I was in a situation the other day where boxed cards were coming out of the deck on third street. What is the criteria for a misdeal with boxed cards? I didn't have a lot of confidence in the floor's answer.

seems to differ wildly by casino...might not even be a rule anymore.

2 at bellagio i believe

On Third st, two bad cards of any kind (up for down, boxed) should be a misdeal. On the river boxed cards should be treated as non-cards and replaced immediately.

This is a common though not universal house rule, and also good practice.

So, this was at the 20-40 at Foxwoods. I believe that there were two boxed cards on 3rd Street, one on fourth, and one on fifth (but it could've been two on fourth street). According to the floor, if a fifth came out all bets and antes would be returned to all players and the hand would be dead. He was keeping track (in his head) of all of the bets. The boxed cards were killed and not used.

Having played a bunch at FW but way more H than S, the number I thought of immediately is six. That's what it was at one time, but that may not be what it is, and I certainly don't know the justification for it (or five or two or whatever).

I'm more inclined to take this side than the floor at Foxwoods. Two boxed cards in third Street is an easy fix: misdeal, everyone get their antes back and the hand restarts before action begins. Waiting for a fifth card and then deciding to return everyone's bet is crazy.

Are boxed cards really this much of an issue in stud? Why is that the case? I don’t have a lot of live experience and never played stud live but it doesn’t make much sense to me. Is it because of the final face down card that you get dealt inadvertently gets flipped over a relatively high percentage of the time?

A boxed card isn't one that gets flipped, it's one that is in the deck upside down. Supposedly, when shufflemasters were introduced they were supposed to put an end to boxed cards, but that hasn't been the case.

The situation that OP is describing is a really weird one, one that you shouldn't see very often, but wouldn't be limited to stud games.

Boxed cards in stud are a particular nuisance. In games like Razz or Stud8, there are some cards that will be obviously, unambiguously bad for a hand, and as boxed cards come out, if the dealer is dealing mechanically, they will be flipped over to be dealt as upcards, but will be dealt face-down. It won't necessarily be apparent that the card was boxed, it's possible the dealer just flipped the card over inexpertly and it landed face-down. If the player or dealer flips the card over and it's a King, say, in Razz, the player has an obvious angle to shoot: immediately object to being dealt a boxed card and get a new one. If it's a good card, he can just slide it into place and carry on. I've played a lot of live stud and I've seen this exact angle executed, always by the specific guy you'd think would do it.

This is one of those angles that isn't created by the rule, so there's not really anything to be done about it, it just sucks that there's an angle to shoot there.

Thank you.