I'm going to label these two players: Bob and Fred.

So we reach the turn and Bob has a ~$300 stack and Fred has a ~$700 stack. Bob jams and Fred calls. Fred is miles ahead, but the river is one of the few cards that makes Bob have the best hand. Fred is angry at the suckout and yells "YOU KNOW WHAT? JUST TAKE IT ALL!" Fred angrily throws his chips across the table, splashes the pot, and it's impossible to tell how big Bob and Fred's stacks were.

What should happen here? Should Bob take Fred's entire stack or not? And should all the chips stay on the table or should Bob be allowed to "go south" for the excess ~$400 or whatever it was?

a. Ask Fred if he is quitting
b. If so, ask Fred if he really wants to give ~$400 to Bob
c. If so, they are not "won chips" and can be taken off the table

He can't give him the extra chips, unless he wants to do it on the side.

I wouldn't suggest the guy take it anyway, the other guy seem crazy and might even take it beyond the poker table.

My guess is either the floor will use dealer and player input to establish an estimate that everyone can live with or the pot will be impounded and there will be a camera review.

The pot somehow must be made right as best as possible; you can't just send the whole remaining $1k to the winner.

reconstruct action, ship that pot to winner, loser gets a rack and is gone for at least the day.

Sounds like a lot of delay for everyone else at the table while the dealer/floor try to sort it out. Bob is only due the amount he bet AI tech wise, but I assume the solution may vary from time to time , at the descretion of the floor , and from room to room.

First post nailed it.

If Fred is staying he gets his change making 110% sure Bob does not lose out on even a penny.

I disagree with everyone.

Push the whole pile to Bob.

Next hand.

I had this exact thing happen once a few years ago. I was watching the table and saw the whole thing. "Fred" had about 500-600 and "Bob" had about 400. Fred saw the result and shoved his entire stack across the table at Bob. Chips went everywhere and he immediately got up and walked away. I helped Bob pick up as many chips as we could find on the floor and he kept every last one of them.

Fred came back 10-15 minutes later.

Fred: I think I had a bit more than Bob in that hand didn't I?
Suit: Yeah, for sure. [on the two-way]Security supervisor to the poker room please.
Fred: Not getting any back am I?
Suit: Nope. I'm glad you're back. We have a pretty strict policy about misconduct here and I'm going to have to ask you to leave as a result of your actions. You will be allowed to return in exactly 24 hours, hopefully with a better attitude.

Could I reconstruct the pot? Yeah, probably if I got as much info as possible from the players/dealer and impounded an amount close to what I thought was right and then went to surveillance to confirm as much as I could. Is that the right thing to do? Probably, if he didn't leave.

I believe Fred was talking to the dealer

If no cap then I agree but Fred could still pocket the extra as a gift.

Precisely what I would do as floor.

It’s a cash game. Him pissing away extra chips has minimal impact.Teach dumbass a lesson and push the pile to the guy. Only rack that guy should get is one upside the head.


In tournaments, yes, everything has to be reconstructed in a timely manner and then the guy can enjoy getting blinded out via penalty hopefully find t the rest of his stack for wasting everyone’s time.

A fair compromise. 🤣

"Teaching someone a lesson" by stealing their money as a floor whose decision is "final"" is one of the worst things you can do, morally, ethically, legally, and not-losing-your-job-ally. Teach them the same lesson by banning them and their antics from your room.

I agree completely. I didn't mention a ban in my initial post itt, but I should have.

You'll make a bigger impact on all the players by doing everything on the up and up. Pushing the innocent player all the money might actually encourage more shenanigans in the future.

well he's the idiot who threw all his chips across the table. i'd rather he lose 400 than the guy who did nothing wrong lose so much as a dollar bc of a wrong estimate.

What happens? They give Bob what they think is a fair pot, and they show Fred the door.

Eject both players for chip dumping

I'd rather that too. But I'd more rather coming up with a reasonable reconstruction of the actual value of the pot rather than knowingly and purposefully stealing from a customer to "teach him a lesson".

And from a practical perspective, if the idiot really did have 400 more than his opponent, I don't want to be the one on the hook when he goes to gaming to complain, they pull the tapes, and then ask me or my boss why we took the guy's 400 and gave it to the other player as part of a ruling, and then force the room to make it right. We may well be the one learning the lesson that day.

Chip dumping is not a thing in cash games, though I guess you might think it is an analogous attempt to buy in for more than the max stack.

And take away Bob's WPT title.

What lesson exactly are you teaching?

The gut reaction is "don't tell people to take all your chips if you don't mean it." And that's a decent lesson to learn, I agree.

But what other lessons are you teaching - perhaps unintentionally?

"We will spite you with rulings against you if we don't like you."

"Sorting out complex situations is very difficult for our surveillance department."

"As long as it's not in a tournament, it doesn't matter."

It's really in situations like this where the difference between okay-run rooms and well-run rooms shows up. Floors who throw their hands up and make knee jerk rulings against whoever looks the guiltiest at that very second with zero forethought to the long term impact are going to suffer in the long term.

Suppose the player rather than splashing the pot calmly stated I wish to give all my chips to the winning player even though I know his bet does not cover me.

Would you prohibit him from doing so? (Issues of whether they play or not being a secondary decision).

If not why not?

If so ... What do you see as being the relevant differences between the two ?

Guy told him to take all his chips. It’s a cash game, where chip dumping has minimal impact as it does not significantly hurt the other players at the table and surrounding tables as it would in a tournament. Sure, it would be different if it was an obvious case of allowing a player to have significantly more chips than the maximum buyin amount but there are orher creative ways to also accomplish that in cash games.

Both scenarios are player-to-player transfers and the house should not be facilitating them.

The house should be accurately pushing the pot, and if one player wants to personally hand another player a rack of chips, that's acceptable, but normal buyin rules apply.

If you need a legal stick to complement the customer service carrot, this falls under the spirit, if not the letter, of table stakes rules and anti-laundering regulations.