[psandman]

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For example if I thought someone was all-in with 4000 chips against me with about 6000 chips left and I lost the hand, only to find out my opponent actually had 6500 chips, I seriously doubt I would be happy about being eliminated when I only agreed to rish 2.3s of my stack. I was in for 4000 chips, and if I lose, I'm only gonna pay 4000 chips... By the same token, if I'm only risking 4000, should I then be allowed to win 6000 'cos the other guy didn't realize he had 50% more than he thought he did?

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Here is the thing, when a mistake is going to cause someone to suffer a loss, its best that the person who made the mistake be the one to suffer the loss.

So in the case at hand where a player announced that he was all in for 3,000 when in fact he had 4,500 he is the one who made the mistake so he should suffer the loss. Now if the other player had him completely covered then in fact that player woukld be suffering a loss if you do not give him the extra chips (because of the players mistake the other player was denied the right to bet further. That is why the other player in the hand gets the chips. A more interesting scenario might be where SB has 4000, bets 3000 and the BB announces that he is all-in for less but actually had 4,500. When SB wins the hand the question is now what happens with the extra 500 chips that the big blind had that weren't covered by the SB. My opinion is that BB keeps them because there was no scenario under which he could have lost them to SB even if he didn't make the mistake.

Now in a scenario where a player announces that he is all in and for 4,000 and you call his bet based on that count that player can not win more than 4,000 regardless of how much he actually had, his mistake, so its his loss.