Quote:
Originally Posted by kataB
This scenario happened at my table on Saturday.
All the lead up action to the river doesn't matter much. Maybe 80 in the pot. Dry suits but ended with 2-3-4 on board. Two players, opposite ends of the table.
On the river, Player 1 checks. Player 2 bets $45. Player 1 tank calls.
Player 2 tables his hand, face up, 66.
Player 1 glances at his hand up where his neighbors can see and mucks his hand face down. The cards make it to the muck pile. Both cards are physically touching or even somewhat in the pile.
Another player next to P1 says "you folded the winner?".
Player 1 says "oh! I thought he had 56. I had Jacks!" and reaches for his cards which are both in/on the muck pile.
Dealer stops him and calls the floor.
They detail the action correctly to the floor, and the player who mucked says he can pick out which two cards they were. They pull two cards out of the muck and the floor checks them. He rules that the hand is still live because it was "retrievable" and turns the JJ face up.
So, in the end, Player 1 wins the pot with JJ that was mucked face down and made it to the pile.
Pretty questionable all around here. Both the Live rule of pulling cards out of the muck and the reg player who knows he mucked and wasn't going to admit it.
I play at Live and MGM and have played at countless other cardrooms. If Player 1 was the last to muck and mucked to the top, with the cards retrievable, and called the cards correctly- that's definitely the right decision - Player 1 Wins.
I've accidentally mucked cards before-- one reason I stopped playing long stretches that go on for more than 8 or 10 hours max. You start to make mistakes.
One hand I remember I was heads up on the Button against 1 Player UTG. I don't remember the hand specifically but I had both a Flush and a set (of 9s I think).
UTG raises $55 on the River. I call. We go to showdown. He shows a straight 9-K.
I typically don't show my hand when only calling and then beat- but in this case I did:
I said: "Damn nice hand" - flipped over my 79s and THE DEALER didn't even really notice. He took my verbal statement of defeat, and the UTG player's straight, and pushed the pot to UTG, then started to pull the cards into a pile.
Another player who was to my Left (SB) pointed out- "Wait he has a flush... Dude didn't you have two spades?"
"Oh yea I did".
The cards at that point had been mucked, and even mixed in.
Long story short, my cards were found, the other player accepted that was the hand I flipped, and I got the pot. He understood.
If the cards can be retrieved and it's clear theres nothing funny going on- the player should be able to pull them back off the top-- when they were clearly the winner in a showdown situation.
People make mistakes and before you know it you might be the one saying wait I misread the board (thinking you had a 2nd best hand) and you muck, when in fact you had the nuts.
It happens and as long as it's not overly complicated to figure out (cards just mucked to top / players see it / could be verified by reviewing the video playback of the table) I see no issue with that ruling.