Quote:
Originally Posted by BossThinksImWorkin
That's was my first thought, but the MP was quick to muck his cards (he is a dealer at our local casino if that makes a difference, probably knows the rules). Would it be fair to him since the turn & the river hadn't been dealt yet. He never said what he mucked.
So let me just be clear about this: MP
saw BTN turn up 99 and then immediately mucked his cards and started scooping the pot?
Honestly, sounds like maybe MP wanted to rush into the muck so that it would be a mess to play out the hand, leaving BTN without any real chance at recourse. And if so, then he kinda knew that the host might rule against him, which kinda makes this angle-shooting. Kinda.
It's a tough call. The fact that he's a dealer could go either way; he knows that mucking cards makes it tougher to deal with the situation, but he also might have acted quickly just because he's used to keeping the game moving. The fact that the hand is specifically a hand BTN would never fold makes me feel like it's the sketchier of the two options, though.
Anyway, since MP mucked his hand, if you want to play it out with BTN's hand live, tell MP to announce what his cards were, fetch them out of the muck, and deal it out.
If you don't want to do that (or can't), the hand can't proceed, so someone's hand has to be dead to decide where the pot goes. Here's the deciding factor, IMO: do you have a house rule about face-up cards being a fold / dead hand? If so, BTN's hand is dead, and MP takes the pot. If not, BTN's hand is live, and MP's hand is dead (because what he did is
totally a hand-killer).
Moreover, if what I'm saying about MP's motivation seems to ring true to you, then you might want to have a word with him to make it clear that this is not acceptable behavior.