Live poker is rigged, too

These vignettes from the Goldstrike last night:

In the tournament, a lady and another guy were all in pre-flop. The lady had Q-Q and the guy had 10-10. The guy flopped a 10, but the turn was a queen. A classic case of suck and re-suck the card gods giveth and the card gods taketh away. Three hands later, the two are all in again! This time the lady has K-K and the guy has 9-9. The flop included a 9 to give the guy a set. Guess what came on the turn? Yep, a king. If played online, the conspiracy theory whining would be heard.

I took a bad beat in the tournament (all in and A-Q < A-J). The next hand a short stack went all-in for 5000. I was on the button and went all in myself with A-J. The big blind called (I had him covered). The shortstack turned over Q-9, no surprise as he needed a double-up and even picking up the blinds and antes would be good for him. We were shocked, however, to see the BB turn over 9-7 off-suit! Huh?? Naturally he hit a 7 on the river to win. The shortstack asked him why he called for his tournament life with 9-7 and he turned and pointed behind him where two guys were standing, and said "I was trying to bust. My buddies want to go eat." Ooookaaaaay. Whatever.

On the hand I busted out of the tournament with, the dealer dealt to me, then said to turn the card over. He claimed it had floated (I didn't notice it, but I'm sure it did if he said so). I turned over a big fat ♥A. He used that as a burn card. I was shortstacked now and went all in and was called. The other guy beat me, but if I had been able to keep the ace, I would have won. Some night stuff happens.

I then moved to the Omaha-8 game. I've played at Tunica almost every weekend for five years, so I've seen just about everything. After about three hours of play, a new one (to me) happened.

I was dealt ♥A ♥3, ♠A ♠5. It was a kill post, so the minimum bet pre-flop was $6. The betting was raised and re-raised until it was capped. That means five of us put in $30 each before we'd seen anything but our own two cards and the pot was already $150, minus $4 rake and $1 for the badbeat jackpot. That's Omaha-ha.

The flop was J-10-7 with one heart. I don't remember the betting, but I stayed in. Now, the dealer dealt the ♥4 which gives me a draw to the nut flush, and there was no qualifying low so far. Everyone checked. But something strange happened. The dealer called for the floor. When the floor arrived, he explained that he had burned too many cards and the actual turn card was supposed to be the ♥K and the river would have been the ♥4. I'm not sure how this happened, but it meant I would scoop the whole pot, s-w-e-e-t!

Whoa, not so fast.

The floor first said that the ♥K would stand, but she couldn't let the ♥4 be the river. She said that everyone would know the river and that wouldn't work (I am paraphrasing here). Finally, she ruled that all the cards after the flop would come back (including the ♥K) and ordered the dealer to shuffle what was left of the deck and replay the turn.

One of the players began to argue loudly when they took the king away (it turns out he had A-Q for the nut straight). The last two cards were redealt, and a measly three of a kind won the pot. Now the guy really got loud saying how he has been screwed. I didn't say anything (no point, actually, it wouldn't do any good), but he wasn't screwed. He wouldn't have won the pot, but, of course, he didn't even realize this.

After that, I racked up my chips and left; sometimes it's not your night.