Classic WSOP
The World Series of Poker is renowned for huge prizepools, legendary figures of the game, and exorbitant partying. On the flipside, however, there are many negatives associated with the annual festival, and one of them is bad dealers.
Inevitably, mistakes occur, often worth eye-watering sums of money
With the sheer amount of tournaments and cash games taking place, many of the dealers need to be trained from scratch and thrown in at the deep end at the last minute. Inevitably, mistakes occur, often worth eye-watering sums of money.
We may have reached a new level thanks to one hand that was recorded in a WSOP event, featuring Lexy Gavin-Mather all-in holding a pair of Sevens and in poor shape against a pair of Tens. A straightforward situation, but what took place next was anything but.
Hell breaks loose
All looks normal as the dealer burns a card and puts out three cards face down for a flop. Then, a seemingly innocuous dispute about another player’s change of chips takes place. The floor steps in, delaying the hand, before we cut back to the action.
Instead of turning the three flop cards over, the dealer slides them into the muck, over the protests from the players. They were not fully mucked, though, and thus were quickly retrieved. The flop comes, with a seven in the window, much to Gavin-Mather’s delight. The rest of the board runs out a safe Jack, Deuce…. Five?? Four cards!
Clearly one of the cards was accidentally taken from the muck pile. As the window card was on the bottom, it would clearly be the Seven. Gavin-Mather, however, appears entirely unconvinced, shouting “wait a second, no no no no no!” when the dealer begins to muck the Seven, forcing him to muck the Jack instead.
A Five and a Six roll off for the rest of the hand, giving Gavin-Mather a double-up. And somehow, the players are fine with this – even the one holding the pocket Tens.
Ethical questions
Now, it may seem unethical to scream that a clearly mucked card which helps you should be in play, because it is. Gavin-Mather, a reasonably well-known player who also coaches and posts videos, probably has some serious explaining to do over such a brazen display of angle-shooting.
Somehow, nobody said a word.
However, which is really worse? Angle-shooting or sitting there and saying nothing while you’re being cheated? If this ever happens to you, by this point the walls should be shaking at the volume you are screaming “FLOOOOOOORRRR!!!” Somehow, nobody said a word.
As the clip went viral, the rest of the blame was mostly placed on the World Series of Poker, as well as the floor for not stepping in. High stakes crusher Patrick Leonard posted:
However, for the final take, and wise advice to dealers who have made a mistake, we will leave it to industry figure and former floor manager, Kat Arnsby:
