Smiled at Hector who gave us the wrong cards (8)
I believe the answer is:
misdealt
'smiled' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'hector who gave us the wrong cards' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'gave' could be 'dealt' (dealing is a kind of giving) and 'dealt' is present in the answer.
'wrong' could be 'mis' (similar in meaning) and 'mis' is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'at' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for misdealt that I've seen before include "served improperly at table?" , "not properly shared out" , "placed on table inappropriately" .)