time.
August 27th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Wait a minute, people get dealt kings in a tournament?
What gives.
Justin
August 30th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
YAE, almost the same situations at Cnaterbury last night, TCPO. No kidding, no wonder why no one wanted to call my min raised last night at TCPO., “26 BIG DOGS” left in the filed out of 122 started in the tourney. Again, some players at my table saw my cards while being delt. Pocket AA and KK, got no actions. At those times I really needed the chips to go on and keep battling out with those 26 Dogs in the field.
I did elaborated to a dealer to lower down the dick of cards while you’re passing’em out because some of these players can see’em because I’m seeing them twice already even though I’m in seat 8th and then some players did come and told me that they’ve seen my cards with only a RED on each card held.
I was going to talk to Eddy or Brent.
But, oh well….!
‘Putts
August 30th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
2PUTTS, IT’S SEEME LIKE THEY DON’T WANT THOSE PLAYERS TO MESSING AGAINST YOU’CAUSE YOU’LL DEFINITELY RUN’EM OVER, MAN. I’D SEEN YOU RAN OVER THOSE KIND OF DOGS BE4.
I KNEW U WILL KILL THE GAME AGAIN WHEN I SAW 4 TABLES LEFT THERE AT TCPO. JUST LIKE YOU’D SAID BEFORE BRO..
“if all of the doors are completely shut then you will go through the windows”
ya, that was FUNNY! LOL.
DON’T WORRIED, YOU’LL COME ON TOP VERY SOON, BRO!
YOU ARE A BETTER PLAYER,
J.