How to handle unnecessary whitespace leading to widows/orphans?

How to handle unnecessary whitespace leading to widows/orphans?

I'm working on my paper using TexMaker and this is what's happening:

I'm getting unnecessary whitespace before paragraph 'B'. As a result of
the unnecessary whitespace I have a widow/orphan of an equation reference
at the start of the next page. I'm pretty much at my wits end wondering
what is the problem here.
Here is the LaTeX code for the paragraph and the corresponding equation
section:
\subsection{Computing Tester/Developer Payoffs}
\label{subsec:payoffs}
In a security game defenders may employ mixed strategies i.e., selecting a
particular action with some probability as opposed to a deterministic
choice. This distribution decreases predictability of choice of
actions that may be exploited by an adversary. For our testing game we
refer to the set of distributions as a \textit{coverage vector}, $C$
that gives the probability, $c_t$, that a particular test suite $t$,
covering a particular requirement will be executed. We then compute
the expected payoffs for the testers and developers as shown in
Equations~\eqref{eqn:tC-EU} through ~\eqref{eqn:attack-set}
\begin{IEEEeqnarray}{c}
\label{eqn:tC-EU} U_\tester(t,C) = c_t \cdot \testercovered +
(1-c_t)\cdot \testeruncovered \\
\label{eqn:CA-EU} U_\tester(C,\reqvector) = \sum_{t \in T} \attackprob
\cdot (c_t \cdot \testercovered + (1-c_t)\cdot \testeruncovered) \\
\label{eqn:attack-set} \Gamma (C) = \{t:U_\dev(t,C) \geq
U_\dev(t',C)\, \forall t' \in T\}
\end{IEEEeqnarray}
%...remaining text
There is nothing out of the ordinary in the code IMO. Why does this happen
and how should I fix it (whitespace + widow/orphan)? This abruptly started
happening after editing the paper. I'm guessing it's something to do with
auto layout of LaTeX and not really something in the code.
PS: If it's of any use, here's the code for the table in the screenshot
above:
{\begin{table*}[!t]
\caption{Compact representation of game showing tester and developer
utilities}
\label{table:game}
\renewcommand\arraystretch{1.5}
\begin{tabular}{*{11}{|c}|}
\cline{2-11}
\multicolumn{1}{c|}{}& \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Requirement 1} &
\multicolumn{2}{c|}{Requirement 2} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Requirement 3} &
\multicolumn{2}{c|}{Requirement 4} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Requirement 5}\\
\cline{2-11}
\multicolumn{1}{c|}{}& Covered & Uncovered & Covered &
Uncovered & Covered & Uncovered & Covered &
Uncovered & Covered & Uncovered \\ \hline
Tester's utility & 2 & -10 & 7 & -4
& 6 & -1 & 9 & -9
& 9 & -9 \\ \hline
Developer's utility & -7 & 4 & -1 & 3
& -6 & 5 & -3 & 7
& -10 & 3 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table*}}