Ah the butterflies , aren't they great.
see them from time to time , there to chat with others and collect the $1 per hr comp, in 5 hours they may play 1-2 hands other then BB.

table change is best option .

When they are next to me I sit there and wait and when dealer says its my turn I say I can't look at my cards till he gets out from behind me.
after slowing the game to a crawl the other players will complain also and floor will have to intervene.

This should not be just on the player. But changing a seat/table is on the player.

As someone who both- 1.has a retired license in mental health treatment, and is 2. married to an MD/psychiatrist- its pretty clear this dude has more than meets the eye going on. What that is doesn't matter, OCD, substance use, manic behavior, etc, etc....but his behavior is "out of the norm"...which then makes it disturbing to others.
Since a poker room is supposed to have clear lines of authority, people like this will test limits of authority. Happens all the time. Authority people will either rise to the challenge, or not. And the more challenges they face, the better they get at handling it. Like a lot of things.
I know what I've said sounds like a big nothingburger, but take all these scenarios into account, and ask how many times this has happened, in this room, with these people, and its probably just a firster for them.
Yeah, a player standing would bother me also. Sit down, don't try and see my cards, act like the rest of us. Or I'll move.

Me too. Glad to see someone else posted it first.

No one other than you should be able to see your cards while you're in a hand. I'm usually pretty lax about people standing around me while I'm playing, but if I have even the slightest concern than one of them might be able to see my cards, I simply say, "Dealer, would you please clear the rail?" And that has taken care of it every time in my experience.

Three things I haven't seen mentioned yet:

--Standing is not prohibited because we're worried about the stander seeing your cards. Protecting your cards from people who are even directly behind you is a trivial matter, or else casinos would not have rails to invite observers. We need all players seated because:
1. Looking up takes the dealer's eyes off the felt, and that's where the money is!
2. We don't want your junk at our eye level!

***

--LOL 80 wpm. When we complained about the length of your posts, we weren't concerned about your time being wasted.

***

--re: OP's reluctance to change seats/tables, "Why should I have to be the one to suffer the terrible inconvenience?"

I see this all the time. Once folks have marked their territory, they are so reluctant to give it up, they will suffer terrible inconvenience to keep it. I'll never forget the night the IP's racebook filled with smoke from a small fire in another part of the casino, and none of the regs would walk next door to bet the same races there. They used cocktail napkins as masks, the smoke was so thick. They hacked and coughed. I had trouble seeing the top row of the stadium-style seating that room had, that's how thick this smoke was...

...but moving to a seat in Harrah's racebook for one night? A one-minute walk away? Unthinkable.

It's worse than that, incredibly.

He couldn't turn his head 90 degrees to interact with the person most able to alleviate his irritation, instead choosing to suffer for an hour before raising the issue with three floorpeople.

But we are the keyboard warriors hiding behind our screens, getting "irate" at "a straightforward question" [800 words] :P

OP I stand with you on this issue.

I have always operated on the assumption that standing at the table is not allowed (except at WSOP or WPT televised events where after it is all in anything goes).

This came up at Foxwoods once and I asked the guy to sit down and he wouldn't. So I asked the Dealer to handle it and the Dealer asked him to sit down. I would have called a Floor over to handle it if the Dealer hadn't.

The reasons it should be against the rules to stand:
- It is very difficult to protect your hand vs a player you can't see. The guy could be bent over at table height.
- It is intimidating by its very nature.
- There is little way to enforce a persons "space" vs a standing opponent. There is so far a sitting player can lean and still be in his seat. But a standing player can stand between seats or lean over your back.
- A standing player can much more easily cause bodily harm quickly than a sitting player.

I doubt any established card room would allow players to stand during a hand. Even if one or two Floors get it wrong in the moment my guess is that it would quickly become a house rule to not allow standing during a hand.

If it happened to me and I felt uncomfortable, i would ask the Dealer then a Floor, then a room Supervisor to handle it. If it wasn't handled then I would leave that table. I doubt I would play another hand in that environment.