Hell I even suggest Op is banned. There is no reason what so ever for Howard to show his hand on purpose there.

It does seem a little far fetched that Laak and/or Lederer would intentionally expose the hand. However, in the spirit of the thread I'll play along.

1) I did think the "double fold" was a little strange when I saw it the first time. Previously, I thought that Lederer's cards had flipped over solely because of his folding action, but after reviewing the footage, it appears that Laak may actually physically contact one of Lederer's cards as he folds. Lederer's other card seems to flip over solely because of his odd fold.

If you watch Laak fold, he holds onto his cards virtually the entire way to the felt. Also, it looks like he brings his cards down on one of Lederer's cards as it's on its edge, causing it to flip over. Of course, the other side of the argument would be that both of Lederer's cards may have flipped over anyway and if Lederer would have folded differently it wouldn't have been an issue in the first place.

2) Also, there are two sides to the issue of Laak and Lederer showing each other their cards. On one hand, it seems to be an odd coincidence that they take the unusual action of showing each other their hands and make an awkward "double fold" on the same hand.

On the other hand, you could point out that they fold at the same time precisely because they show each other their hands. Also, you might explain the odd folding action by pointing out that they were holding their cards in a certain way to show each other their hands and this consequently effected their normal folding action.

edit: wp on the Kennedy assassination diagram. That's the first thing I thought of when I read the OP as well lol.

The answer is yes.















You are crazy.

LOL, what?

Phil Laak is a scumbag. He did it intentionally. That nit.

Damn it Howard!

Confirmed crazy

It's not that hard to accidently, on-purpose expose a hand. It'd just be such a weird spot to do it in though (I mean what are you accusing him of? The most awkward and borderline worthless collusion play ever in a setting where they know it's on tape? Neither of those two guys are exactly dumb). Without looking at it all I'd say is those shootings can be a pain and a drain. You're probably more likely to make an honest mistake in that setting than in a normal one. IIRC it's also kind of set up to where the table is fairly crowded. A lot of people have cash playing, you've got the extra stuff associated with coverage and showing your hands dictating your space, and it's just akward. Throw in people doing kind of awkward/hollywood stuff (this is probably the stuff you're talking about w/ Laak he likes to do that goofy, "I'm looking at your hand" "oh I turbo muck" "oh I'm such a weirdo" routine on a pretty regular basis just to be him/him on tv) and I mean a mucked card flipping is a mucked card flipping, it happens.

Also, from what I remember N.C. was probably talking out of his ass/needling Daniel. Doesn't make exposing cards something you're real happy about but I suspect it had less impact than it got played up to have.

Plus One

This ^^

OP give me whatever you are smoking please god, what does howard and laak supposedly gain from this? they were curious and it was an accidentle fold, its pretty standard everyone done this in their lifetime.

imo it is just some (very funny) Laak shenanigans. LoL "Whoa! Dumbass!"

if you want to over-analyze it, it does seem like Laak throwing down his cards somehow bounces up Lederers cards, maybe caused by the air pressure of the downward throw. I've seen a couple funny tricks like this before, like one time Laak accidentally reached for the button or across the table as Hellmuth was folding and KQ flipped up, because Hellmuth's cards went right off his hand... which was hilarious. I think it was purely accidental, but the idea that it could've been a clever trick, followed by Laak's super earnest and serious apology and Hellmuth's visibly angry irritation was just LoL funny. In this vid, L & L's Laurel and Hardy response is also pretty damn funny. Again I'd say unintentional and just one of those things, i.e., oops

fwiw, daniel pokes fun later in the same episode that howard intentionally did it. check out hand starting at 31:35

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnLJQKaO3gY&t=31m35s