Happened at my local casino. It's a small room and we're playing a $33 buy-in tournament. Down to the last 5 players. UTG is the short stack and shoves preflop. Folds to the BB who has a huge chip lead in front of everyone else. BB is thinking about calling and for some reason UTG thought that he was called and flips over his hand. Floor is called and rules that the BB can make his decision knowing what UTG has. Was it the right decision?

Yeah, that is definitely the correct ruling

+1

The floor should slip BB a roofie and wake him up a few hours later so that he can act without knowing the contents of the hand. It's elaborate, but the integrity of the game must be maintained whenever possible.

Or, y'know, just let him act and move on. UTG's hand is never dead.

UTG should get a warning because this was a tournament. Cash game he would be allowed to do this if he wanted to, so no warning. Correct?

Correct ruling 110% of the time. What reason can you think of that BB's or UTG's hand is dead? Next time you go all in, make sure you dont open your hand until the dealer pulls the money in.

it would be nice if you could simply shove and instaflip your cards to kill the other guy's action

Yes, and in the tournament scenario, a second instance of this would probably result in a time penalty. A third or fourth violation may result in disqualification. At no time is the hand ever ruled dead during play. Besides, disqualification is a little more harsh than a dead hand.

In a cash game, heads up, feel free to flip over one or both cards any time you want. It doesn't affect any other player.

Floor should have ruled that UTG player is an idiot.

+1

Most players do this to try and get the blinds and antes w/5 players left, knowing his hand is either strong or weak to a random blind hand, the player will try and get extra info out of the BB to try and get him to fold, even if the UTG player is ahead....chipping up to bigger payout pretty much is the only way I could see someone doing this, and I know at foxwoods it is a warning 1st and 2nd time is a 1 orbit penalty.

fwiw: In my local room, hand is live, other player can act as he wishes based on the information - then after the hand the premature hand flipper gets a 10 minute penalty away from the table. (Unless it's the final table, in which case the penalty is one lap of the button away from the table.)

Not everywhere. Seneca Casino does not allow cards to be show until showdown, even in cash games, and WILL rule hands dead!!

Wow, that's absolutely horrible. PlayerA bets, PlayerB calls. PlayerA doesn't see player C and flips the nuts. Dead hand. Nice poker room.

Free booze FTW.

Throw in large-breasted servers and I'm there.

There are some. And some "ample" masseuses....

Pretty much the same deal in Winnipeg, cards can't be shown until all possible action is complete, they call it a form of intimidation I think.

That's not completely unreasonable and hopefully the penalty is a warning or two followed by some time out. However, killing a hand is unreasonable.

similar situation for me last night.

Cash game, I checkraise a player all in on the turn with a weak pair and a big draw. He tanks and eventually calls. River bricks and I flip my hand up, saying "nice hand".

dealer says "action's not over..."

otherguy flips his hand up while the dealer is still trying to stop the action - busted draw J hi, but he still has $15 bucks behind (I miscounted his stack)

Dealer shrugs and pushes me the pot.

I'm assuming my hand is never dead there. I apologized and told the guy I wasn't trying to angle him, I just miscounted his stack. I also assume he could have shoved his last $15 as a bluff there knowing my hand had he so chosen.

This is a great example of exactly why killing a hand would be horrendous.

The floor should stop taking advantage of that...

From the The Poker Tournament Directors Association Rules:

31. Exposing Cards A player who exposes his cards with action pending may incur a penalty,
but will not have a dead hand. The penalty will begin at the end of the
hand.

Were you heads-up on the turn? If so, don't bet what you "think" the player has..just say "I'm All In". That way, you can be sure you are not leaving him with any chips. If you were not heads-up on the turn, simply ask how much he has before making your wager.

The examples given are all cash games. The rules for tournaments do not always apply to ring games.

I was not heads up on the turn, but I was making a pretty significant raise. I don't think asking for a stack count in that situation would have been strategically very beneficial there though, because the other player in the hand had already bet, had me covered, and had enough of an effective stack above and beyond the original villain that I could fold if he shoved and I didn't want to induce that if I could help it.