What’s the proper way to check the muck when a player says that there’s a card on the board that they also had in their hand?

Generally, you don't. The player is wrong 99.99 % of the time.

But if the player is adamant, you call the floor over, let the hand play out to completion but don't push the pot yet, and then let the floor do it privately without letting any players see what's in the muck. Then you carefully monitor the shuffler when you put that deck in and make sure it green lights.

If by some miracle the player is right, then the hand is voided and all money is returned to players. Reconstruct the betting as needed.

If you call the floor on a situation like that and you're wrong, is there any penalty? That sounds like a colossal waste of time lol

Not unless the floor is an ass, or you're an idiot. It's literally their job.

Not worried about wasting the floors time, I'm thinking of the other players. A 5-10 min delay is a big deal especially if the person doing it problematic in general, although I guess that would fall under them being an idiot.

A dealer's job is to deal and run the game, everything thing else is the responsibility of the floor. This doesn't mean the dealer vacates all responsibility and can't make any decisions. However, the moment they get pushback, calling the floor is _always_ the next step.

As to problematic players, again that is at the very heart of the floor's job, not the dealers.

There's only one situation where that might result in a 5-10 minute delay: When you are correct and there is a foul deck.

The one time I've seen a player raise that issue, what happened was exactly what dinesh described. Floor came over, confirmed the card with player and dealer and then waited for the hand to play out. After that he looked through the muck and asked the player if he was sure it wasn't X of another suit. Player apologized and play went on.

While I agree that technically the muck should be reviewed by the Floor's eyes only I would anticipate the Floor/Dealer just fanning out the muck for all to see. The hand is over and nothing will change unless there actually is a problem. The cards remain over the table in both camera and Player view .. issue resolved.

Certainly the Floor will give the eye roll and explain that the shuffler (probably) checks the deck each shuffle. The Floor should stick around while the deck gets shuffled and then walk away.

While this is backwards from a probability standpoint, I think the majority of the double card events that I've seen/heard about came to light when both cards hit the Board, not when they were split. I've never run across one that was caught at Showdown with both Players holding a matching card. GL

After the hand is over quickly tell the dealer you're pretty sure you just folded the x of x (while pointing to it on the flop) and ask her to quickly check the muck before scooping the flop which should only take 5 seconds so she may or may not decide to alert a supervisor.

The dealer can never dig through the muck, full stop. Had a situation today where a player had called a complete in Stud and then the dealer mucked his up card. Everyone knew what it was and where it was, but dealer knew to call the floor. Floor came by and retrieved the card - took all of 20 seconds

The dealer ever going into the muck without the floor just makes me cringe.

If it is something serious enough like a fouled deck the floor should always be called. Even if the player is 100% correct, the deck is messed up enough to get the floor involved. The dealers should never be correcting things like fouled decks.

Floorman are employed for reasons just like this.

Dealer I encountered was looking at players' hands after they folded or after the completion of the hand somehow, and would sometimes openly comment on what was folded or who had what. He was terribly cringe. So glad he no longer works at a certain card room

I guess he shouldn't work at all because he can't keep his eyes off of cards in the muck.

That behavior should be and probably was disciplined - from a reprimand up to dismissal.

But then I knew a dealer that had 1-2 burn-and-turns a down and kept his job for over a year, so ...

Massive no-no for a casino Dealer to peek at any cards or rabbit hunt. I'm around a few who are very creative and fluid in how they muck the stub that they will give the Players a potential view.

Typically a lot of the Dealers in charity rooms or home games are also Players and while they are professional in their trade can adapt to the tone of the table when it comes to that behavior. Some Players even prompt the Dealer to look at folded/mucked holdings in an effort to let them know why they tanked or to let them know how big of a draw they missed for them. GL