All-in and a pause
Between the alleged chip dumping scandal during the Millionaire Maker event and the start of the Main Event, another minor controversy at the World Series of Poker caught the attention of the poker community over the weekend.
Poker pro, coach, and vlogger Lexi Gavin-Mather uploaded a video to YouTube showcasing her day playing the $300 buy-in Gladiator event at the WSOP. One bizarre hand caught the attention of the pokersphere and has since gone viral and attracted loads of opinions from every direction.
In the video shot from her first-person point of view, Gavin-Mather was all-in with pocket Sevens against a man with pocket Tens. The dealer burned a card then dealt the three flop cards face down on top of each other, as is normal. Before the dealer had a chance to turn them face up, though, there was a brief interruption, as a player had a question about chips, change, a color-up, or something to that effect.
Four-card flop?
A floor manager was present and took care of whatever it was that needed taking care of. After a cut in the video, play resumed, and Gavin-Mather asked to finally see the flop. For some reason, though, the dealer took the still-face down cards and put them in the muck (possibly because another player pointed to them and the dealer thought they were supposed to start over or something, who knows).
Multiple players, including Gavin-Mather, immediately corrected the dealer, who retrieved the cards from the muck, turned them over, and spread them.
That was odd enough, but then it got even weirder. A Seven appeared in the window, which was fantastic for Gavin-Mather, but there were four cards on the flop instead of three. The dealer proceeded to take the Seven and put it in the muck, thinking that was an extra card that shouldn’t have been there.
Gavin-Mather quickly said, “Wait a second! No, no, no, no,” and then got the dealer to bring the Seven back to the board and remove a Jack from the other end of the flop. The turn and river were dealt and Gavin-Mather doubled-up. She also needed to help the dealer count chips, but in the end, everybody at the table seemed to be fine with the result.
The wrong card was mucked
Where the hand became controversial was upon further inspection, as the video was spread on social media. While it is generally permissible for the dealer to retrieve cards from the muck if they are clearly identifiable, they obviously pulled one too many from the pile. And if you watch the video carefully, it is apparent that the Seven came from the muck and was not part of the original flop.
Thus, as poor of a job as the dealer did, they were correct in wanting to put the Seven back into the muck, only for Gavin-Mather to convince them that the Jack was the one that should be tossed.
Many people criticized Gavin-Mather on social media, saying that she manipulated a clearly inexperienced dealer so that she could win the hand. Others, while acknowledging the whole thing was messed up, believed that she didn’t realize in the moment that she was incorrect. After all, why would she post damning video if she knew she was wrong? Regardless of the side someone was on, everyone agreed that the floor should have taken control, especially since they were right there at the table.
For her part, Gavin-Mather has admitted that after rewatching the video, she was wrong and the Seven should not have been part of the flop. She doesn’t know who her opponent was, but has offered to buy him into the same tournament next year or pay $300 toward their next WSOP tournament.
Image credit: PokerGO.com