I have two different situations that I have seen come up and I want to know why they were ruled upon differently.

First, I had two friends in a NL Holdem game and both held A-K. One of my friends was in the big blind and the other in middle position. A king hit the flop and both had their chips in by the river. When the hands were both turned over, one player held the ace of spade and king of clubs and the other held the king of diamonds and ALSO held the ace of spades. The floor man was called over and he ruled that the bets and the blinds would be retuned to their rightful owners.

A couple of days later, my friend was in a big hand with another opponent. He held pocket sixes and the flop fell As-6d-3c. My friend checked and his opponent went all-in. My friend called and showed his set. His opponent flipped over his hand and said, “Well, this won’t count anyway” and showed As-2c. The floor was called over and the floor asked when the players went all-in. The dealer told the floor that they went all-in after the flop. The floor looked at the player that had the duplicate aces of spades and said, “You are out of luck unless you make a straight.” The board paired on the turn and the player with the duplicate ace went ballistic. The floor man told the player that he know what he was trying to pull and he wasn’t going to stand for it. The player tried to take a swing at the floor man, and was subsequently subdued and removed from the casino by security.

It seems to me that both the situations were the same. What is the difference?

Jacob

Jacob,

The situations are not the same. In the first situation, both players had the ace of spades as their hole card and as a result, they did not know that duplicate cards were out. The deck was fouled and the bets were returned.

In the second situation, the player with the duplicate ace of spade knew that the deck was fouled and tried to take advantage of the situation. He was trying to angle shoot, and in this case, it can also be considered cheating. In many casinos, if a player continues in a hand after they know that the deck or hand is fouled, then they have no recourse. In some cases, their hand is dead. The floor man was entirely correct in punishing this player. Had the player been ahead with the aces, he would have tried to take the pot. When he found out he was behind, he tried to angle shoot his way out of paying up.

Also, I would have a chat with management and let them know about the fact that multiple decks have showed up fouled in the course of a couple of days. Something sounds fishy there.