Bay 101 20/40. Spazztard opens early, super LP dude who I'm Jesus seating calls but only puts in $20, I 3! ATs. Back to LP who folds and forfeits his $20.

I win the hand, throw the dealer a buck, and quietly put 4 chips on LP's (small) stack with a polite smile and wink.

Right thing to do, good for the game or waste of money?

is this FL?

Bay 101? Do you really need to ask? Even if you really don't know this is Cali, a simple two second google search would get you your answer.

I am a little confused as to what you are asking here, with the part about 'quietly put 4 chips on LP's (small) stack'. Are you saying you completed his action for him, and then took the pot in?

If your question is about whether you should have made the LP throw in the other $20 he needed to pay or not, then of course you ask him or the dealer to complete the action. I don't see how letting him get away with a $20 under bet is 'good for the game' as opposed to making him pay it. I am sure it was just a mistake on his part and not a misunderstanding that would have caused any controversy.

Preflop, he thought he was calling a limp but was calling a raise. I 3!, opener called and it was back to him with only $20 in th pot. Floor told him his options were leave $20 in the pot and fold or call $60 or cap. He folded and forfeited $20.

After I won the hand I silent oh refunded his $20, effectively

He was asking if it was "Fixed Limit". (answer: yes it was 20/40 LHE, not NL)

Regarding OP question: if it makes you feel good, and no one else objects, good for you. Although in most rooms he would have been forced to put in $40, not just $20.

And if you had noticed the undercall the first time around, it would have been better to just wait and point out to the player (and dealer) that the full bet had not been called before you took your action. Personally I do this often.

Most places would ime make him call the $40 no surrender..

As played id refund him if i know him, and hes not a douche.

He was a station, calling tons. I am generallyv v goods out not telegraphing my actions, but the dealer had announced raises and he had put forth what was clearly not 12 chips and pulled his hand back. Brain fart on my part.

This guy was turning my $50/hr or whatever game into $80 so I decided to do him a mitzvah/solid.

Sorry, didn't get that, but even that was obvious anyway, lol!

Still would not be giving him his $20 back just because he was not paying attention.

The best thing to do is tell him it's 2 bets before you act.

I mean do whatever you want but the point of poker is to take money from people dumber than you. There is no sugar coating it

The point of poker is to take money from people worse at poker than you. Those are not the same thing.

Would like clarification on how opener made his raise. Was it 100% clear that he raised. Did the dealer declare a raise occurred.

If yes, fish should be required to put in 2bets.

If no, someone should immediately clarify the action. In this case, the floors ruling is defensible. [(a) is give fish all his options. (b) is to force him to commit 4 chips. (c) is to force him to commit 8 chips, but should only apply to the above. I prefer (a) to (b), which slightly penalizes hero for acting without clarifying the action]

Giving him back 4 chips is unnecessarily generous. Only reason to would be if you 100% believe he would have folded to the initial raise, and strongly believe (a) is the preferred ruling compared to (b)

If he said "call," I would make him call the $40 preflop (and I assume he would choose to call the additional $20) and not refund money at the end of the hand.

If he didn't say anything, I would not have 3-bet until he made things clear, and usually that means he's allowed to take the initial $20 back, which is fine with me.

If he didn't say anything and I 3-bet anyway, I would refund his $20 because it's my own damn fault and I deserve to lose $20.

As a side note, you're overestimating the amount you get from a single fish. If he's giving you $30/hr, then you'd be a +6 BB/hr winner in a game full of hims.

$5-$10/hr would be a more reasonable estimate.

What kind of ruling is that, that he only has to keep the 20$ in, not the 40. Makes no sense, I really don't think that's the rule at bay 101, maybe the dealer is making up ****.

Anyway, I would refund it if I believed he genuinely didn't realize that there was a raise. If I thought he was just angling to get out of calling the 2 in the first place, then not so much.

to answer the question in the thread title, neither. giving the chips back is neither a gesture of goodwill nor a waste of money. you're very likely to get that money back and you know that. being that you're directly on the left of this guy means that a reasonable portion of his chips are going to end up in your stack. you're essentially trying to propitiate him with this "sacrifice".

what you did was a form of softplay and i think it's silly. everyone at the casino is an adult and is capable of managing their own chips/money in whatever fashion they so choose. part of the game is paying attention to the action in front of you and if a player chooses not to, the onus is on them.

i usually end up doing the same thing unless it's somebody that i don't particularly like. yep, i am always and forever getting freerolled.

really? even if a regfish in your game accidentally mucks a winner at sd and retrieves it to show you the winning hand, you just tell him, "tough luck"?

actually scratch that. i could still think of some people that i don't like, and i'd still let them take it back. sticklers for the rules are ****.

Well no but I guess I meant within the norms of the game. I agree there can be lots of gray areas, I didn't read OPs post maybe the way I just re-read it where the dude made a complete error as to the bets, I thought he limped and folded for two more bets. I guess I was in a bad mood before lol, I am very friendly and get along well with almost all types of sea creatures.

this is a completely different situation and not really relevant imo.

OP, it seems like you want to give the guy the 4 chips back because you realize you angled him out of them by taking action before his action was complete.

nobody angled anybody. dude made an honest mistake and was given a pass. that simple.

Not necessarily. It's possible that villain accidentally called 1 but would have coldcalled 2, but because Dan 3-bet so quickly he decided to pretend he wouldn't have coldcalled 2.

The only person who loses is Dan, which is why it should just be standard for him to stop the action and ask for clarification, whether he intends to 3-bet or fold.

As a matter of fact, I just had to do that exact thing yesterday - EP villain who has both open-limping and open-raising ranges tosses in an oversized chip and mumbles something inaudible, at least to my side of the table. It's folded to me, I hold the action and ask for clarification even though I intend to fold.

[spoiler]Dealer says it's a call, I fold, 1 fold, BTN asks for same clarification, gets the same answer and folds, then EP speaks up and says he said raise. Fortunately everyone in position folded and SB plus BB both accepted his action, otherwise dealer would have gotten more than a KITN.[/spoiler]

oh, i see.