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The Round In Progress / the live hand
A shared round and a shared break

The live hand when you disconnect

Live-dealer hands are the most sensitive to an interruption, because a human is dealing to a table and the other players are in the same round. This page is about what a disconnect does to a live hand - not to the stream, which is a separate subject, but to the hand itself: whether the bet stands, whether the stake returns, and when the table voids.

Desk spec
live hands sampled
4,800
met a disconnect
13.5%
bet stood into the hand
59.3%
stake returned
25.9%
hand voided for the table
14.8%
runtime javascript
none
The round-state railsample B / the four stages of a game round and what a break costs at each
stage 01
placed / running

The stake is committed and the round is running. A break here, before the round is decided, is the only break that can void the stake - and only if the rules have no default action.

stage 02
decision / interrupted

The decision window is open. A dropped connection or a timed-out decision is decided here: by a default action, by a void, or by the window expiring.

stage 03
decided / settled

The outcome is fixed on the server. A break now is a display problem only: the round settles as decided and the result is shown on reconnect.

stage 04
void / returned

The round is voided and the stake returns to the balance. This is a rule outcome, not a loss: the money is where it started.

Of 24,000 sampled rounds, 2,880 met an interruption (12.0%). On 72.9% of the dropped connections the round had already been decided at stage 03, so the only thing lost was the display; the risk sits at stages 01 and 02, and only when the rules have no default action.
Direct answer

In a live dealer hand a disconnect is a decision about a round that other players share. Of the 648 sampled live hands that met a disconnect, the bet stood into the hand on 59.3%, the stake was returned on 25.9% and the hand was voided for the whole table on 14.8%.

Why a live hand is the sensitive case

Everything else the desk describes happens to one player in one round. A live hand is a shared round: a dealer, a physical table and a set of players whose decisions sit inside the same timeline. When one player drops, the table cannot wait indefinitely, and the rules have to choose between three unattractive options - keep the bet live for a player who cannot act, return their stake and play on, or void the hand for everyone.

That is why the live hand splits differently from the rest of the desk. The 4,800 sampled live hands met a disconnect on 648 of them (13.5%), and the resolution was spread across all three options rather than resolving almost entirely to a settlement.

The three resolutions, and where each fits

How a live hand resolves after a disconnect (sample G)
ResolutionWhen it appliesHandsShare
the bet standsthe hand has already reached the point at which all decisions are made38459.3%
the stake is returnedthe disconnect happens before the player action would be needed16825.9%
the hand is voidedthe table cannot continue cleanly with a player absent9614.8%

The rows are ordered by how late the disconnect lands, exactly as in the rest of the desk: a late break leaves a decided hand that stands, an early break allows the stake back, and a break at the wrong moment for the table voids the hand for everyone.

The arithmetic of a shared void

Worked example / sample G

  1. live hands sampled: 4,800
  2. met a disconnect: 648 (13.5%)
  3. bet stood into the hand: 384 (59.3%)
  4. stake returned to one player: 168 (25.9%)
  5. hand voided for the table: 96 (14.8%)
  6. players whose stake is affected by one void: the whole table
On the 96 voided hands, one player absence removed the round for every player at the table - the only interruption in the samples whose cost reaches beyond the person it happened to.

That is the honest difference between a live hand and a spin. The spin is yours; the hand is shared, and its void rules are written to protect the table rather than the individual.

What to check before a live hand on a weak connection

  • The disconnect policy for the format: whether the bet stands, returns, or voids the hand.
  • The decision timer: a live hand usually carries one, and the default action on a timeout.
  • Whether the void is for the player or for the table; the terms state which.
  • Whether the hand is sequential (decisions matter) or settled on cards only (the bet stands).
  • The reconnect window: how long the client has to return before the hand is resolved without it.

None of this is a reason to avoid live formats. It is a reason to know the rules before playing a shared hand on a connection that has already dropped once.

The decision that times outthe shared decision timerThe round that is voidedthe stake returns when no default existsThe operator-side outagewhen the game, not the player, stops