We are playing $5-$10 NL. The specifics of the hand and bet-sizing aren't too important, but the hand develops something like this.

I raise in EP with AKo, and get one caller behind me. We take a flop heads-up of AT6hh. I bet, villain calls. Turn is an off-suit brick, say 3c. I bet again, villain calls. River is Td. Before I can act, villain moves his entire stack (about $450 in a combination of greens and reds) forward. There is a betting line on the table, and the chips are past the betting line, but in this particular casino it does not play - bets are based on forward motion. I debate for maybe 4-5 seconds, while the dealer and other players say nothing. Then, I verbally declare "I call", while at the same time (or perhaps 1 second after the verbal declaration), throwing in enough black chips to cover his bet (like 6-7 ish).

Villain rolls his eyes, then says "What do you have?" Not wanting to slowroll the guy, or get into a "I called your bet, you have to show first, etc etc" argument, I roll over my hand. Villain then mucks his cards, and pulls back his river bet, claiming he never bet it, since action was not on him.

Villain seems clearly agitated, and floor is called over to make a ruling. What should the ruling be?

FYI, I know that I probably should have "checked", THEN said "call" (in this casino, out of turn actions are binding if the action in between is unaltered, ie if I had checked), and it would have probably saved a fair amount of headache... in my defence, it was about 5 AM in the morning, and I could barely see straight, let alone think straight about angle shoots.

WTF was the dealer doing while all this was going on?

If bets are based on forward motion, you say he moved his chips forward toward the pot, and even past the bet line, case closed right?

Action offered, action accepted. The bet should stand.

If the floor ruled in his favor, you now know why he plays there.

If the floor doesn't give you the pot and/or warn him/ban him I would never play there again. It's so obvious this is an angle shot. He has absolutely no defense for this other than being an angle-shooting POS.

My ruling would be the villain either pushes his stack to the OP or the villain finds another room to play in until he chooses to pay the OP what he owes him.

1. Villain did not object when OP called and threw chips into the pot.

2. Villain asked to see what the OP had and only then did he claim he was acting OOT and his bet was invalid.

The above depends on the dealer being able to describe the scenario exactly as the OP described it. I think the OP remembers it exactly that way but the dealer may not have observed it exactly that way and may have given a different version to the floor person.

Of course the OP failed to protect his hand but as blatant as this was, that's nit picking.

OP mentioned that it is 5am and he can barely see straight so it depends if his version of the story matches that of the dealer explaining it to the floor. If we assume that the dealer tells the floor the same version of the story as OP told us, it is a bet and a call.

Villain owes his stack to the pot. Although most casinos can't force players to pay up, it's either pay up or banned for life from this establishment. I've always been curious about this rule myself about taking a ban vs paying up. Has someone counted all the poker rooms in the US and figured out how many bans they can take before cutting themselves off from live poker completely? I don't think $500 is worth a life ban from a poker room but say it's $10K and you get banned from 20 places in the US, you just have $200K. As long as you keep these "none paying player" bans for a worst case scenario loss, they could be figured into a lifetime poker strategy.

You would need to calculate the size of saving vs the opportunity cost of playing that that particular establishment.

There are a number of problems with this line of thought.

First, each time you CHEAT someone out of $10,000, it won't always be a new $10,000 that adds up with previous cheating moves you have made.

Second, once you get banned from everywhere close enough to drive to, you have to move or give up poker.

Third, If you live close enough to a wide number of poker rooms, you will quickly get a reputation for being a cheat and find yourself shut out of many rooms without saving a big bet.

Fourth, cheat someone out of $500 and you make them mad. Cheat someone out of $10,000 and they will probably take it out of your hide. Hospital bills would offset your so called "wins" very quickly.

Fifth, you are cheating. The fact that you have decided it's worth it to cheat for a large enough amount does not change the fact that it is cheating. In fact, it makes it worse since it clearly shows malice aforethought.

The villain in the OP is not a poker player, he is a ****ing cheat. It doesn't matter if it's for $5 or $500 or $50,000, it's wrong and the damage he did to his reputation is worth far more than the $450 he "saved".

I'd just add that in virtually every big poker area, there are only 1-2 rooms at best spreading a game where you could make a $10k bet. Even in LV, there are only a couple of rooms that would host such a game and the player pool is extremely small. Somebody not paying $10k and getting kicked out of the room would be big news (I wouldn't be surprised that it would be in NVG) in that community. You'd never get a second chance to do it again. Somebody playing would recognize who you were and let everyone know.

I hope that you took this as a lesson and got up from the table immediately after this hand because you were the fish at that table.

OK, just checking. The floor ruled that the river bet was binding, and I was awarded the bet plus the pot. Villain pushed it over, but grumbled that it wasn't right, and that it wasn't a legal bet. I don't know if he actually believed that he was cheated, or was just working an angle (he was definitely a recreational player, and also possibly foreign). I was going to make some snarky comment about anglers, but then remembered he was a fish, and instead, laughed and made some light-hearted joke about how you can't win 'em all, while watching him reload for another buy-in.

Was just curious if others would flame me for a) not protecting my hand and asking if the bet was binding before exposing my cards, or b) not following proper procedure and "checking" first, to ensure the bet was binding before I made my call.

A - always ask. In some rooms, his bet isn't binding.

b - there's no difference IMO. You essentially accepted his action. The dude can go screw himself. No question he's angling.

I wouldn't flame you for this, but I hope you learned something about protecting youself, acting too quickly, etc.
I have seen this (similar but even worse) angle succeed: Hero bets river (different than OP), Villain shoves entire stack forward (significantly, no betline involved), Hero snap-calls while Villain's stack is still moving forward, Villain stops moving stack, denies having acted, and folds. Floor rules for Villain (who is known angler). Entire table goes wild over decision, but to no avail.
Also, if you really attribute this on your part to playing tired at 5 AM, there's another lesson for you here.

Wow, this is awful,

clear forward motion, clear call by OP, clear 100% angle by villain, in what universe is this not a bet???

I prison raped a villain on a similar situation like this a month ago.

What I will say is that it is vital, 100% important that you KNOW THE RULES OF THE CASINOS YOU PLAY AT.. When you know the rules and the floor knows that you know the rules, you are much more likely to get rulings in your favor. Similarly, if i'm at a table with someone who angle shoots, I don't wait until they angle shoot me to call the floor. The second they angle shoot ANYONE I call the floor. I also will call the floor over to announce a rule so that "everyone" knows.

Basically, be proactive about all this. KNOW THE RULES and NOTIFY the floor before problems occur.

I guarantee in OP's case that wasn't the first time that V did that.

In fact, one of the funniest things I do is that when i'm at a table with known angle shooters I will ask the floor to come over and "defang" the angle shooter's most prized angle shots before he even does them. 1/2 the time, the angle shooter will actually table change.

People may frown upon it, but garbage like this is exactly why I never show down first if I have to. Of course, if you do that, when you are called you have to instantly show and or muck imo - which I do.

What amazes me is how afraid players are to be direct.

When I call someone and they say "you got it".

i will answer, "I called you, either show or muck"

If they continue to play the 'you first game' I will then turn to the dealer and calmly say, "Dealer, I called, please direct him to either show or muck."

The entire time, I'm completely calm and if necessary I will call the floor.

If I am first to show, I ALWAYS turn over my hand as if its the nuts. About 1 out of 200 times I induce a V to muck the winning hand

When someones gives me the "You're good" after I snap call their river bet I always respond with "That's good news" and don't roll my hand over. The worst is when you Hero call with A high and they give it the "You're good... I just have bottom pair" and You're like *Yes, knew he missed... wtf, bottom pair, you fish*