Remember the pots the dealer throws away, so the bank check stops blaming them

Starting the next hand with money still in the middle destroys it. The tool asks
first, and says afterwards how much went. Nothing wrote it down, though, so when
the bank check came round at cash-out it saw only that chips were gone:

    $5 more cash than chips in play. Someone has paid for chips they haven't
    been given.

and settle-up told the dealer to fix it before anyone cashed out. Both were
accusing the dealer of a miscount for money the tool itself had removed, at the
dealer's instruction, minutes earlier — the one kind of shortfall that isn't a
mistake, reported as the one kind that is.

Discards are now recorded on the table as they happen (undoably, with the rest
of the Next Hand step), the reconciliation counts them alongside the chips, and
the panel shows a "Taken off the table" line so the number is visible rather
than merely subtracted. A genuine shortfall on top of a discard still reports,
at its true size — the discard accounts for its own $5 and not a cent more.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015bnp7xKUPFFSpwkYNFaPgb

JoshHeaps.Net/Pages/Casino/TexasHoldem.cshtml

@@ -127,6 +127,10 @@
                             <span>Chips in play</span>
                             <span id="bankChipsInPlay"></span>
                         </div>
+                        <div class="bankReconcileRow" id="bankDiscardedRow" hidden>
+                            <span>Taken off the table</span>
+                            <span id="bankDiscarded"></span>
+                        </div>
                         <p id="bankReconcileVerdict" class="bankReconcileVerdict"></p>
                     </div>
 

JoshHeaps.Net/wwwroot/js/casino/holdem/main.js

@@ -387,6 +387,12 @@ document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => {
             : "";
 
         runUndoable(`Next hand — ${where}. Seat the table, then deal.${discarded}`, () => {
+            // Written down as well as announced. The toast is a moment; the bank check
+            // is asked at cash-out, and until now it saw only that the chips were gone
+            // and reported them as missing.
+            if (unresolved > Betting.EPSILON_CHIPS) {
+                state.discarded = Money.round((Number(state.discarded) || 0) + unresolved);
+            }
             HoldemState.startNextHand(state);
         });
     });

JoshHeaps.Net/wwwroot/js/casino/holdem/render.js

@@ -876,8 +876,13 @@ const Render = {
             note.textContent =
                 `${Money.format(plan.shortBy)} of winnings has nothing to pay it — there are more chips on the table than cash was taken for. Fix that above before anyone cashes out.`;
         } else {
-            note.textContent =
-                `${Money.format(plan.overBy)} is owed with nobody to pay it to — more cash was taken than there are chips in play. Fix that above before anyone cashes out.`;
+            // If a pot was thrown away on purpose, that's where the gap went, and the
+            // dealer already answered a dialog about it. Telling them to go and fix it
+            // would be sending them after their own decision.
+            const discarded = Math.max(0, Number(this.state.discarded) || 0);
+            note.textContent = discarded > 0
+                ? `${Money.format(plan.overBy)} is owed with nobody to pay it to. ${Money.format(discarded)} was taken off the table when a hand was abandoned, which accounts for ${discarded >= plan.overBy ? "it" : "some of it"}.`
+                : `${Money.format(plan.overBy)} is owed with nobody to pay it to — more cash was taken than there are chips in play. Fix that above before anyone cashes out.`;
         }
         note.classList.toggle("settleUpOff", !plan.balanced);
     },
@@ -896,9 +901,22 @@ const Render = {
         document.getElementById("bankCashIn").textContent = Money.format(bank.cashIn);
         document.getElementById("bankChipsInPlay").textContent = Money.format(bank.chipsInPlay);
 
+        // An abandoned pot the dealer confirmed throwing away is money that left the
+        // table on purpose. It gets its own line so the two columns still add up in
+        // front of them, rather than looking like a shortfall they have to explain.
+        const discardedRow = document.getElementById("bankDiscardedRow");
+        if (discardedRow) {
+            discardedRow.hidden = !(bank.discarded > 0);
+            if (bank.discarded > 0) {
+                document.getElementById("bankDiscarded").textContent = Money.format(bank.discarded);
+            }
+        }
+
         const verdict = document.getElementById("bankReconcileVerdict");
         if (bank.balanced) {
-            verdict.textContent = "Balanced — the cash covers every chip on the table.";
+            verdict.textContent = bank.discarded > 0
+                ? `Balanced — the cash covers every chip on the table, once the ${Money.format(bank.discarded)} taken off it is counted.`
+                : "Balanced — the cash covers every chip on the table.";
         } else if (bank.difference > 0) {
             verdict.textContent =
                 `${Money.format(bank.difference)} more in chips than cash taken. Someone's rebuy probably wasn't recorded — the box will be short at cash-out.`;

JoshHeaps.Net/wwwroot/js/casino/holdem/state.js

@@ -51,6 +51,9 @@ const HoldemState = {
             notes: "",
             handNumber: 1,
             handHistory: [],
+            // Chips taken off the table on purpose, so the bank check can tell them
+            // apart from chips that have gone missing.
+            discarded: 0,
             smallBlind: 1,
             bigBlind: 2,
             defaultStack: null,
@@ -146,6 +149,7 @@ const HoldemState = {
             if (!parsed || !Array.isArray(parsed.seats)) return this.failedLoad(raw);
             if (typeof parsed.handNumber !== "number" || parsed.handNumber < 1) parsed.handNumber = 1;
             if (!Array.isArray(parsed.handHistory)) parsed.handHistory = [];
+            if (typeof parsed.discarded !== "number" || !(parsed.discarded >= 0)) parsed.discarded = 0;
 
             // Tables saved before live betting existed are missing its fields; fill
             // them in rather than making the dealer reset a table mid-session.
@@ -590,10 +594,19 @@ const HoldemState = {
             0
         );
 
-        const difference = Money.round(chipsInPlay - cashIn);
+        // Chips the dealer deliberately took off the table — an abandoned pot they
+        // were asked about and confirmed. They are gone, so they can't be counted as
+        // in play, but they aren't missing either: the box knows exactly where they
+        // went. Without this the check blamed the tool's own confirmed action on
+        // "someone has paid for chips they haven't been given", which sends a dealer
+        // hunting for a miscount that never happened.
+        const discarded = Math.max(0, Money.round(Number(state.discarded) || 0));
+
+        const difference = Money.round(chipsInPlay + discarded - cashIn);
         return {
             cashIn: Money.round(cashIn),
             chipsInPlay: Money.round(chipsInPlay),
+            discarded,
             difference,
             // Half a cent of float dust isn't a discrepancy worth alarming anyone over.
             balanced: Math.abs(difference) <= Money.EPSILON,

tests/holdem/discardedPot.test.js

@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+// Chips the dealer took off the table on purpose.
+//
+// Starting the next hand with money still in the middle destroys it — the tool asks
+// first and says so afterwards. What it didn't do was remember, so the bank check saw
+// only that chips were gone and reported them as missing.
+const test = require("node:test");
+const assert = require("node:assert");
+const { HoldemState, Money, makeTable } = require("./load");
+
+const table = () => {
+    const state = makeTable({ seatCount: 6, seated: [0, 1, 2, 3], stack: 200 });
+    state.seats.slice(0, 4).forEach(player => { player.buyIns = 200; });
+    return state;
+};
+
+test("a table with nothing thrown away balances as before", () => {
+    const bank = HoldemState.bankReconciliation(table());
+
+    assert.equal(bank.balanced, true);
+    assert.equal(bank.discarded, 0);
+});
+
+test("chips that went missing are still reported", () => {
+    // The check exists for this: cash in the box with no chips to match it.
+    const state = table();
+    state.seats[0].stack = 150;
+
+    const bank = HoldemState.bankReconciliation(state);
+    assert.equal(bank.balanced, false);
+    assert.equal(bank.difference, -50);
+});
+
+test("an abandoned pot is accounted for rather than counted as missing", () => {
+    const state = table();
+    state.seats[1].stack = 199;
+    state.seats[2].stack = 198;
+    state.seats[3].stack = 198;
+    state.discarded = 5;
+
+    const bank = HoldemState.bankReconciliation(state);
+    assert.equal(bank.chipsInPlay, 795);
+    assert.equal(bank.discarded, 5);
+    assert.equal(bank.balanced, true, "the box knows exactly where that $5 went");
+});
+
+test("throwing a pot away doesn't hide a real shortfall underneath it", () => {
+    const state = table();
+    state.seats[1].stack = 199;
+    state.seats[2].stack = 198;
+    state.seats[3].stack = 148;   // $50 genuinely unaccounted for as well
+    state.discarded = 5;
+
+    const bank = HoldemState.bankReconciliation(state);
+    assert.equal(bank.balanced, false);
+    assert.equal(bank.difference, -50);
+});
+
+test("a nonsense discarded value can't move the answer", () => {
+    const state = table();
+    state.discarded = -100;
+    assert.equal(HoldemState.bankReconciliation(state).discarded, 0);
+
+    state.discarded = "not a number";
+    assert.equal(HoldemState.bankReconciliation(state).discarded, 0);
+});
+
+test("a table saved before this existed reads as nothing thrown away", () => {
+    const saved = JSON.stringify(table());
+    const parsed = JSON.parse(saved);
+    delete parsed.discarded;
+
+    const store = new Map([[HoldemState.STORAGE_KEY, JSON.stringify(parsed)]]);
+    globalThis.localStorage = {
+        getItem: key => (store.has(key) ? store.get(key) : null),
+        setItem: (key, value) => store.set(key, value),
+        removeItem: key => store.delete(key),
+    };
+
+    const loaded = HoldemState.load();
+    assert.equal(loaded.discarded, 0);
+    assert.equal(HoldemState.bankReconciliation(loaded).balanced, true);
+    delete globalThis.localStorage;
+});
+
+test("the amounts still add up the way the panel shows them", () => {
+    const state = table();
+    state.seats[1].stack = 199;
+    state.seats[2].stack = 198;
+    state.seats[3].stack = 198;
+    state.discarded = 5;
+
+    const bank = HoldemState.bankReconciliation(state);
+    assert.equal(Money.round(bank.chipsInPlay + bank.discarded), bank.cashIn);
+});