[Nate.]

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Bizarre situation tonight in the 5/10nl at Venetian. I raise a straddle pot to 110 and get one caller. Flop comes QJx, check/check. Turn is an ace, check/check. River is a brick, he checks, I bet 200 and now he springs to life and raises another 300... eh whatever I call w/ AK.

He flips up K-Q-J. He has three cards. FLOOR!

Floor rules that there has been too much action for a misdeal (duhhhhhhhh) and his hand is dead. The guy flips out saying it's not his fault he was dealt three cards, and that he will leave if he does not get his money back. Which is a problem because he is a huge donk.

The dealer had pulled in the 200's from the river but his 300 raise and my call were still in front of us, so the floor says something to the effect of "you can ask the other player to refund your 300" and he looks at me and I oblige since I'm a nice guy. Dude thanks me and ends up staying and it becomes a running joke for the rest of the night as everyone checks to make sure they only have 2 cards when they are in a pot.

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] live poker.

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PokerFink--

Wow. I've given back a lot of chips in my day but I wouldn't have given those. You gave him a freeroll--if you'd folded, the situation might not have been discovered.

I very much understand that sometimes you'll want to keep bad players in the game, but I think a quick explanation is all you should give here. Giving him $300 doesn't make sense either justice-wise or financially (the difference to you between him and the next guy on the list is rarely $300). Whether he meant to or not, he took a shot at you with an illegal hand. Various poker/sports/etc. analogies are too obvious to state.

Also, I've frequently seen floors do similar passive-aggressive things. They're almost always terrible and usually serve to unfairly displace social pressure onto a player.* If we're lucky RR will chime in with his thoughts on these sorts of situations.

--Nate

*One that I remember vividly was when a floorperson gave a bad ruling at a final table of a big Caesars tournament (gave a shortish-stacked Scott Fischman an F-bomb penalty for something he said quietly, to another player, before cards were in the air, at the end of a break). "Well, I have to give the penalty, but if the rest of you want to play slow that's up to you."