Did I make the right ruling?

November 15, 2006 by TheGrinder.

I host a weekly poker tournament and was asked to make a ruling on a few hands over the past few weeks and I was wondering if I made the right decision.

First hand: I wasn’t in the room when it happened so I didn’t see it unfold but from what I was told everything was fine up to the Turn card being put out with only 2 players still in Player A moves all in which covers Player B who immediatly calls and turns over a Full House with the AJ and A A 3 J on the board and Player A thought he was dead so he mucked his cards face down. By my understanding that hand was over right there since his cards were in the muck with the rest of the cards but another player not in the hand had seen his cards so he pulled them back and flipped them showing and Ace saying he still had outs so the dealer burned and turned the River which was a Jack giving him the same full house and wanted to know if he was entiled to half the pot. I ruled that his had was dead and the River card should never have been turned since he had already mucked. Player A was ok with the call since he knows he made the mistake and it was a bad play on his behalf. Was this the right choice or should I have allowed him his winnings since there was no more betting involved.

 Second Hand: I was at the table for this one but wasn’t asked to rule on it but was wondering if I should have. Late in the tournament with the blinds relativly high the player first to act after the blinds pushed all in the player after him flat called and the table folded around to the Big Blind who took along time debating on what to do and finally decided to fold and the all in player thought he won the blinds forgetting that someone did call him and he mucked his cards face down with the rest of the cards. Like I said I wasn’t asked what the proper ruling would be the other players informed him that he was called and he recoverd his cards which were not mixed in but were on top of the other mucked cards so he pulled them back and the two players turned over their hands and the all in player won. I was just wondering if I should have stepped in and made a ruling that he mucked his hand and it was dead and basicly knocked him out of the tournament.

Posted in Showdowns & Pot Awarding, Mucking, Dead Hands, Etc, Bets, Min Raise, StringBet, Fwd Motion, Act Out-Of-Turn | Print | 2 Comments »