Dealer Mistake Leads to $183,000 Loss for WSOP Colossus Runner-Up

A dealer error may have played a major role in the outcome of the $500 Colossus at the World Series of Poker this week. In the first hand of heads-up play, Miles German and Justin Smith were battling for $550,000 and the gold bracelet. German, who sat on the short stack, picked up 8♠8♦ and announced all in for his last 190 million chips. Smith had 585 million chips and looked down at A♠K♥. He made the call for a 400 million-chip pot. He then began packing his bag, apparently in an effort to swing some luck his way and hopefully have his pocket eights hold up. It wasn’t meant to be, though, as Smith rivered a flush, cementing his victory.

However, social media users later realized the dealer mistakenly dealt to the player on the dealer button first, who was German. If the deal had been correct, the hands would have been reversed and German would have won the 400 million-chip pot. That would have brought German almost even with Smith, who would have been left with 415 million. Error Possibly Costs Player A Gold Bracelet.

German collected $367,000 for runner-up and was left considering what might have been. The error could have potentially cost the player from Boca Raton, Florida, $183,000 and a gold bracelet. This marked the biggest cash of German’s career. He now has $405,998 in tournament winnings. Smith topped a field of 16,269 entries and now has $598,996 in tournament winnings.