Quote:
Originally Posted by callipygian
Once the hand is finished you need some kind of ill intent to go back and void a hand.
Imagine if the extra card were not discovered immediately, but two hands later. How late is too late?
This is well established. Once the next hand starts, the previous hand is done and cannot be undone. The next hand starts with the first riffle in a hand shuffled game, and usually when the dealer pushes the button on the machine in a auto shuffled game.
As I read the OP, the error was noticed before the next hand had begun. As such, if the presence of the foreign card is sufficient to invalidate the hand in its entirety, then it is not too late, and the hand in question is undone, and all money is returned to all players. If the presence of the foreign card is not sufficient to invalidate the hand, then it doesn't matter.
But, even if we are certain (at this point) that the foreign card had been there since the last deck change, you cannot invalidate or undue all of the prior hands before the one in question. For all of those hands, you have started the next hand, and they are therefore permanent.
At least, that is my understanding of the rules.
Cheers, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)