So, utg, the button, and the big blind are in a hand to the flop.

Flop checks to the button who shoves 3k into a 5k pot. Big blind calls, utg raises with all his chips (except two covering his cards) in one stack to 15k. Utg still has two black 100 chips covering his hole cards. Nothing is said.

Big blind tanks. There was some very brief discussion between the dealer and big blind along the lines of 'he's not all in'. Dealer tosses all in chip in front of utg. Then removes it.

Big blind places his 18k stack in front of him. Utg picks up the two 100 chips off his cards and holds them in his hand, and reveals his cards. No more betting action.

Utg wins hand. Dealer counts down the 15k bet by utg and counts out 15k from the big blind. Pushes the pot to utg, who is left holding the two 100 chips in his hand, never having figured out what to do with them (in part because utg thought he had big blind covered). Utg didn't really care.

But utg is curious, was this proper procedure by the dealer? Utg wants to know in case it happens in a situation with more chips behind. tia

The proper procedure for the dealer would be to clarify utg's action before dealing out the rest of the cards, since the dealer knew thatutg wasnt allin. Technically speaking, utg had the option to call for his remaining 200 or fold. But also, the proper procedure for utg is to protect his action by informing the dealer that he hasnt called yet. He cant just sit there and watch the rest of the cards get put out without speaking up. Since he exposed his hand without calling that technically could result in a penalty.

Ithink many floors would rule that by exposing his hand and not stopping further action that he had accepted the action and the 200 should play. To rule that it didnt would mean that the turn and river were premature and would have to come back, and I doubt any floor would rule that.

The lesson for utg, should the amount have been larger, is that he should never expose his cards prior to being all in. And if he is not intendingtocall, he must stop the action before the dealer keeps dealing. He doesnt get to freeroll. He could end up in a situation where he is forced to pay the rest of his chips if he lost even though he didnt technically call. And you dont want to put yourself in situations where your chips are dependent on a judgementcall by the floor.

Browser nails it as usual. The dealer should wait until the UTG declares he's calling (either verbally or by tossing the chips in). Dealer gets a KITN because $15k can't be the right answer to the hand. Either the UTG called $15.2k or folded.

Action is on UTG. He may be subject to penalties when for exposing his hand when facing action, but his hand is still live. Dealer prematurely killed action and awarded pot.

From TDA
"68: Exposing Cards and Proper Folding

Exposing cards with action pending may result in a penalty but not a dead hand. Any penalty begins at the end of the hand. When folding, cards should be pushed forward low to the table, not deliberately exposed or tossed high (“helicoptered”). See also Rule 66."

Now, in this case, it is pretty clear that common sense says that this should be treated as call, whether UTG had won or lost. But it poses a bigger question, should stack sizes or game context matter when addressing black and white rule issues?

Minor side note ... The 18K is not enough to be considered a raise but because it was an 'all-in' it's in play and UTG has action pending for the remaining 200.

I've seen many times where a Player forgets that they use chips to protect their cards. On the flip side, you see a number of short stack experts (Cary Katz) leave a chip or two behind ... and you also see Players do it so they don't have to show in cash when they call off their last chip.

As commented, both the Dealer and UTG slipped up here a bit. GL

It obviously matters how many chips he has behind, but in this type of situation it is pretty obvious he was accepting the all in action and I expect it to be ruled as such.


Makes me wonder what UTG would have said had he lost the runout... "Wait, I never called!"

It would be hard to make a case for all-in action accepted if UTG put 200 in the pot and held the remaining 15k in his hand when flipping up his cards.

I am a subhuman piece of ****, but even a scumbag like me would never stoop so low.