What's your ruling?

[JK.]

Hi Steve,Have been away,just saw your post.I am interested in the ruling.What did Thomas decide?

[Steve Jones]

Hi John,I'd be interested to hear how a few others, like yourself and Gaz etc, would rule first, if possible.

[JK.]

Hi Steve,With the above information,unless there is something you gorgot to mention,it is a straight forward solution.Once the dealer scooped the cards,the hand was not completed.Neither player managed to finish the race,so there was no winner and there was no loser.If neither player finished the hand,neither of them can claim the pot,even though AK was a huge favourite with one card to come.Lets take another example.In an Olympic Marathon,the favourite has a huge lead from the 2nd placed runner.He can only lose if he falls over and fails to get up again.This is exactly what happens.He falls over and breaks a leg.Believe it or not,the 2nd runner gets a cramp and is unable to finish.So since neither of them finished ,neither claim a prize.Same goes for the poker players.Neither player completed the hand therefore there was no winner and there was no loser.The pot can not be awarded to either player(fairly)so there is only one answer.Split the pot!There is no other possible conclusion.

[Punty]

No there is a much better conclusion.Retrieve the cards (suits dont matter as long as there is no flush opportunity).Shuffle remaining cards and deal a river.That way no player is unfairly advantaged by the dealer error.Pretty simple ruling IMO.

[Steve Jones]

Well it was actually more horrible, because the dealer hadnt even cut down player1s chips, him being obviously well covered by player2, and no one could stop him in time, (natuarally we were all waiting for the outcome on the river) when he just pushed all his chips over to the other player(who immediately mixed them swiftly with his own,he knew what was going on)It was a terrible piece of dealing, but that didnt help Mr.Kremsner.He asked me, incredulously "So no river card? and where's the pot?" I pointed to player2s mass of chips and told him, "somewhere among that lot"After a lot of huffing and puffing, and estimates of how much player1 had had (he never enquired about cctv cameras) he sort of re-constructed the pot, and split it.This caused player2 to storm out of the tourny, for about an hour, leaving his stack to be ante'd off for that period.(You know him JK, a very,very large Armenian chap)I believe he handled it as best he thought,(though some version of punty's post may have been better received by the players)All down to an over-zealous dealer taking shortcuts.

[JK.]

Actually,I like Punty's solution very much.All players cards are exposed so it would be easy to reconstruct the hand.It is a little messy as burn cards are back in play.No matter which way you go someone is not going to like it.

[joethenuts22nd]

no river card ha,your hands are mucked ,players must get there money back ,they have to work out what ccips they had in to there best of remembering if no cameras are available.[holdem has 5 cards on the board,] its a no hand simple as that.