Eagle eyes on the action
Tuesday marked the end of the 2026 World Series of Poker $500 Colossus event, one of the most popular tournaments on the schedule, as it offers the chance at a huge payday for just a $500 buy-in. Justin Smith celebrated his win last night, shocked that he was able to outlast over 16,000 entries to bank $550,000, nine times more than his total prior tournament earnings.
But poker pro, author, and award-winning podcaster David Lappin pointed something out on social media on Wednesday, something that brings into question whether the winning hand should have ever played out the way it did.
Sharing video of the final hand, Lappin said that “an unfortunate dealer-error changes the course of poker history,” asking readers if they can spot the mistake.
Unlike the misdeal that cost Ricky Landais a shot at a bracelet earlier this month, this possible flub wasn’t as glaring. But it appears that the hole cards were dealt in the wrong order.
I believe these belong to you
On the first hand of the heads-up portion of the tournament, Myles German was on the button in the small blind and Justin Smith was in the big blind. German looked down to find 8s-8d and moved all-in, and Smith, with As-Kh, made the call. The board ran out 4c-Jh-2h-Th-4h, giving Smith a rivered flush and the coveted gold bracelet.
Seemingly unbeknownst to everyone involved, though, the players probably should have had each other’s hole cards. According to TDA rules, “Heads-up, the small blind is the button, is dealt the last card, and acts first pre-flop and last on all other betting rounds.”
But if you watch the video, German, who is the small blind and button, is dealt in first. He receives the first and third hole cards, while Smith gets the second and last hole cards. Everything else is fine, as German acts first pre-flop.
Alternate timeline
If the cards were dealt according to the TDA rules, German would have had the A-K and Smith would have had the 8-8. We don’t know exactly how things would have played out, but it isn’t a stretch to imagine that German would still have shoved with A-K and Smith would have called with his pair. Then, of course, German would have doubled-up.
But who knows? Even though the above is the most likely scenario, there are other possibilities.
Naturally, even if that happened, Smith might still have ended up winning the tournament, so other than the proceedings taking longer, the end result of the event very well may have been the same. But, of course, had German gotten the A-K, maybe he would have gone on to win and received over $200,000 more in prize money.
Poker pro Patrick Leonard, in response to Lappin’s post, commented that while the dealer did make a mistake, it is incumbent upon the floor to spot the error and correct it before, as the TDA calls it, “significant action” occurs.
Image credit: PokerGO.com
The post Did a Dealer Error Win Someone a World Series of Poker Bracelet? appeared first on Poker News Daily.
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