Hi everyone! I am hoping you can help me out with a ruling that was made today. Actually, I'm pretty certain that the ruling is correct for a number of reasons, but it would be nice to have some other opinions on how the Rules (RROP, TDA or otherwise) actually support it.
As a bit of background, this is not a casino; it is a "bar" league that plays by the TDA Rules. There are dedicated dealers at each table who also play, but most of them are of course not "professionals" and so part of our job as TDs is also to train. Correcting dealer mistakes is quite common, as you can imagine.
With that in mind, here's the gist of situation:
1. Player A and Player B get all-in on the flop. Player A shows QQ, Player B shows KJ, Flop is KQ9, giving player A trip Queens, and player B top pair.
2. By the end of the deal, Board is dealt out KQ9xT.
3. Dealer announce "trip Queens", pushes up the KQT cards from the board.
4. Dealer make an action to "scoop" the cards and board together, to make way for the pot which is clearly pushed in Player A's direction.
5. At this point, Player C, who is not in the hand, asks the dealer to check the board again and reconsider his decision.
6. Now, I am waved over to the table. The Dealer is spreading out the cards and the board back to its original positions as they were during the all-in.
7. The Dealer and I are looking at the Board, and see that Player B actually has the best hand with a straight to the King. There is no dispute that the hands of the board and of the players are correct. I notice that none of the board cards or players cards have been mixed with the muck.
8. I award the pot to Player B. Player A is upset. I explain that although the dealer did make an error, "cards speak" and the Player's B duly tabled hand will win the pot despite the dealer's initial miscall.
Player A comes to me to afterwards to "discuss" the ruling. In my explanation, I note that it is in the interest of fairness that the winning hand always be awarded the pot where possible, and that players shouldn't expect to "win" with a second-best hand solely as a result of dealer error. In this case, the cards were clearly retrievable, all hands were tabled because it was an all-in situation, and it was clear who had the winning hand.
Player A's point, however, is that the dealer has already "made his decision", "scooped" the board cards together, and pushed the pot -- basically, it should be too late to award the pot to someone else. He claims he's seen a decision made a casino in a cash game to that effect (which I find a bit hard to believe, but it has been nearly two decades since I've been in the pit in a cash game so I could be wrong). He also feels it is a bit unfair because Player C who was not in the hand pointed out the mistake.
So here are my questions (some are a bit theoretical l in nature, but for completeness I'll include them here):
1. Was the ruling that Player B's hand should win correct? Are the relevant rules 10, 11, 18 and 19?
2. Do you think that the decision would be different if the board and player's cards were all turned over, mixed together face-up, but not yet mixed into the muck? (assume that the losing hand was still on the table, and possible to reconstruct the hands of the all-in)
3. Do you think that the decision would be different if Player B's cards were turned over after (incorrectly) ruling that A's hand wins, and placed on top of the muck before pushing Player A the pot (and at that point C asks dealer to reconsider)?
4. Do you think that the decision would have been different if all the board and player's cards were turned over, mixed together with the muck, but before the riffle to start the next hand, C says: "Hey, didn't you (Player B) have a Jack, you would have had a straight!"
5. Although this wouldn't probably be contemplated by the Rules, in theory, do you think it makes a difference if (a) Player B was also the dealer? or (b) Player C was an off-duty TD?
6. Would the decision have been different if it was a cash game, assuming both players were all-in and chose to table their hands?
Thanks in advance!