The strangest moments in poker rarely involve the cards. Ask professionals what they've witnessed at the table and you get stolen last longer money, a player calling an all-in with a single card, a dealer miming sleep mid-hand, and a glass eye dropped into a pot. Here are seven of the best, told by the players who were there.
Most of them come from the live circuit, and almost all of them end the same way: with the floor being called.
The Player Who Stole the Last Longer Bets
Former Irish Open champion Neil Channing once watched a furious man turn polite in a matter of seconds. The reason became clear about a minute later.
"I was in a one table satellite. A guy was getting a penalty from the floor. He went mad and was massively abusive," said Channing. "The floor man said if he didn't calm down, he would be disqualified. This made the man even angrier.
“He then was told if he didn't calm down he would be barred from the Rio. Security were called, and a crowd gathered, but it was late at night, and less than 30 people were still around.
“Then suddenly he changed and went all meek and mild. He accepted the decision and said he'd leave quietly. It was a pretty sudden transformation.
“He walked away...
“Then somebody noticed he'd stolen the $1,800 in last longer bets and was chased up the hallway. Fortunately, he was caught by the door.”
The Player Who Called an All-In Holding One Card
Some of the oddest moments in live poker come down to a floor ruling. WSOP bracelet winner Jackie Glazier saw one that left an entire table baffled.
"The strangest thing I've ever seen at a poker table was during a WSOP Main Event. It was 2013, late on Day 2. A player, who hadn't played a hand for over 2hrs, open-shoved from middle position for 20bb. Play folded around to the button who snap-called, I folded my small blind and the big blind folded, as well.
"The dealer announced, "All-in and call", and with action complete asked the two players to turn over their cards. The all-in player turned over ace-jack suited. The player on the button looked at the dealer and stated he still required another card. He had made the call holding only one card (even with action to follow behind his call).
“He turned over a queen. The floor was called, and the all-in player argued that the button's hand should be dead as all the action had been completed, and he was not holding two cards.
“The floor ruled the player was to be dealt the card off the top of the deck, which was the card he would have been given anyway. The card was dealt, and the button turned over an ace, for ace-queen.
“He consequently won the hand and knocked the other player out who left the table shaking his head while the rest of the players at the table just sat there looking baffled. I'm not sure whether the ruling was correct or not, but I am even more confused about the risk calling holding a single card that wasn't even an ace!”
The Muck That Got Turned Face Up
Dealers have their moments too. Matthew Pitt, then UK editor at PokerNews, watched one small slip turn into a ruling nobody at the table had seen before.
“I was at EPT Deauville one season. We were playing full ring, but the pot was heads-up on the flop. The dealer was fiddling about with the muck when they accidentally flipped over. One of the players noticed, and the floor was called.
“The ruling was that the entire muck had to be exposed to both players so there was the flop out there and 14 mucked cards on their backs.”
The Dealer Who Mimed Falling Asleep
Satellite play rewards patience, and not every dealer has the patience to sit through it. Dominik Nitsche found that out, also at EPT Deauville.
“I remember playing a satellite to the High Roller tournament at EPT Deauville. The proper strategy in a satellite dictates that you take your time making decisions.
“The dealer didn't take too kindly to my acting and put her hands on her head and acted like she was sleeping while it was my turn. I have never seen anything like it in eight years of playing poker.”
What do they put into the macaroons in Deauville?
The Player Who Kept Nodding Off Mid-Hand
Nitsche's dealer was only pretending. Sofia Lovgren sat with somebody doing it for real, in the sort of late-night Bellagio cash game that puts the room on every list of the best places to play poker in Vegas.
“One late night, when I was playing cash games in the Bellagio last Autumn, there was a poker player who couldn't stop himself from falling asleep at my table. Every time it was his turn to act, they had to wake him up.
“Then he suddenly fell asleep when he was in the middle of a pot. He woke up with a quick motion and proclaimed without looking at the hand or board "UUHM CHECK", and at that point the dealer said, “You either stay awake, or you leave the table.”
“We decided to buy him a coffee!”
The Set of Kings That Got Slow-Played to Death
"Degen" gets thrown around loosely in poker lingo. This story from the old Aviation Club de France on the Champs-Élysées earns the word, and it ends with one of the more unusual floor decisions on this list. Here's Sam Razavi:
“About eight years ago when the Aviation Club de France (ACF) was still thriving on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. I was playing a fairly friendly €1/€3 game and a local guy they called "The Eskimo" sat down. He routinely made it €40 pre with any two, then called a three-bet of virtually any amount with any two.
“Anyway, an hour or so after he sits down, he makes his standard €40 open, then gets three-bet to €160. He calls. The flop is K56, and both players check. The turn is a brick, and they both check for a second time. The river is an eight. Now this guy fires out €200. Eskimo makes it €500; then the other guy says something in French to the Eskimo. They talk to the dealer, who calls the floor, and the long and short of it is this other guy had said to the Eskimo, “Do you want to bring more money to the table?"
“Apparently the floor allowed them to bring more money to the table that would go into play in the middle of this hand! Something I have never seen before, and something I'm pretty sure isn't allowed as standard.
“Anyhow this guy excitedly pulls out around €3k while Eskimo pulls out what looks like around €2k. So now this other guy announces, "Mille", which I recognise to mean, "a thousand". This guy is so confident of his hand that I can't believe Eskimo even agreed to reload.
“Eskimo kind of shrugs his shoulders and says, "All-In"; to which the other guy starts swearing in French and saying something along the lines of, "He has a straight!".
“Anyway, he quickly calls, Eskimo flips over 7-4 off-suit for the straight and this other guy slams over in disgust a set of kings, which he has slow played to the death.
"He gathers his things and leaves. Eskimo looks around. I chuckle, and he simply shrugs his shoulders again, almost oblivious to what had just happened."
The Glass Eye in the Middle of the Pot
We'll leave the last one with the man who started the list. Neil Channing's story involves Keith Lehr, and Keith took the phrase "all-in" more literally than anyone at the table was expecting.
"Keith Lehr was playing $10/$20 NLH at The Bellagio. He went all-in. The guy asked him if that was all-in, and if he had any other money? Keith confirmed he was all-in.
“The guy sort of said, "All right, I was only asking,” and Keith sort of said, "Well, I said I was all-in FFS, what did you think I meant?" The other guy sort of said, "Well, I was just checking that was it, and you were all-in".
"Keith puts his fingers up to his eye, pulls his glass eyeball out of its socket and places it into the pot.
“That’s it. It’s the lot. I am definitely all-in,” he said.”
Seven stories, and not one of them turns on the cards.
Key Takeaways
- The strangest moments in live poker come from rulings and behaviour, not from the hands themselves.
- The floor's word settles it. The exposed muck at EPT Deauville and the single-card call at the WSOP were both resolved by a decision the table had to live with, whether or not it agreed.
- Table etiquette gets policed socially as well as formally. Nitsche's dealer mimed sleep at a slow decision, and Lovgren's table woke a sleeping player hand after hand before the dealer stepped in.
- Slow playing a monster carries real risk. Razavi watched a set of kings lose to 7-4 off-suit after a mid-hand reload that shouldn't normally have been allowed.
