Hypothetically, if you were absolutely certain an opponent mis-read the board, and put in a raise when they would have otherwise folded, would you ever give them back their last bet?

This is something that's come up in some of Bart Hanson's videos. Usually the person who made a mistake is a recreational player, and Bart has advocated for giving them back their bet, to engender goodwill, keep them in the game, etc.

Would the size of the bet or pot affect your decision? If so, how? Does it matter if the opponent is a recreational player or a reg?

if they are a reg, they should know better.

if they are a rec and the raise/pot is significant to them, there is no harm in tossing it back

I would depending on the situation and who it is

Let's say it's two regular players who have faced each other before, but again, it's absolutely certain one player misread the board, and three-bet jammed, thinking he had the nuts. When he gets called, he says, "I think we're chopping here," before he turns over his cards or sees his opponent's hand, making it impossible for him to have been bluffing.

Player had ATs on a board of KJXrJxXx, mistaking the turn J for a Q. Other player had KJ for a turned boat.

River action went bet (AT) , raise (KJ), AT jams, KJ calls, AT "I think we're chopping.l," sees KJ, thinks his opponent has 2P, and tablds his hand saying, "Broadway...holy ****, I misread the board! I could have sworn that was a Q on the turn!"

So, if it's some unknown player, maybe AT could be angling in some way, I guess. But in this case it's just a reg who gets along with everyone, is friendly at the table, gives action, and is known for having integrity, not being cutthroat or scummy.

No one said anything to suggest he be given back his last bet, and he took the loss in stride, other than getting up to take a walk to clear his head immediately after the hand.

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For me it would matter who it is. Generally for a reg or any player who otherwise clearly knows what they're doing I would just say tough luck.

But if it's someone who's a clear beginner and they're just out trying to have some fun then I would and have done this in the past.

The size of the bet would affect my decision though. If it was a billion dollars I probably wouldn't give it back to be honest.

How do you know if he misread the board though. What if you were bluffing with worse? Is he gonna give you the money back? Probably not.

Ive seen some crazy hero calls with 7 high and was right, is the guy with 7 high gonna claim he misread his hand if he happens to be wrong?

Like if it was for under 2bb vs a rec and it was a clear 100% misread then ill give it back other than that they can fk off

A raise never as regardless of their hand they had a chance to win the pot. A call where they misread their hand possibly depending upon circumstances.

Definitely depends on who it is, would they reciprocate, are they generally nice, are they big action, and other stuff along those lines. If it’s a pro no way, unless I consider them a friend.

only if we were playing ultra high stakes and they were very old and likely not financially well off.

Ultra high stakes, very old and not financially well off dont usually go together.

yeah, it would be a very rare instance.

last week i made a bad play and was asked why by my opponent. i told him i misread the board. i think it's something that happens somewhat frequently.

absolutely not. dont see much difference between them misreading the board and them making a technical error in a hand.

Playing last week in a $1/3 game. Player on my left raised. I guess I was UTG.

Action comes around to player on my right. Older guy, clearly having problems following the action. Throws $6 out there. Dealer stops him, says it's $12, the $6 has to stay out there, but he can call. IIRC older guy folds.

After the hand, won by guy on my left, he asks the table if anyone minds if he gives older guy back his $6, since he clearly wasn't aware of the action. Everyone said ok, and he did.

I think that was a good move; 'spend' two BB to keep the not-as-good player happy and in the game.

I'm not saying that guy on my left wouldn't have done that for any other player, I can't say. But, it seems kinda like implied odds; I'll give you back a little now, expecting to get it back later.

If I was 100% sure they had misread then I probably would, just because I'm trying to take someone's money because (1) I make better decision than them or (2) i make worse decisions than them but get lucky. I'm not there to make money out of people's mistakes - if I wanted to do that I'd go in to fraud which is more profitable.

It would get a bit messy if someone called your flop and turn bets thinking they had a straight draw and then bet the river thinking they made it - in that case I'd probably offer back the river bet but not the previous streets. As with most things there's a balance, but my overall principle is that I'm trying to make money out of poker, not out of an inability to read.

I wouldn't give the money back, no way. If I fold the best hand to the raise on the river, they wouldn’t let me have the pot either, would they? It probably wouldn’t even cross my mind to give them their money back. It's just tough luck and I sympathise, but it is what is. We've probably all made a mistake like this at one point, where we made a dumb call or raise because we misread our hand or the board. There's no way I would expect anyone to cut me any slack when it happens to me.

Actually, I think we're all there to make money out of our opponents' mistakes. Misreading the board is just one of those possible mistakes.

"Bart has advocated for giving them back their bet, to engender goodwill, keep them in the game, " Bart wants to keep the fish in the game because he and other pros makes money from them.

I'm not a for-profit player. I play poker for fun, so it really depends on the opponent & how likely is he misreading the board. I would say more than 50% of the opponents in the room I don't feel like giving them back the money - whether they are splashy fish I don't care.

Lol what a ridiculous question. Guys like bart hansen arent really pro poker players, they have a customer service job, the whales are their customers, and they need to keep their customers happy. Thats what causes him to say hed give the bet back, and causes Polk to say he wouldnt look if someone was exposing their hand.

In this case i would not give it back bc its a reg. I actually did something similar to him recently where I misread a Jack for a King and thought I had top pair with AK. It didnt cost me my stack luckily. I would give someone a pass if they were really good for the game and new at poker, or a super fish reg i wanted to keep happy. There are a couple guys i play with regularly that I would give them back their last bet if they did this because the long term EV would be a lot higher giving it back this one time than having them pissed at me when they just regularly punt off and let me have pots i dont deserve haha. Cant give a reg a pass for misreading though.

So, I've been on both sides of situations like this, where one player's clear mistake accrued to another player's benefit. By "mistake", I mean something other than a bad decision in-game. I mean a clear instance of someone mis-reading their cards, or the board, or mistakenly tossing out too many chips or the wrong color chips.

In almost every single case, the player who benefited didn't make any attempt to give back the other player's last bet.

I did try once, recently, at 2/5 - player on my right in the BB declared "raise", not realizing I straddled to $10 and gotten called. Once he realized, he obviously wanted to just call instead of raising, but the dealer made him min-raise to $20. I 3B, the other player in the hand called, and the BB folded. After the hand, I tried to give him back his $10, but he refused to take it, saying it was his mistake.

In another recent 2/5 hand - OMC opens $15 UTG, gets 5 callers, before the BB pulls back the blue and white chips he had in front of him, and mistakenly tosses out 2 black chips and 1 red chip, mistakenly thinking he had been shuffling 3 red chips in his hand, accidentally 3B'ing to $205, when it was obvious by his demeanor and what he said that he meant to just flat call the $15. Dealer makes the bet stand, OMC jams for ~$700, everyone folds, OMC scoops. After a bit of table discussion, OMC grudgingly gave the BB $100 back, which seemed sort of arbitrary.

The ethics of these situations seem oddly fluid to me. People who would never take an unearned dollar in every other aspect of life don't seem to feel any remorse profiting off of another player's clear mistake dealing with the cards or chips on the table.

In my last session, I handed another player $600 in cash, mistakenly thinking it was $500, in exchange for five $100 chips he had on him. It was obvious I didn't realize the bills were stuck together, and he could have pocketed the extra $100, but instead he immediately let me know of my mistake. I thanked him for his honesty, even as I realized that if the $100 mistake had happened in the midst of a hand, he might not have felt compelled to give the $100 back.

I'm not throwing shade at anyone, because I've been the beneficiary of other players' mistakes, and although my conscience bothered me a little, I told myself that if the situation were reversed, it would be unlikely the other player would give me back my money, so I didn't feel too bad keeping theirs. I'm also not sure I'd be comfortable accepting the money back, inasmuch as I wonder what that would do to my image as a player.

I admire anyone who has the integrity and discipline to give the money back when they're not being forced to, but I don't blame anyone who doesn't.

In the hand I described above in post 4, I was the player who mis-read the board, and doubled my opponent up. It was obvious to everyone what happened. I didn't expect V to give me back my last bet, and I'm not sure I would have accepted it, but it did create a weird vibe at the table for a while after.

This is something completely different in my opinion. I would always give someone their 100 back of course, under all circumstances. I would think only the scummiest of players wouldn’t do this.

This seems different from the situation initially posed. I assume 99% of people would return the 100.

What's the moral or ethical difference between giving someone back their $100 when two bills stick together and giving someone back their last bet when they clearly misread the board or their hand?

Both are clearly unintentional mistakes. Why do we differentiate between a clear mistake made one way and a clear mistake made another way?

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Are you serious right now? Poker is a game of skill, part of that skill is knowing what your cards are, all is fair within the rules of the game.

Exchanging cash for chips is not a skill game, its a simple transaction between 2 individuals. Keeping 600$ while giving out 500$ chips is a scam, only the lowest of scums would do that.

The guy trading me cash for chips cant bluff me off my chips with his extra $100 bill.

Yall are absolutely insane.