The Misdeal

This will be a short post even though I am discussing two different topics. 

The first was an interesting "ruling"—if that's what it was—in a tournament.  They had just announced that the blinds were going up next hand.  The dealer had already cut the cards for our next hand and per rule (or is it just a tradition?), we were playing this hand at the old blinds.  The dealer confirmed this.

However, there was a misdeal.  I think he forgot to deal in one of the player for some reason.  Anyway, he had everyone return the cards that had been dealt and he reshuffled them and redealt.  However, the dealer insisted that the blinds were now up for this hand.  Huh?  This hand was the last hand at the old blinds.  It wasn't any of the players' fault that he misdealt it.  Shouldn't we have still have had that last hand at the old blind levels?

A couple of the players, myself included, questioned it but the dealer was adamant that the blinds were now up for this very hand,  It didn't make any sense to me—we were entitled to one last hand at the old blind levels and we didn't get that because of his error.  However, with the dealer insisting and already starting to deal the cards, I decided to let it go and not insist on him calling the floor.  It was early in the tournament, the jump wasn't that much, and I figured we'd get screwed even more (in terms of lost time) by having to wait for a floor person to show up.

So we played the hand at the new blind level.

But does anyone know the rule for this?  And regardless of the actual rule, do you think this is right?  Again, it wasn't a big deal so early in the tournament but it it had happened later in the tournament, when the blind jumps would be big, it might have had considerable impact.

Ok, now we turn to a brief cash game session at MGM.

From the small blind, I completed with Queen-10 off.  It was 6-way. The flop was King-10-10.  I bet $5 and only had one caller.  The turn was a blank and I bet $10, he called.  The river was another blank I bet $15, this time he raised to $30.  Shit, did he have a boat?  I just called.  He showed King-3 (there was no 3 on the board, he just had top pair, terrible kicker).  Thank you, sir.

After a few limps, I limped in with pocket 9's.  I flopped a set with two hearts on the board.  I considered slow playing it because the Pyramid promo that week included 9's full.  I just needed the board to pair—the right pair, anyway—and I'd win some promo money.  But I couldn't give free cards with the hearts out there.  I bet $6 and had two callers.  Blank on the turn and I bet $15, one call.  The river was a blank and was not a heart.  I was grabbing chips to bet and the guy mucked before I even bet.  So pretty sure he was on a heart draw.

Then, in early position, I had pocket 5's.  I was trying to avoid open limping, so I raised to $6.  It was 4-way.  The flop was fairly low but no 5. I decided to c-bet $20.  There was one call.  It checked the rest of the way and I took it with my unimproved 5's.  The other guy had Ace-4 (there was a 4 on the flop).

I had pocket Aces and there were two limpers in front of me so I made it $12.  It was three-way. The flop was nice, Ace-high, rainbow.  I bet $20.  One call.  I bet $35 on a blank, and took it. 

I ended up leaving that session up $80.  Not the most memorable session to be sure, but a win's a win.