Just out of curiosity...I know that dealers and players alike all make mistakes. Usually, they are small and easily fixed. I want to hear about the biggest, baddest, most cringe-worthy mistakes you've seen made by dealers...whether they were fixed or not, or even caught for that matter.

Here's one I saw a few nights ago. A large pot in a 1/2 game. Player A announces all-in without pushing his chips forward. Dealer throws the "All-In" button to him. Player B calls the all-in, and pushes his stack (roughly $120) over the line. Player B wins. Dealer pushes the substantial pot to Player B.

About 2 hands go by, and suddenly, Player B asks the dealer if she had paid him the amount of chips from Player A's stack when he called the all-in. Dealer thinks for a moment, then suddenly realizes that she DIDN'T take $120 from Player A to give to Player B. Dealer calls the Floor over, discusses situation. Floor says they'll check the cameras. End result: Cameras show that the money wasn't taken from Player A, so now he owes Player B around $100. Apparently they couldn't see an exact amount of the bet. So, after a small argument from Player A, he glumly pays out $100, berates the Floor, ridicules the dealer, then angrily leaves.

I think Monopoly has ruined our expectations as a society.




This card has apparently led some people to believe that mistakes don't have to be corrected. This card should be redone to say "Collect $200 but then you have to give it back in 3 turns or go directly to jail".

Seven card stud, jackpot qualifier = Ace's full of tens beaten by four of a kind or better. Must use at least two down cards.
I pushed out a dealer and started dealing, then one of the players told me about a possible jackpot hand that occurred a few hands before I sat down. He said that seat 6 had a straight flush, using two down cards, three up cards, and that he had ace's full of queens, three down cards(rolled-up ace's), two up cards. The dealer said no jackpot because he used three down cards, and they took him at his word and never called the floor over to verify. So I called the floor over and explained the situation. Before I finished the down, the supervisor comes over and tells me to finish the current hand, then suit up both decks, and that there was a jackpot. The players were a little angry that the last dealer didn't really understand the rules. But, they all tipped me, even though I didn't actually deal the jackpot.

Saw the exact same thing in a 1/3 game for ~$400.

Was then sloppily handled between the 2 players by guessing amount involved, was clearly angleshooting/intentional by non-paying player. I have no idea why they didn't go to camera. I just sat there stunned.

I dealt the cards backwards in a $300-$600 draw game. Fortunately it went quickly so the players didn't notice.

The first time I dealt a tournament with antes ...... I collected the antes, tapped the table burned put up a flop and then tried to start the action ....... only nobody had any cards ......

Inconsequential error so not big in that sense.....

Yet I can't really think of anything bigger than not giving any players a hand.

blackjack dealer paid out 3 losing hands in 2 rounds. It was funny.

5 players against the dealer.
dealer 18.
2 players had 19, 2 players had 20, and one player had 17. They all got paid
The very next hand. DEaler had 17. 1 player had 20, 2 players had 18, and 2 players pushed for 17. All players got paid.

it was hilarious.
She didnt realize it until she collected the cards.

Dealer does a burn and flop because she didn't give the utg straddle an option. Floor called and finishes the hand, no biggie...

The very next hand on the turn the board is TTKK and two players are all in, one with a king and one with a ten. Dealer pushes the pot to the K with out dealing the river and kills the board. The king had the ten covered in chips so there was never a count of the stack that the ten had. No one notices until halfway through the next hand. There was a four floor huddle and none of them knew what to do and it had still not been resolved by the time I left and hour and a half later.

I find it hard to believe the player with the 10 didn't realize that the river wasn't dealt.

I would rule action offered and accepted.

Blackjack Dealer didn't understand luckylady bonus.

I was blackjack and somebody hit the suited 20 bonus which is supposed to pay 10-1 dealer paid out 20-1. 20-1 was for a matched pair 20. This happened a couple times not really sure how much she really paid out total.

This thread is exactly what I expected: players refusing to consider protecting themselves at any time.

By the way, the worst mistakes I've seen in this business came from incompetent floor staff and management, not from dealers.

I remember doing this the first time I dealt tournament with antes. I quickly got into the habit of shuffling (or taking it out of the shuffler) then collecting the antes before dealing, then cut/deal.

Greater responsibility does open the possibility err probability of greater risk

A player bet the river and everyone folded to him. He tabled his cards anyhow, and I scooped them up into the muck and paid him the pot. Turns out his hand qualified for a high hand promotion and it was never verified. Luckily, a player at another table got another hand that beat the guy at my table.

Buddy of mine saw a hand where 5 hearts were on the board (Ace being the highest.)
Guy had the King of hearts for the nuts. Other guy had 2 pair but played the flush on the board, dealer chops up the pot!?
table was furious and floor agreed that it was correct and a chop pot, lmao.

Most expensive mistake I've seen a dealer make was prematuring a turn card that cost 1 player $108k, another $81k, and each other player at the table $11.5k apiece (would have hit the bad beat jackpot ldo).

There are dumber mistakes a dealer can make, but prematures are usually the worst (and most preventable).

Charity tournament that hired one of those casino-game-rental companies to provide dealers and run the tourney. So not a casino, but real money was involved, with x% of the prize pool going to the charity.

Dealer burned, flopped just one card, burned, flopped the second card, burned, flopped the third card. Dealer realized he'd done bad. You'd think mass chaos would ensue? No, it was just played out that way.

Then he did it again a few hands later. I think the "dealer" was stoned, no joke.

There is one way that a burn and turn can happen that isn't just carelessness, but the vast majority of prematurely dealt cards come from not knowing or ignore the appropriate dealing procedure (either on an individual basis or a room wide policy to do it wrong).

That reminds me ....wasn;t real big in terms of $ but it was really bizarre to see....

I'm playing in a $4-$8 limit game, and I am dealt a Q5. I fold my hand and tune out to the hand. The dealer puts up a flop and the guy next me starts telling me my cards on the flop. So at first I'm thinking that I must exposed my hand to him and now he is telling me I would have hit the flop. I look up and see a 5 on the flop. Not really interesting ..... but the guy is now getting more vocal and asserive about my cards being on the flop ..... So now he explains ..... when I folded my hand the dealer scooped them up on top of the deck ... he literally meant my cards were the flop.....

So the play is stopped and the floor called ..... guy tells the dealer what happened and I tell the floor that I had the Queen of hearts and if the guy is correct the burn will be the Queen of hearts. Floor flips up the burn .... sure enough Q Hearts.

I think it was the dealers first day, and I had noticed a commotion earlier at another table with this dealer. The Floor sent the dealer home immediately (I later saw the dealer in the room so he wasn't fired).

Don't be so hard on them. Many new/rec players come to the table with the expectation that the dealers know their jobs and will perform the basic tasks correctly. But over time they will learn that their assumption is wrong, and they must watch every dealer move like a hawk in order to protect their interests from dealer screw ups.

I agree with you that a player must watch dealers constantly to protect themselves from dealer errors. Unfortunately, most poker books for beginners fail to emphasize that fact to newcomers, and internet players aren't used to playing an an environment full of dealer errors.

i didn't "see" this one happen, but i had to deal with the aftermath: tourney is playing the last hand before break, the player in seat 6 has folded his hand and left the table. the players in seat 4 and 7 wind up getting all in. the player in seat 7 wins.

when everyone returns from break, the player in seat 6 comes back to a seat with no chips.

upon some investigation, it turns out that when shoving the last pot to seat 7, the dealer included the chips from seat 6.

(of course, the push had gone through during the break, so the dealer who caused the error was no longer at the table, just to make matters even more difficult.)

^ That's a good one.

Not the biggest I've seen but the biggest I've made myself.

25/50 dealers choice. This particular hand was 6-card PLO. Preflop action irrelevant. We get to the flop, 4 players(seats 1,2,7,8), pot is around £1200. Seats 1 and 2 snap-check. I look to the right and seat 8 is checking. I say it's on 'so and so'(seat 7's name), who is dealing with his food that has just arrived. Seat 8, (who is a big time pro and pretty much the host of the game, as in he brings the big players in) say's he's checked.
I say ok(without confirming with seat 7 because I don't want to look like I'm belittling seat 8 by not taking his word) , burn and turn.
Now seat 7 looks around and pipes up, 'whoa I haven't acted on the flop. ****. So now we go through the dance of putting the river out as the turn and reshuffling the turn back in. So action is back on seat 7 with the new turn who bets the pot. Folded to seat 2 who repots.
Seat 7 is now fuming and is muttering obscenities about me. Seat 7, to his credit, defends me and takes the blame, saying he thought he say 7 tap the table. (And he's definitely not the sort to be angling for a free card, this game is small potatoes to him.).
This is no comfort to seat 7 who is still pissed, and he tank calls.
New river comes and completes the flush. Seat 2 shoves for about £7500. Pot is around £16000. Seat 7 is now in complete rage mode and I am dreading what is going to come when he calls and loses.
He tanks for about 5 minutes, then finally calls with a 10-high flush. And wins. Internally I breath a huge sigh of relief. And he throws me an (undeserved)tip.

I've done the same in a big game, heads up I dealt the river backwards. Happened so fast no one noticed

You mean a player hiding his cards and not speaking up when the dealer raps the table?

Almost seems like that should be a dead hand.
You need to protect your hand from more than just the dealer.

Someone elses card or cards could get intermingled with yours, either intentionally or by accident.
Someone could grab your cards and muck them. A gust of wind could blow your cards off the table.

The first time I sat at a poker table it seemed obvious to me that the cards all looked the same on
the back and it would be wise to protect them and pay attention to whats going on when I have a hand.