Last night at Parx.

Player A comes in and tells the floor in the high limit area that he wants to play Omaha. Floor says the only omaha we have going is 5/5. Player A takes a seat at the 5/5 game.

~15-20 minutes go by, so less than 1 orbit.
Player A gets in a 3 way all in where all the money goes in on the turn, pot is ~$2k. River comes out. Player B says I have a straight and shows it, Player C mucks, Player A says "I have the nut low" and shows his hand. Dealer goes to muck Player A's hand and says, "sir this is high only". Player A puts his hands on his cards and points at the game plaque and says "The plaque says 'Pot Limit Omaha H/L".

Dealer calls the floor.

Ruling?

Other info:
I was not in the game, my friend was at the 10/10 NL game next to it, so I can't comment on very specific details. To my friend's knowledge this was basically the first pot Player A played.
Player A is new to the room it appears. Neither my friend or other regulars recognize Player A.
The game had been running all day prior to his arrival and was playing as PLO High only.
Nobody thinks this an angle, while there is a non 0 chance it is, that thought was never mentioned.

Wow, that's one I haven't heard of. Will be interested to see how this one breaks. I personally say plaque plays, and he gets half pot if his hand is good.

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This is my guess as well. Can't wait to hear how they ruled.

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He does not get half the pot. This is one of those situations where the house is going to eat the loss and pay the player AND CHANGE THE PLAQUE.

(add: unless there are additional facts like PLAYER A specifically asked the staff and was told it was High Only)

This is correct.

Wow, crazy situation!

Strange that no one noticed the incorrect plaque for so long. As far as I know, in Vegas, the plaque is some sort of legal binding - like all games must have a plaque to indicate what it is.

I agree with Psandman for what should happen - player gets half (from the house), other player gets the pot, they fix the sign and set up a procedure to keep this from happening ever again.

I play in a much less formal game and it goes round by round. Sometimes the dealer will forget to switch the card and/or button (the button indicates also if it's high only or high/low). If there is confusion the card is what the game is if there is any sort of action. If no action, then the error is corrected.
If the wrong game went too long, then they just pick it up next hand.

-d

Wrong plaque is not uncommon. Everyone tends to expect the plaque to say what they think it says. I am one of the dealers who frequently catches it ... But some even get by me.

To my knowledge player never asked and when floor arrived, dealer told floor that it was never brought up prior to the outcome of this hand.

In regard to bolded, should the house pay the player A out of pocket half the pot or the amount he lost in the pot?

Assuming the casino wouldnt eat any part of this loss by either compensating the player for half the pot or his losses in the hand, I would give everyone all their bets back from the pot. Everyone at that table sux though. No way I dont call out a wrong plaque within 30 seconds of sitting at a table.

While it is possible that the guy thought 20 minutes went by with no one qualifing for a low, there's also a non-zero chance that the guy decided to angleshoot a big pot. Especially if it is someone who is new to the room.

Yeah, non-zero chance it was an angle, but didn't seem that people thought it was.

As far as 20 minutes and no qualifying low. At omaha that's 5-9 hands, doubt more than that. It could be a combination of, boards with no lows, hands being won before/without a showdown or people having lows that look like a scoop if you think it's H/L.

Example, you play a hand like AJT3 and board runs out, K7894 rainbow and one player shows 4567 and you show your hand, it simply looks like you scooped with the nut straight and second nut low.

I don't think it is way out there for someone to play/watch a PLO high game for 20 minutes under the impression it is H/L and not realize it is High Only.

The above is why I think player should be compensated somehow. If he had been there for 2 hours, hard to argue on his side.

Results:

Floor and floor manager rule in favor of player b scooping the pot.
Part of the reason being that Player A should be paying attention. The dealer admitted he and himself never stated the game was high only.
Player A asks to see on site gaming commission rep, rep admits he doesn't understand what the dispute is about.... and then proceeds to rule in favor of player B scooping.

Crappy situation and result.

I have several times seen a player play PLO for several minutes thinking it was HL when it was High-Only. Usually they figure it out without losing much; but I have at least once seen a player play for >20 min this way, then try to claim half the pot with the nut low, as in OP. But the plaque was correct, and he was simply out of luck when he tried to claim half the pot with the low.
In this case, it's very discouraging that the gaming commission rep couldn't understand; this is pretty basic; and I think the casino clearly was at fault and the player got screwed.

Since he can't lose anything. He shouldn't be able to win anything. I pay him his losses. If smaller pot I might consider giving him amount he would have won just to keep him happy and avoid complaint to gaming. Can't do that for $1k though

If not for the plaque being wrong it's on the player.

Shouldn't all the players and the dealer be paying attention? To the game plaque?

I say give the man half of the pot.

Yikes, if the gaming commission rep doesn't understand what is going on, then what's the point of having one?

Player A deserves half the pot. Casino pays. Lesson learned. In this case, the plaque should be a legally binding contract, IMO.

A far more interesting issue would a player sitting at a table that said Pot Limit Omaha H/L ...... And finding out the game is actually H/L 8b.

So the casino tells the player ‘sorry, bro’ and the guy from Gaming is like ‘whatever, I don’t care’? That’s a pretty easy way for the casino to get out of a situation they are responsible for.

Im sure we have all seen new players occasionally get an expensive lesson at the table, and this would be no different.

The casino should have reimbursed him for the amount that he put into the pot. I don't think this guy really thought it was H/L. He likely noticed the plaque and tried to angle for half. I'm curious what his hand was to see if it was at all possible he was trying to win the high with the backdoor angle for the low.

My guess was there were at least one or two people at the table who saw the plaque but said nothing because they wanted to see this happen or they were thinking of pulling the angle themselves.

My guess is I could write a plaque of pure gibberish leave it on the table for a month and not one player would notice

Guy got robbed. One of the worst rulings I have ever heard of.

Very probable that you get sent to an Omaha game and when you sit down you look at the plaque to see if it is H/L or not rather than ask the dealer. I'm suspicious of everything though by nature.

Whenever I came on as the supervisor (or above) I would check the plaques of all games in progress. It was't that uncommon that I would have to fix one.