Quote:
Originally Posted by tomshooter
I guess i should clarify. When seat 4 went all in out of turn Seat 1 took his chips back and said his bet was non binding. The rest of the table called him on it and asked for the Tournament director. When the TD came over seat 1 went silent. As others tried to explain what happened the TD asked the dealer what happened and the dealer yelled at the tournament director that he did not see nothing (his exact words) and asked when was he being relieved. I mentioned that the dealer was pissed because that was the only way I could see him not paying attention to the action to the extent that he saw nothing. My impression was that anything before the mistake had to stand but it did not in this case and seat 1 was able to retain all his chips to start the next hand. I thought it was a terrible decision.
This is less a matter of rules, and more a matter of how to handle the floor or TD during a dispute. The TD has two priorities. 1) Maintain control of the game, and 2) make the right ruling
When a TD is faced with 5 people yelling at him at once, and a dealer having already made a decision, they will often just back the dealer, rather than appear indecisive or susceptible to bullying
In this situation, better for one of the calmer, more experienced players to say 'Before you make a ruling, please let me explain clearly what I think happened, and then the dealer or other players can tell you if they disagree', and then give an objective presentation of the facts, without pushing for a ruling.
We have all seen TD's get locked into backing up a questionable ruling because they ruled too quickly or on bad information, and were reluctant to reverse themselves. Also, if people are getting hot, they try really hard to not take sides.
In this case, if you had just said 'Guys, let me say what happened, and you can correct me if I am wrong. Player 1 went all in, when action was player 3, player 4 acted out of turn. We need to know where the action is, and what that action is.', I am reasonably sure he would have made the right call. Don't even mention P1 trying to retract his bet, as that is ridiculous.