[bav]

Totally depends on the room, yes.

I played in a game once where the dealer was enforcing the "cards that go out of my sight are dead" rule religiously. There was a youngster at the table using home-game-learned techniques to look at his cards--he'd pick 'em up and slide 'em off the table into his lap and look straight down at them. Only the dealer could no longer see the cards when he did this. So first time, dealer said "WoaWoaWoa, no buddy! That hand is dead! Gimme the cards... just hand me the cards" and he explained why. The very next hand, we do it all over again. Next hand the kid struggles a little and awkwardly tries to protect the cards while he looks at them. Next hand he forgets and puts 'em below the table again...dead hand. He manages to keep 'em in sight for 10 hands, or so, then slips back into old habits and "Dead Hand!" Thankfully he busted outta this tournament a few hands later.

How SHOULD it work? I dunno. I go back and forth. I dislike the idea that someone could palm a card (or bring one in) and arrange to drop THAT card on the floor while palming a card from his hand. Cards that go outta sight are highly suspect--when the dealer can't see 'em and the cameras can't see 'em there's no way to be sure you're getting back the right card. But I also don't much like the idea that someone could lose a $500K pot because he was nervous and fumbled his cards and dropped one.