$75 local cardroom tourney. I was not involved in the hand.

Player A and B are in a pot together. Board is QQ53.

Player A bets 2000. Player B thinks for about 20 seconds and then pushes his whole stack across, but it's only about 1850 total, so he has called all in for less.

Player A thinks player B has raised and tosses his cards face down over the line. However, the cards never touch the muck pile.

A few players start to say something, but then stop, because maybe it's none of their business to tell player A that player B has not raised.

The dealer at first doesn't know what to do, but finally tells player A, "he didn't raise. He's only calling but doesn't have enough to match the bet, so you will get some money back." Player A says "I thought he raised. Still, I'm not going to protest anything. I meant to fold."

At this point the dealer says, "I know, but it's a strange situation, so I need to call the floor."

The manager comes over, the dealer explains what happened, and the manager says "Normally we would allow him to muck, but in the best interests of the game, we will also give him the opportunity to play his hand. Let's see both hands please."

Player A turns over AK. Player B has TT. River K and player A, who meant to fold the whole time, busts player B (and gets his $10 bounty).

Is that right? I guess in order to prevent tournament collusion it is the correct decision, but is there any other reasoning why Player A should be forced to turn his hand up if he wants to just fold?

Or maybe because there was still a card to come and it was an all in pot, the dealer is required to play the hand out?

He called all-in for less so at this point neither player is allowed to muck their hands since this is a tournament. Call is correct.

It is a common rule that all in hands have to be tabled and mucking is not allowed.

I wonder why the floor said this:

Floor should never allow a player to muck. Cards must be tabled.

In a tournament if a player is allin with no more action all hands must be shown. Player A does not get the option to muck. The correct thing for the dealer to do here would've been to instruct him to table his hand as it is a rule. No need for a floor ruling unless the other player wants to protest.

Even if there were no more cards to come they both would be required to show. If after the river Player A goes allin and Player B calls... Even if Player B shows the nuts, Player a still must show his hand.

I agree with everything that has been said so far.

As for the last part, in almost all cases players muck freely on the river and nobody says anything. Maybe once or twice over the years I have seen hands turned over in these spots...

As others have said, once the players are all-in the hands must be shown and played out. They did the right thing for the wrong reason.

While it is true that I see more dealers FAIL to make sure the cards are turned up .... when it happens it is a FAILURE. I am surprised that your experience is that players are allowed to muck in this situation as I see most dealers get this right. The TDA rules require the cards be tabled. (if OP is insome room without the TDA rules ..... a good ruleset would still require the hands be tabled to help protect against softplay and collusion)

Its Foxwoods which observes TDA rules and in general the dealers will only turn over the cards on the river if a player asks. I'm not counting those cases.

I have only seen a dealer turn over a player's cards on two occasions without a request. Numerous occasions witnessed when it wasn't done.

Cards are always turned up for all in situations with cards still to be dealt.

Just because you don't see it happen doesn't mean that it isn't supposed to happen. Those dealers are not doing their jobs correctly. The cards are supposed to be shown.

Thread is correct.

Per TDA rules, all cards must be tabled when there is an all-in. The hand in question is still 100% retrievable as it never hit the muck (If it wasn't retrievable, this situation would be a bit stickier). The floor got it right for the wrong reason.