as far as i am aware, once two players have acted a hand cannot be declared foul, so you would be right in asking for a decision…i could see why the floorman would make the decision he did, since we don’t know where the cards would be shuffled into the deck and it could have affected the outcome of the hand, but the correct ruling would have been the one you suggested

According to Robert’s Rules Irregularities 10:

“One or more cards missing from the deck does not invalidate the results of a hand.”

So I agree with you, the hand should have been completed. But then again as the previous answer said, the floor person made a ruling that he thought was in the best interest of the game, and those decisions are final.

Somewhere in the poker room should be a copy of the rules that they enforce.

Probably, in those rules, you are right, and that hand should have been played. (At least in a popular complete rule set make by Bob Ciaffone, although there is room for interpretation.) The floor person was just ruling off the cuff, and there’s not really anything to be done, except in the future ask a floor person to consult the poker rooms rules before coming to some ruling that he just makes up.

However, that being said, he may still make something up in order to avoid overly delaying the game, and probably somewhere either in that same set of rules or on the wall it says: “Decisions made by floor personnel are final.”

??? Yes I agree with you 100% !! the hand must be played, and the 2 cards exposed be show. If 2 or more players acted ( and in your situation…there is) it’s called a “significant action” the hand continues.

Where did you play that tournament? I hope this didn’t bother you too much and I hope you did good in the tournament.