Top 5 worst decision by dealers/tournament directors - watch the videos!

This is something new we want to show you - a short article with our very own list of top 5 worst decision by tournament directors or dealers! Some of those are absolutely ridiculous. Which one you find to be the most atrocious - let us know in the comments.

1. Cunning legalized
This has to be one of the most ridiculous rulings and follow ups ever - in live poker moving a substantial amount of chips forward and then moving it back is forbidden. This way player could get a reaction from other person, giving him advantage.

During World Series of Poker in 2008 there was a situation between Cantu and Nikolai Losev, where one tried to use the forbidden move. Players stood united against the cheap-shot and tournament director was called, his ruling will surprise you (but not only the initial one, also the follow up regarding similar question from another player).

Here is the video:


2.All-in, muck, terrible decision that only gets worse
WSOP Main Event in 2012 and the hand between Gaelle Bauman and Andre Koroknai. Second player goes all-in for 1,3mln and thinking there is nobody in the game left - he mucked his hand. However, Gaelle Bauman was still in the game and she was holding pocket kings! But that's not all - the dealer didn't notice she's in the game as well, and mixed Koroknais cards with the rest, so there was no way to retrieve them.

Very hard situation - the general rule is that player is responsible for protecting his own hand and Koroknai threw it away by himself. However, in a all-in situation both hands have to be shown.

The decision made by staff was terrible for Bauman - they said she only gets the 60,000 extra (the all-in from Koroknai was worth 1,300,000!), but her oponnents gets to keep the rest.

But the worst part is - Gaelle Bauman bubbled the WSOP Main Event final table, busting on 10th place. She was eliminated by... yes, Andre Koroknai. Imagine how she felt afterwards.

Video below:


3. End of shot-clock and a call?
This one is just incredible - how the floor made such a horrible decision is hard to believe. Situation happened during WSOP 2010 in a hand between Prahlad Friedman and Maxime Bort.

Hand gets to river, Bort plays all-in and Friedman tanks - floorman comes with a clock and a countdown before his hand is declared dead begins. On the movie you can clearly hear that Friedman called with one second left, however floorman decided that his hand is dead, as he didn't make it in time.

Bort shows his hand after he heard Friedman say "call" and entire table but Friedman (who had worse hand and would lose huge part of his stack) starts to protest. However, the floorman doesn't change his decision.

Watch the hand:


4. All-in that never was an all-in
In a TV show called PartyPoker Premier League a strange hand between Daniel "jungleman12" Cates and Patrik Antonius happened.

Patrik holding ace-king raised, Cates made a string-bet all-in and Patrik instantly called. Vanessa Selbst said it's a string bet and shouldn't be considered as an all-in. Patrik says "i though you are all-in" and Cates confirms that's what he wanted to do. Floorman is called, but he says it's only a raise and a call. Ace falls on the flop and Cates obviously saves a ton of money.

This ruling might have been following the rules, but for sure not the poker etiquette - both players admitted they wanted an all-in situation so it should have been set that way.

The clip:


5. Painful dealers mistake
This situation is kinda similiar to the previously described one - during WSOP Main Event in 2011 JC Tran raise and Estelle Denis holding pocket aces goes all-in, putting all her chips forward. In the same moment dealer grabs her cards and mucks them with the other.

Tournament director tried to retrieve her hand from the muck, but without much success - the decision could only be made one way. JC Tran won the hand and Estelle was forced to forfeit part of her stack, up to the raise amount from JC Tran.



Which one is the worst situation in your opinion?

The Prahlad hand is pretty unreal. He 100% freerolled that call. If he could beat the dudes hand you absolutely know he'd raise hell that he said call before time ran out. Thats complete BS

I think the first and second are essentially the same thing. Losev didn't pump fake on purpose to get a reaction. "For the spirit of the tournament," he shouldn't have been obligated to make the bet. Had the table complained for the woman, the ruling would have been different. Definitely a douche move by Cantu when there was no malicious intent. Patrik's could have been worked out more professionally. Had he asked Jungle what his intentions were preflop, I'm sure he would be honest, problem solved. Prahlad you can't fault him for staying quiet. Anyone in his shoes would do the same. Just bad ruling. My vote is for the 5th vid though. I imagine she's a tourist type player who's being blatantly robbed of her experience.

#1 - I mean I hate when people do that shit but if the rule is when released I think the ruling is fair. Still don't think you should be doing that.

#2 - That's pretty bullshit. Dig the fucking cards out. Basically dude got a get out of jail free card.

#3 - That one is completely on the floor. Clearly said call before the time.went out. I'm with cosmo on this one.

#4 - Textbook example of why I don't like snap decisions. I think the ruling is fair. There was no verbal all-in.

#5 - ouch

i really hope scumbag cantu wins a lot this year. need more dumpers in my games. yum yum

I think the 2nd one was fucking bullshit. How is he not forced to lose his stack.

And the 3rd the call before the clock was pretty atrocious. Obv if it was me i would have stayed quiet as well but lolfloor.

#2 worst bad beat of wsop ever imo because what happened with 2 tables remaining...

#5 makes me a little sick, bringing card protectors to live MTTs for now on.

rules should be rules regardless of intention

1. forward motion doesnt count i guess which is weird.
2. this would fall under the category of your own fault.
3. might be the worse lol. how was there no reverse of the decision or another floor called lol. whole table heard him call and it was on camera.
4. this one is dumb. jungleman put in two fat stacks but never went all in patrick just thought he did and made up shit that he put his whole stack in. also patrick had the option to reraise all in afterwards lol instead he says call when he wanted an all in lmao.
5. ouch? what else could they do? dealers fuck up.

on number 5 - you can see the dealer pull her cards into the middle of the muck not the top so sad for her

On June 17 2016 06:01 JohnnyBologna wrote: rules should be rules regardless of intention 1. forward motion doesnt count i guess which is weird. 2. this would fall under the category of your own fault. 3. might be the worse lol. how was there no reverse of the decision or another floor called lol. whole table heard him call and it was on camera. 4. this one is dumb. jungleman put in two fat stacks but never went all in patrick just thought he did and made up shit that he put his whole stack in. also patrick had the option to reraise all in afterwards lol instead he says call when he wanted an all in lmao. 5. ouch? what else could they do? dealers fuck up.

I strongly disagree, I think that if the intent is very clear that should be more important than rigid rules.

There are amateurs in poker (in fact they are the most important thing that we should protect), they are the ones who make most mistakes and to punish them when there was no malice I think its dumb to enforce a rule, you underestimate how intimidating a poker table can be for an amateur or a first timer.

Ofcourse if some pro does something that could have been an angle shoot then you go by the rules

but then where do we draw the line? a lot of times players will give new comers a break mess up on the trivial shit like blinds or preflop or act out of turn. the rest of times they dont get breaks though and are forced to put in chips they didnt intend to when the dealer tells them the rules or decide not to give them a warning. why? because rules are rules and if someone wants to be an asshole about it they would technically be right.

we have to be as objective as we can to be as fair as we can. otherwise we would have situations like #2 in the videos. if they dont know the rules they should ask. since when does being new everywhere you go get you special treatment?

a situation arised at my local cardroom not too long ago that i think is relevant.

its straight flush vs K high flush 4 spades on the board. pot is like 100 to 200 dollars. straight flush throws a green chip ($25) says all in and jams for 700.

K high says he didnt hear him(across the table) thought he only bet 25 dollars and snap calls. whole table knew he only meant to call 25. floor comes and rules against him. he splashes his stack across the table and leaves.