In Robert's Rules of Poker, the first rule for House Policies / Decision Making is this: Many card rooms enforce this rule or a similar one which allows a supervisor the latitude to actually disregard the letter of the law if they feel that fairness overrides strict literal interpretation of the rule book.

How often has this happened to any of you? As players or as a casino employee? What was the situation and did you feel that the supervisor made the correct decision in spite of the fact that it was, by literal reading of the rules, the wrong one?

I would like to hear stories about the situations that came up where this rule was invoked...

There was one time when I was playing that this happened to me. I was playing $1/2 at Delaware Park and I picked up Queens against a player who straddled. I made a huge PF raise he called. After a Jack-high rainbow flop, he checked and I made a pot sized bet. He gathered all of his chips together and shoved them forward quickly.

I called instantly and said "I have Queens," and next thing I knew, he was pulling his chips back. The dealer then said that it wasn't a bet since it only went to the betting line, not over it.

I called the floor over. After input from the dealer, the floor got his boss over and it was all explained again to him. Finally after a huddle, it was ruled that the forward action and the exaggerated manner in which he made put him all-in even if the betting line rule didn't.

Needless to say I thought this was the correct ruling. Everyone at the table agreed.

The poker gods obviously didn't since he tabled JT and turned trip Jacks...

Actually, the rule is there but it is also something that should be used rarely since the rule book is pretty comprehensive.

Mostly, the rule should be applied when someone tries an angle shot such as the one the OP experienced. it is mostly the angle shooters who dislike this rule as a result.

Oh yeah, I know why it's there. I just wanted to hear some real stories from the trenches of the circumstances in which it was employed and what the folks involved thought. In my case, it wasn't very controversial but I imagine in some cases it can be.

This isn't necessarily an application of the rule you are asking about. In many rooms crossing the betting line is not conclusive.

It's there to prevent angle shooting, and it does a great job.

The rule is also there because it's impossible for any rule book to cover every possible contingency. And sometimes a literal application of the rules in a situation that nobody foresaw would be ludicrous. It's hard to pull examples outta thin air, but you know it when you see it.

Only real-life example I can think of offhand would be a player in the 10-seat in a game at Aladdin went all-in, 3-seat called, 9-seat mucked her cards and one of them just ever so barely touched the corner of a card belonging to the 10-seat, who had put all his chips in the middle so had no card protector. A player not in the hand started screeching "DEAD HAND! THAT'S A DEAD HAND! KILL THAT HAND!". Dealer does a WTF and the screecher demands the dealer not touch a thing and the floor be called. Floor comes over, dealer says he watched the 9-seat muck the cards, is 100% sure there are no shenanigans, the cards are just ever so barely touching and it's blatantly obvious the two cards stacked on top of each other belong to the 10-seat and the card all askew out toward the middle of hte table is the muck... Floor says he ain't killing the 10-seat's hand over that. Screecher continues to screech and throw a fit and explain that this is the worst-run card room she's ever been in and clearly nobody here but her knows the rules.

The "rules are rules" crowd will agree with screecher. Others of us will happily point to Rule 1 and move on with game.

Every organization with a list of rules, has "the rule" that can trump the the rest of the list. Makes sense to have that on hand for the outrageous situations that will arrise.

I see it used to chop pots or give rebates or that sort of thing, mainly when there is a odd situation that is no one's specific fault, or involving a new player.

as an example, last night playing FLHE it was 5 way for 2 bets. on the flop, the 1 seat bet, 3 guys folded, and the 9 seat was considering whether to call, but his cards were slightly hidden from view. the dealer quickly mucked the board and pushed the pot to the 1 seat, who then tossed his cards into the muck just as the 9 seat chirped up that he still had cards.

I know both players, and I know neither intentionally shot an angle. You could say that seat 1 needed to protect his action and know that 9 still had cards, but you could also say that he was pushed the pot and only gave his cards up then, and he can't hold up the game all day every time he wins a pot just making sure he's the only one left. You could also say that seat 9 needed to protect his action and speak up before the pot gets pushed and everything gets mucks, but it was really pretty fast and he was looking at his stacks when it happened.

whose fault? who gets the pot? the guy who got it pushed to him? the only guy left with cards?

in the end, they used rule 1 and gave seat 9 back his PF money.

I just pulled out rule 1 in a ruling, similar to that described above.

Blinds 50/100. UTG+2 opens to 500. BTN (seat 9) calls. Dealer is distracted telling some story, doesn't notice. Blinds fold, dealer scoops blinds and awards to UTG+2, and then grabs her cards. As dealer starts to shuffle, BTN speaks up.

Technically, seat 9 should win the pot since she was still in the hand and had cards. However, since she had only called the raise, the dealer's error was very obvious, and everyone at the table (BTN included) felt bad for UTG+1, I ruled that the hand be reset and started over.

A pretty bad ruling technically, since UTG+1 should protect her hand and follow the action, but it left the table happy and was more fair than the player who followed the dealer's lead losing her chips.

In cases like this one, I point out that the rule says if YOUR hand touches another hand, YOUR hand is dead, not the hand your cards landed on or near. While sometimes both hands may have to be killed if you don't know what is what, allowing someone to kill another hand by throwing his hand into it would be ludicrous.