Poker Dealing Errors

The organisers and dealers will make every effort to ensure that cards are dealt without error. However, misdeals can and do occur, and so the following rules explain how players should act in the event of a poker dealing error.

• A dealing error should be reported as soon as it is noticed. If the error is reported before two players have acted in a hand, a misdeal will be declared and the cards dealt again.

The following conditions are classed as dealing errors:

• Dealing when the button has not been correctly placed.
• Dealing a card to a player face-up.
• Dealing cards in such a manner that two or more of them have been seen.
• Dealing from a deck with two or more boxed cards.
• Dealing the wrong number of cards to one or more players.
• Dealing the initial card to the wrong player
• Dealing cards to a vacant seat.
• Not dealing to a player who should have been dealt.
• If a dealing error is not reported until two or more players have acted, the cards will be played as they stand.

 

Invalid Poker Hands

• Invalid poker hands (otherwise known as "dead" hands) are those which are no longer legible to win the pot.

The following situations render a hand invalid:

• A player announcing that they are folding.
• A player throwing his hand away toward the much. This applies even if the hand was discarded in jest if it causes other players to believe he has folded.
• A player throwing his hand toward another player.
• Having an illegal hole card (such as a joker or rule card) which should have been noted at the outset (see section 6 - Dealing Errors).
• Exceeding a time limit in a time-restricted game.