The 2007
World Series of Poker was no different than any other year's tournament; it provided me with lots of material for interesting columns. In particular, I was involved in, saw, or heard about several situations and decisions that had to do with exposed and/or flashed holecards.
Most poker rooms have rules that govern exposed cards that contain the following wording:
A card that is flashed by a dealer is treated as an exposed card. A card that is flashed by a player will play. To obtain a ruling on whether a card was exposed and should be replaced, a player should announce that the card was flashed or exposed before looking at it.
If a card is exposed due to dealer error, a player does not have an option to take or reject the card.
An exposed card is easy to deal with, because it generally means the dealer pitched a card that ended up faceup. That card is replaced with another card from the deck. In some cases, an exposed card will force a misdeal. But, a flashed card that doesn't end up faceup can be an entirely different story.
I was involved in a situation during one of the
WSOP no-limit hold'em tournaments that left me in a very precarious position. I was in the No. 9 seat. As the dealer was delivering the second downcard to each player, the card intended for me wobbled slightly. I didn't think twice about it because it didn't seem to me that the card had been flashed at all. But the player sitting next to me in the No. 8 seat immediately said, "That card flashed; it is a facecard." I think most players receiving this card would just turn it faceup. After all, why would an opponent claim to have seen a card when he really hadn't?
I took a quick peek at the card before flipping it over, fully expecting to see a facecard. It wasn't a facecard; in fact, it was as far from a facecard as it could be. It was an ace. What was I supposed to do now? The dealer was waiting for me to turn the card over. I probably could have told the dealer that it wasn't a facecard and continued on, but then I would have been giving away valuable information about my hand.
At this point, I looked at my other card, and as expected, I found another ace! Now, I was in a very interesting situation. I definitely did not want to have a misdeal declared, and it was now obvious that the player did not see a facecard. But I had to somehow convince the dealer that the player didn't see it, without giving away too much information about my hand. I asked the player if he was sure that he saw a facecard. He didn't commit to anything, but said that he was "pretty sure."
I asked the dealer to call the floorperson over to make a decision. The floorperson arrived and after hearing the story from the dealer, he asked the player if he was sure that the card flashed. The player told the floorperson that he was pretty sure that he saw a facecard.
At this point, I decided to take a risk and showed the floorperson my hand. I was willing to give up the information that I did not have a facecard in my hand in order to be able to let the hand play out. I picked up my pocket aces and showed them to the floorperson, and he immediately said, "The hand will play as it is." It was pretty clear to the rest of the table that I had a pocket pair that wasn't jacks, queens, or kings - especially after I raised the pot!
The big blind called my raise and kind of chuckled. It was really a weird situation, almost as if my hand was being played faceup. The big blind said to me before the flop came out, "You must have either aces or deuces."
Of course, I was not happy to see a flop of K-Q-J! The big blind immediately moved all in. It wasn't enough to bust me, but it was a large overbet.
I took a few minutes to process what had happened so far, but for the most part, I was trying to put myself in the other player's shoes. My hand was pretty transparent at this point. The only hand I could call his bet with was aces. And even aces were vulnerable with that flop. His bet made sense. There was only one hand with which I could call, I might fold even that hand. But he also had to be aware that I knew that he knew what I probably had.
I ended up folding after much thought, and the other player showed me Q-J. Had the player next to me not said something about a flashed card, I very likely would have gone broke with my aces. Or, I would have doubled up if the turn or river improved my hand.
I am not sure what the right decision was for the floorperson. I want to lean toward treating it as a flashed card and turning it over. But, that allows players to take shots at altering another player's hand. I can't think of a situation in which it would be incredibly advantageous, but nonetheless it could somehow be abused, if only because some players just like to cause problems!
In the end, I was happy with the decision, even though it cost me chips and possibly changed the outcome of the hand. If you think there is a different way to handle this situation, or think I misread the situation, let me know.
Mike O'Malley is a consultant for www.PartyGaming.com, and can be reached at [email protected]. His website is updated regularly at www.rzitup.com.
