WSOP 2026: Ricky Landais Busts in GGMillion$ After Misdeal

Ricky Landais runs into a brutal WSOP misdeal

WSOP 2026 delivered one of those live-poker moments that players remember for years, and not for the right reasons. Ricky Landais was eliminated from Event #11, the $10,000 GGMillion$ High Roller No-Limit Hold’em, after a dealer mistake turned a crucial all-in hand into a rules controversy.

At the time, just 22 players remained. That meant the tournament was deep enough for every chip to matter, every pay jump to carry real weight, and every all-in to have major ICM implications. Landais was one of the shorter stacks, but he still had a legitimate path to a much bigger score and a shot at the $1,089,964 top prize.

The pre-flop all-in: A-K versus A-9

Landais picked up A-K and moved all-in pre-flop in an effort to stay alive. Bobby James had already raised and made the call with A-9. On paper, Landais was in strong shape. His hand dominated James’ ace-nine, and in a high roller field where stack preservation is everything, this was exactly the type of spot short stacks are hoping to find.

For viewers, the hand looked straightforward at first. Landais was ahead, the pot was meaningful, and a double-up would have changed the shape of the tournament for him. Instead, the entire hand was derailed by a procedural error before the board could even play out normally.

A four-card flop changes everything

The dealer spread a four-card flop of 6-5-4-K, which is obviously one card too many. In live poker, that is not a small technicality. It creates uncertainty around the burn card structure and forces the floor to apply the tournament rules exactly as written.

The floor was called and ruled that the four cards had to be scrambled, with one card randomly selected to become the next burn card and the remaining three cards used as the flop. In this case, the King was burned, and the hand was replayed with a new flop of 5-6-4.

That ruling may feel harsh if you are the player who benefits from one of the original cards, but the purpose of the rule is simple: maintain fairness and avoid subjective decisions. A dealer error cannot be solved by guessing which card “should have counted” based on the outcome the players want.

Why the WSOP ruling was correct

This was the right application of the WSOP rulebook. Section VII, rule #167 states that if the flop contains too many cards, it must be re-dealt. The four cards are scrambled, a floor supervisor selects one card at random as the next burn card, and the other three become the flop.

That procedure matters because a burn card had already been used pre-flop. The extra fourth card could not simply be ignored or removed by intuition. The official process ensures that neither player nor dealer can influence the correction after the mistake has already happened.

In other words, the ruling was not about who “deserved” the better board. It was about restoring the hand to a legal state in the only way the rules allow. Even when the result is heartbreaking, live-tournament integrity depends on that consistency.

What the corrected board would have meant for Landais

The painful part for Landais is that the corrected procedure appears to have cost him a very real chance to win the hand. Based on the video, the extra card was the 6, which was peeled off the deck as the fourth card before the flop was turned face up. That means the true flop should have been K-5-4.

If that is the case, then the King should not have been on the flop at all. It should have been the burn card before the turn. Instead, the King was taken out during the misdeal correction, and the subsequent 8 and 7 completed Bobby James’ 9-high straight.

That sequence sent Landais out in 22nd place. In a $10K High Roller, a single pot can be worth far more than the immediate chip swing. It can determine whether a player survives to a final table run or leaves with a min-cash and a story that stings for years.

Landais reacts and the bigger lesson for tournament poker

Landais handled the moment calmly at the table, but later posted on Instagram about how devastated he was. He described the situation as “user error” that cost him a potential bracelet and $1 million, and he made it clear just how hard it was to process.

That reaction is easy to understand. Deep in a WSOP event, players are not just fighting for money. They are chasing legacy, visibility, and the kind of breakout result that can define a career. Losing that opportunity because of a dealer mistake feels especially cruel, even when the floor applies the rules correctly.

Still, this hand is a reminder of a few important truths about live poker:

• Dealer mistakes happen, even at the WSOP.
• The floor must follow the rulebook, not the emotional outcome of the hand.
• Knowing the procedures matters as much as knowing ranges and stack sizes.
• At the high-roller level, technical errors can be worth six or seven figures.

For players, that means staying alert on every street, including the mechanics of the deal itself. For fans, it is another example of why live poker can be so dramatic: a single misdeal can transform a standard all-in into one of the most talked-about hands of the series.

Final take: a harsh but legal elimination

Ricky Landais’ exit from the $10K GGMillion$ High Roller was brutal, but the ruling was the correct one under WSOP rules. The misdeal changed the board, the corrected procedure changed the outcome, and Bobby James’ straight ended Landais’ run in 22nd place.

It is the kind of hand that sparks debate every time it happens, because poker players naturally focus on what “would have” happened. But tournament poker is built on rules, not hindsight. And on this day at WSOP 2026, those rules produced a result that was painful for Landais — yet still fair by the book.

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