I am fascinated by the idea that the players are
entitled to expect the pot, though. For some reason, if the dealer puts out a river card that pairs the board and the flopped nut flush loses, no one considers it an injustice or expects the house to make it up. Seems to me that discovery of a fouled deck is a random misfortune that, though involving a mistake somewhere, doesn't systematically disadvantage a player any more than the river card. Just randomness.
I mean, if we could go back in time and make the erroneous A
disappear, one of them wouldn't get the same hand. They might even get a low spade instead and go broke on the same flop. (Or all the cards might change their order....) So what right do they have to be aggrieved? 50-50 it was only the error that let them
think they had a valid nut flush in the first place.
Discuss.