[Brettski]

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Put it this way: the first hand that hits the muck gets mucked. That leaves ... well ... only one hand left that can claim the pot! The one that hasn't been mucked yet!

Is this ruling getting a bit technical?

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It isn't technical, it is just wrong. As it hinted at in the title of the OP there is nthing magical about the muck that kills hands.

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I probably should have worded this better to avoid confusion. I should have said "the first hand that hits the muck should be properly mucked by the dealer."

For the record, I don't believe in the "magic muck". I don't believe that just because cards hit the muck they are automatically dead.

In the OP's scenario, I would have ruled the hand that touched the muck was live. If that was the case, both hands claiming the side-pot could be tabled, and the pot awarded to the winning hand that way.

But this didn't happen. The floor ruled the hand dead. And hey, if that's the rules of that card room, then that's the rules of that room.

I think the point is that if a hand (one way or another) is not irretrievable, then it will always be at risk of being called live. That's one of the reasons why smart players who've won a pot will hang on to their cards until all folded hands have been mucked.