[Shean]

I use my card protector for several reasons. First, it has a little bit of personal value to me; it was a very nice coin with my undergrad's seal on it that I received from a good friend when I graduated. Second, I don't want the dealer mistakenly mucking my cards, or more importantly, for my cards to be declared dead when another player's mucked cards hit mine.

A little B&M story. I was playing in the #1 seat (at the Dealer's immediate left). I decided to call, capped my cards with my protector, and pushed them a little bit away from me so people at the other end of the table (Seats 8, 9, and 10) could see I was in the hand. Shortly thereafter, the player in Seat #3 mucked, and because of the way he awkwardly threw them, they landed directly on top of my cards/protector. Because I had my cards protected, the dealer simply took the mucked cards and my hand was still live. However, if I didn't have my cards protected, that would have killed my hand. So I use a card protector to protect my hand from being accidently mucked by the dealer or declared dead when runaway mucked cards touch my cards.