Hey all, long time reader, thought I'd finally register on here and get some opinions on a situation that occurred last week.

Playing 6-handed dealer's choice, the guy on my left has been picking crazy pineapple all night. This time though, he picks regular pineapple. Big raise preflop, called by two players. Everyone discards (or so we thought).

Flop comes Q 4 2 rainbow. First player checks, initial raiser bets out and next player shoves. First player folds and raiser calls. At this point he discards a three and tables KK. All-in player immediately goes off saying that the pot is his because his opponent didn't discard preflop. KK player says that the point is moot (I'm para-phrasing here) because he'll obviously discard the 3 preflop and he wasn't paying attention that it was regular pineapple and not crazy. Possibly dealer's fault?

The all-in player, holding AQ but refuses to table it, (he's on my right and I can see it) is arguing that he had A Q 4 and would've had two pair if he didn't discard as well preflop.

Both of them go back and forth about it, not willing to concede their point. I used to deal at the local casino here so I was called upon to make the decision. Just wondering what you guys would do in this case. I'll say what I did after a few replies.

it is always the player's responsibility to protect his own hand. this means nobody else is responsible if his hand contains the wrong number of cards.

Make sure the game is clearly announced and that everyone knows the rules (many people don't know there IS a straight pineapple, I just had this confusion at a regular game last week where people thought "pineapple" always meant discard after the flop). But still, the players have to play their own hands.

Any hand with the wrong number of cards is always dead*

*except in stud games where a player has a made hand on 6th and, unconcerned with the 7th card, loses track of it.

The hand with three cards is dead. Any mercy is completely up to the other player---I ended up with three cards at the river the other night, had three pair (best two cards regardless of which two), and the other player was kind enough to chop with me. I made it clear when I realized what I'd done that the pot was the other players---nice to play in a friendly homegame, eh?

Three cards. Too Bad. He loses.

I agree with everybody else. The person dealing should also be trying to control the action. We always look for a friendly option in the games I play in. Maybe reset to the pre-flop raise and run it out.

The OP has an obvious scenario solution, that isn't necessary to the letter of the rules. I don't think anyone can argue that villian was going to hold onto the crab and break up Kings... even if it was crazy pineapple. now, if two threes had flopped, he wouldn't get to claim the trips.

That being said... the rule would technically be that the KK hand is dead. This is especially true, if I'm reading correctly, because the dealer CALLED THE FREAKIN' GAME!

That would mean dealer KK gets his post-flop bets back, but loses the preflop raise.

Since its a home game I dont want to piss anyone off, it can be a bit more relaxed. Obv he is going to keep the kings, but there still has to be punishment. I agree with his hand being dead, but lets give him back the post flop bets IMO like Larry said.

i could live with letting him play the KK in this situation...... But i don't like giving him back his bets. It would be one thing i fthe hand got heads up preflop. But it wasn't, and his presence in the hand may have affected other players action. Maybe if he was not in the hand another player would have called a bet..... or raised ....

Thanks for all the input, here's what I did:

Since there was significant action post flop, I don't want to declare the KK hand dead in a home game. If it was a more serious game for higher stakes, or the players are more knowledgable, I wouldn't hesitate to declare KK dead here. Also, the dealer of that hand wasn't paying attention wholly so while the KK player is accountable, the dealer has some onus on him too.

With multiple people being accountable for this situation, as well as giving the KK player a little benefit of the doubt as he will obviously keep KK in this spot, I decided to have the AQ and KK play the hand out with no more betting, and to take their post flop bets back and just play for the preflop pot.

Any thoughts on my call?

Seems reasonable, but might put you in a tough spot going forward when the decisions are not so simple and somebody is tilting.

It's a tough spot. I think it's reasonable.

I don't worry too much about setting precedent. Even with things like betting mistakes with clear rulings, I'm okay with going with intent and a warning the first time, letting people know future rulings will be more strict.

This is the same kind of thing. The ruling was reasonable, and it comes with it the understanding that future mistakes by anybody will be more strictly ruled in the future.

So, you'd kill the hand on the flop AND take his all-in?

As i said. In this scenario I would be okay with letting the KK play.

In other scenarios kill the hand (not on the flop ... but when discovered).