[PantsOnFire]

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I guess the real question is can you invoke the IWTSTH rule before the pot has been awarded by the dealer.

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Well if you don't your not going to have any cards to invoke it on because all the losing cards will be mixed into the muck before the pot is pushed.

If you want to invoke IWTSTH you better do it before the dealer mucks them (oddly enough I often have to explain this to players -- "Yes I heard you , you want to see those cards. But you see you didn't say that until I had already mixed those cards into the muck. now how do you propose that I show you those cards?").

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I have only invoked this rule once (guy did it to me twice) and that was at Caesers. It was a three way pot and this guy had gone all-in on the flop. At the river, he mucked before the other players and I asked the dealer to see his hand. He took the two cards and put them beside the muck. He then sorted out the pot between the other two players, mucked their cards pushed the pot to a player and then showed the hand.

I am fairly certain that when I asked to see his hand, it could be considered live but after the pot was awarded to the player, his cards are then dead.

Am I getting this correct or not?

So when that first player mucked, if I had just reached out and flipped his cards over instead of asking the dealer and gone through the process I described above, does that mean his cards are now live again and he can win the pot?

And if this is true, then I suppose I could sit beside a fish and turn his hand over on the river every time just in case he won one of those pots. I want the money to stay with the fish.