Almost every poker player can tell you a story about being involved in a hand in which there was an extra card in the deck, and it usually involved a big pot and a funny anecdote.
My first experience with this was at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas in the early 1990s. I was playing in a $20-$40 hold'em game and was dealt the A
and the A
. It was capped preflop between me and one other player whom I considered to be pretty tight. The flop came down A
10 5, and I just called my opponent's bet. I didn't think I would get much action when the 7 fell on the turn, but to my surprise, we went five bets before my opponent just called. When the river brought the 5, I knew I had my opponent in bad shape. After putting in five bets, I finally called after thinking to myself, ìI canít believe he capped it preflop with pocket fives." Imagine my surprise when he announced, "Aces full." I had to do a double take, and it took me a minute to realize that he couldn't have aces full! He tabled the A
and the A, which matched the A on the board. There were five aces in the deck, and everyone got their money back.
I recently heard a story about a similar situation happening in a major cardroom in California. It supposedly occurred in a high-limit seven-card stud game, in which one player had three eights. When he turned his hand faceup at the showdown, he had the 8 as one of his doorcards. Another player in the game announced that he had the 8 as his doorcard. The floorman on duty was called over and the deck was counted down. Sure enough, there were two 8 in the deck. The floorman made the ruling that the player with the three eights had a dead hand, and he awarded the pot to the other player who was involved at the end of the hand. Many of the players in the game, including the player with the three eights, objected to the ruling. The floorman called the shift manager over, who said that, indeed, the ruling was correct. After some heated discussion, the shift manager left the table to consult the rulebook. He came back a few minutes later and upheld his decision based on the rulebook for that particular cardroom.
This story was told to me by one of the uninvolved players in that game. He thought the ruling was ridiculous, and wanted my take on the situation. I immediately told him the rule was, in fact, ridiculous, and that I had never heard of any cardroom that had such a rule. After thinking about the situation, and all of the possible reasons why this rule might exist, I maintained my original thought that it's ridiculous.
Poker is played with a 52-card deck. If a hand is dealt with fewer than 52 cards, it is not a legitimate poker hand. Most every cardroom in the world employs a simple rule that states: "Any hand dealt with an improper deck (one with too many or too few cards) will be considered a dead hand, and all monies involved will be returned to each player as long as the error is brought to the attention of everyone before the next hand is dealt."
A while back, I encountered a situation in which a fouled deck was discovered during the play of a hand. The monies were returned to the players involved and a new deck was put into play. One of the players in the game, who was losing, told me that he thought the casino should reimburse the money he had lost because that deck could have been in play during the hands he lost. Although I sympathized with him, there wasn't a way to determine when the fouled deck became "fouled," and the rule is in place for the hand in which the error was discovered.
Here's my tip of the day: If you have the A in your hand and another A falls on the flop, halt the game and call the floorman!
Editor's note: Michael O'Malley can usually be found playing online at partypoker.com as Rzitup. To learn more about Michael, go to www.rzitup.com.