We've had this discussion before but sometimes when you do the right thing you get the spotlight put on you. Playing 5-10 and a very active player sits down in Seat 9. Not so much a fish, but definitely a gambler. He basically got felted his first hand and this is his 4th hand ...

Hand gets to showdown with a 4-flush on a Jack-high board and Gambler is first to show and tables KJ. Seat 5 (B) tables AK with Ace of flush. Dealer immediately flips and 95% mucks the AK on the bottom of muck pile and starts to push the pot to Seat 9. Seat 5 sits up in chair and says "No flush?". Seat 8 and Seat 7 both pipe up and state that Seat 5 showed down an Ace-high flush. Dealer doesn't really want to call the floor and checks the bottom of the muck for AsKc and correctly pushes the pot to Seat 5. Seat 9 stays quiet and adds on 'again'.

Seat 9 proceeds to hunt down Seat 7 and 8 in the next orbit using the fact that they spoke up about the flush hand every time he wins a pot ... Seemingly not showing any angst towards Seat 5 who spoke up first and actually 'took' the pot from him. In less than 3 orbits Seat 9 has heatered his way up to $14K and still wont let it go ...

Even though speaking up about the wrongly pushed pot is 'correct' this certainly would make you think twice about it. Obviously the heater has nothing to do with the pot-pushing hand but it didn't help the players feel any better about 'helping' out.

Seat 9 wanted nothing to do with hearing that he could've been on either side of that exchange during the flush hand. GL

So wait - there's a spot in a 5/T game and he gets tilted because you point out that his opponent actually won a hand that was going to be pushed to him in error and you think this is a reason to NOT speak up? (Not you - the metaphorical you)

If the guy won't shut up about and it and is getting antagonistic call the floor. Otherwise I'm perfectly happy to have the spot out to get me.

Only to scumbags.

This is just goofy.

You guys nailed it perfectly. Seats 7 & 8 were just having 'sour grapes' because they did something right and 'unjustly' became the target of Seat 9 .. who just happened to go on a huge heater as a 'reward'.

In the perfect world, as PSU pointed out, you want the target .. you just don't want the heater.

It's just one of those spots where doing the right thing doesn't always leave you feeling good about it. GL

first never let go of your winning hand until the other hands are dead and the pot is coming your way. ive seen it where even when everyone says he had the flush the floor rules the hand dead because you didnt protect it.

as far as pointing out the mistake many players feel and wrongly so that others should not get involved in other peoples pots .

some will only speak up if its a friend or the pot is going to end up in a live ones stack.
that is the old style thought.

I see what you did there.

Honestly, in this case, seat 9 can just eabod. There's nothing you can do about his heater and it sucks, but I'm always going to call out a pot being sent to the wrong player if I see it.

You shouldn't have to protect a tabled hand.

But accidents do happen, so you should always protect your hand, even when tabled.

What's interesting is that the Dealer really had to reach for the AK (Seat 6 area) and even set them down closer to the board than they already were before mucking them.

This really proves (again) that you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover since the Dealer went on to a few more marginal things and I actually took them for 'more professional' than the previous dealers at the table just based on uniform neatness and taking control of the table immediately after sitting down. GL

I think the bigger danger is in people overprotecting their tabled hands than underprotecting.

At least in Texas Hold'Em, the vast majority of the time (99.99%, or the other way around, a mistake happens every 10k hands or 400 hours or so) you could table your hand and walk away and everything would be fine. Of course it really sucks when something goes wrong, and you'll wish you had kept a death grip on your cards, but there's often a very good recourse - the cameras - when everything blows up.

The real problem is in people who keep a death grip on their cards all the time, especially from certain seats or in certain stuations where it's logistically hard to push a pot to someone who refuses to let go of his cards. The dealer and player end up doing a 10 second dance where both insist that the other act first. It's way less costly but happens way more frequently.

Dealers often need to bring tabled hands closer to the middle so someone on the other side of the table can see, or to highlight whether a kicker plays, or to have a lane to push the mountain of chips through, or whatever. Interfering with that costs more than it's worth.

Also, a little off topic, but a lot of the problems that people face with getting their hands mucked are self-inflicted. People call, rather than aggress, really strong hands; and then they make their opponents show before silently turning over a stronger hand. The dealer interprets the cues - call, wait, silence - and is primed to assume that a weaker hand was shown. If you are the last aggressor, and fastroll with a big **** eating grin on your face, it's way more likely that the dealer is puzzled by you tabling four high than being puzzled by you tabling the nut flush.

yes, you should always protect a tabled hand.

I never let my hand out of my control until the pot is pushed to me. Period.

in some casinos, no hand no pot. simple as that. others you are at the mercy of the floor person.

and the dealer has no business touching your cards when there are other live hands on the table. and no reason for you to let him.

Think twice if you want, but speak up both times. If you don't speak up then you don't care about playing your part to ensure game integrity.