Poker Player Dealt Three Cards, Doesn't Realize Until the River in $5k Tournament
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One of the weirdest hands you'll see all year transpired in the $5,300 buy-in Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship on Saturday night.
Day 1b, which attracted 458 players (431 on Day 1a), ended with 292 of the 889 entrants still standing. Those players will all come back at noon ET on Sunday for Day 2 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, one of the top card rooms in the United States.
Two of the players on the livestream played a monster pot that created controversy when one player discovered he was dealt three cards, but not until the river.
Wild Poker Hand
Niall Costigan raised to 4,500 with A♠K♣ from an early position. Corey Harrison, in the hijack with A♣J♠, called, as did Daniel Cove, who looked down at K♥J♣ in the big blind.
The flop came out 10♠8♣K♠, hitting all three players in some way. Cove checked top pair to Costigan, who bet 5,000 with a superior kicker. Harrison folded his straight draw, but the big blind called to see the 8♦ pair the board on the turn.
Action on the turn began with a check, followed by a 12,000-chip bet and a call. The river was the Q♥, which didn't improve either hand, but it would have given Harrison a straight had he not folded the flop.
Cove, who had just joined the livestream table, checked it back one last time. Costigan then bet 52,000, just over the size of the pot, perhaps targeting the exact hand his opponent held.
The massive bet received a call, and Costigan, who was set to scoop a 153,000-chip pot, began to turn over his winning hand. But the first card he showed as he turned his hand over one-by-one was the A♠, which confused him.
"F**k," Costigan shouted after realizing he had two additional face-down cards.
He explained to the table that he had no idea he had an ace and thought he had pocket kings, which would have made for a full house.
"Wow, he got three cards," a stunned player at the table said.
"I only saw two kings," Costigan announced before slamming his cards down on the table.
What's the Ruling?
Cove sat momentarily in stunned silence, confused about what had happened, as the players at the table pondered how the floor supervisor should rule on the hand.
"I've never seen that happen," veteran tournament grinder Steven "Cuz" Buckner, who was at the table, said.
The floor was called over as a frustrated Costigan told his opponents the ace was "stuck to the bottom."
"I mean, it's none of my business, but there's no way he didn't know he had that card," Brian Green then claimed to his tablemates.
The players all then debated if Costigan knew he had three cards. Most stuck up for him and didn't suspect any foul play. Costigan then explained that he's "never value betting an ace that thin, ever," referring to his polarized river bet that often means the player is bluffing or has a monster hand.
Former PokerNews social media superstar Jesse Fullen, the livestream commentator, was also confused as to how Costigan was unaware that he was dealt three cards. The table went on pause while tournament staff determined a ruling.
"It was literally stuck," Costigan explained to the floor manager. "I peeled it one-by-one, and I was like what the f**k, and then I saw three cards."
The floor manager then announced, "It's a three-card hand, it's a dead hand." Costigan, angry with the ruling, then asked "how is that not just split the pot?"
Costigan argued the pot should be split and that Harrison, who called the preflop raise, should also receive his chips back. Costigan then asked to speak to the supervisor's boss, who was already standing next to the table.
"Based on what he said, that is the correct ruling," the head boss, Jason Heidenthal, told the frustrated poker player.
Costigan wasn't ready to give up and move on. He asked the floor manager why he's being "punished for playing well."
"You get punished for playing a three-card hand," the floor manager responded.
In the end, Cove collected the entire pot, worth over 75 big blinds. He was up to 215,000 chips at the time, late on Day 1b. Costigan was down to 56,000 after losing the controversial hand. He'd go on to bust late in the stream when he jammed all in with A♠Q♦ on a board of 5♦7♦3♦3♥ and received a call from Green, who had 10♦10♣ and would hold up through the river.
The SHRPO Championship is a $3,000,000 guaranteed tournament that reached $4,311,650 in the pot. First place will pay $648,550 on Aug. 12.
The players at the table debated the controversy throughout the final hour of the session. You can watch the crazy hand in the video below (hand begins at 3:49:55 mark).
