What seat were you in Loni? Does this add up?
Worked it backwards from the three hands in the post, and it's **7-handed**, and the deck was sorted high to low (K down to A within each suit). Every card Dario listed lines up exactly.
Full table, in deal order (small blind gets the first card, button gets the last):
| Seat | Hole cards | |
|------|-----------|---|
| SB | Q♠ 6♣ | |
| BB | J♠ 5♣ | ← his J5 offsuit |
| UTG | 10♠ 4♣ | |
| UTG+1 | 9♠ 3♣ | |
| HJ | 8♠ 2♣ | |
| CO | A♣ 7♠ | ← his A7 offsuit |
| BTN | K♠ 6♠ | ← his K6 suited |
Board: 2♠ 3♠ 4♠ · K♥ · J♥ (the "2♠ 3♠ 4♠ plus a King and a Jack")
All four data points hit at once: BB J5o, CO A7o, BTN K6s, and the exact board including the turn and river. Four independent matches landing together isn't luck, it's confirmation the deck was ordered, not shuffled.
Here's why it works. In a pitch deal everyone gets one card per pass, so with 7 players each person's two cards sit exactly 7 apart in the deck. Read the sorted deck off the top and it runs:
6♣ 5♣ 4♣ 3♣ 2♣ A♣ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠ 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ ...
First pass deals the first seven (6♣ through K♠), second pass deals the next seven (Q♠ through 6♠). Pair them up and each seat is the previous seat bumped down one card.
We worked it backwards from the three hands in the post, and it's **7-handed**, and the deck was sorted high to low (K down to A within each suit). Every card Dario listed lines up exactly.
Full table, in deal order (small blind gets the first card, button gets the last):
| Seat | Hole cards | |
|------|-----------|---|
| SB | Q♠ 6♣ | |
| BB | J♠ 5♣ | ← his J5 offsuit |
| UTG | 10♠ 4♣ | |
| UTG+1 | 9♠ 3♣ | |
| HJ | 8♠ 2♣ | |
| CO | A♣ 7♠ | ← his A7 offsuit |
| BTN | K♠ 6♠ | ← his K6 suited |
Board: 2♠ 3♠ 4♠ · K♥ · J♥ (the "2♠ 3♠ 4♠ plus a King and a Jack")
All four data points hit at once: BB J5o, CO A7o, BTN K6s, and the exact board including the turn and river. Four independent matches landing together isn't luck, it's confirmation the deck was ordered, not shuffled.
Here's why it works. In a pitch deal everyone gets one card per pass, so with 7 players each person's two cards sit exactly 7 apart in the deck. Read the sorted deck off the top and it runs:
6♣ 5♣ 4♣ 3♣ 2♣ A♣ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠ 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ ...
First pass deals the first seven (6♣ through K♠), second pass deals the next seven (Q♠ through 6♠). Pair them up and each seat is the previous seat bumped down one card. That's the "in order in the deck" thing you spotted.
Neighbors get consecutive cards. J5 is sandwiched between Q6 on one side (SB) and 10-4 on the other (UTG). But the instinct is dead on: a sorted deck means you can read the whole table from a couple of known hands.
Why 7 and not 8 or 9: with 8 or 9 players off a sorted deck, the board comes out as three-plus running cards of a single suit (like 7♥ 8♥ 9♥...) and those seats don't produce J5 / A7 / K6s. The arithmetic only closes at 7, and only if the deck runs high to low. A standard ascending deck (A, 2, 3...) doesn't fit. The giveaway is the cutoff and button: an Ace next to a King on adjacent cards only happens at a suit boundary going downward (the Ace is the bottom of one suit, the King the top of the next). That forces descending order.
One caveat on the "twice" part. For this identical deal to repeat, the deck had to come out in the same order *and* start dealing from the same spot both times, meaning no re-cut between hands (or an identical one). That repeatability is the real proof. A genuine shuffle can't do it. A sort, dealt the same way twice, nails it.
And a correction to what I said last round: I'd figured the hole cards looked too mixed to be a clean sort. Doing the actual math, they're not mixed at all. It's a textbook sorted deck, just dealt 7-handed and descending.
🚨 An automatic shuffler at the WSOP deals the exact same hand TWICE IN A ROW??? 🚨
A shocking turn of events, as reported by Dario Sammartino.
If the facts are as described, this has massive implications for game integrity.
Worked it backwards from the three hands in the post, and it's **7-handed**, and the deck was sorted high to low (K down to A within each suit). Every card Dario listed lines up exactly.
Full table, in deal order (small blind gets the first card, button gets the last):
| Seat | Hole cards | |
|------|-----------|---|
| SB | Q♠ 6♣ | |
| BB | J♠ 5♣ | ← his J5 offsuit |
| UTG | 10♠ 4♣ | |
| UTG+1 | 9♠ 3♣ | |
| HJ | 8♠ 2♣ | |
| CO | A♣ 7♠ | ← his A7 offsuit |
| BTN | K♠ 6♠ | ← his K6 suited |
Board: 2♠ 3♠ 4♠ · K♥ · J♥ (the "2♠ 3♠ 4♠ plus a King and a Jack")
All four data points hit at once: BB J5o, CO A7o, BTN K6s, and the exact board including the turn and river. Four independent matches landing together isn't luck, it's confirmation the deck was ordered, not shuffled.
Here's why it works. In a pitch deal everyone gets one card per pass, so with 7 players each person's two cards sit exactly 7 apart in the deck. Read the sorted deck off the top and it runs:
6♣ 5♣ 4♣ 3♣ 2♣ A♣ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠ 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ ...
First pass deals the first seven (6♣ through K♠), second pass deals the next seven (Q♠ through 6♠). Pair them up and each seat is the previous seat bumped down one card. That's the "in order in the deck" thing you spotted.
Neighbors get consecutive cards. J5 is sandwiched between Q6 on one side (SB) and 10-4 on the other (UTG). But the instinct is dead on: a sorted deck means you can read the whole table from a couple of known hands.
Why 7 and not 8 or 9: with 8 or 9 players off a sorted deck, the board comes out as three-plus running cards of a single suit (like 7♥ 8♥ 9♥...) and those seats don't produce J5 / A7 / K6s. The arithmetic only closes at 7, and only if the deck runs high to low. A standard ascending deck (A, 2, 3...) doesn't fit. The giveaway is the cutoff and button: an Ace next to a King on adjacent cards only happens at a suit boundary going downward (the Ace is the bottom of one suit, the King the top of the next). That forces descending order.
One caveat on the "twice" part. For this identical deal to repeat, the deck had to come out in the same order *and* start dealing from the same spot both times, meaning no re-cut between hands (or an identical one). That repeatability is the real proof. A genuine shuffle can't do it. A sort, dealt the same way twice, nails it.