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i was dealing (and playing) at a poker tourney yesterday when 2 players went to the flop and i was gathering all folded hands. i accidently collected one active players cards and he pointed this out to me. i decided the best course of action was for him to whisper me his cards ( he is good player therefore can remember the suit(s)
) and he whispered AdQd ( which bore no relevence to the flop)and in the pile of folded cards AdQd were next to eachother. so i gave him them. everyone seemed happy with the way it was handled but i wasnt sure if it was the "correct" way. ruling plz?
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While I like to see an effort made to not accidently kill hands, there is a problem with your method. Another player may have legitimate concenrs about whether you and the player with the mucked hand are cheating.
imagine you are in the game when this happens and lets suppose you don't all know each other that well. Maybe you don't even like the dealaer. Now you get into a big hand with the a player, the dealer sweeps up his cards, he whispers to the dealer the dealer looks threw the muck and gives the player two cards. they turn out to be a monster (but they are also cards that most people would not have called your preflop raise with) -- might it go though your mind that they were working together?
If you are going to do this sort of thing I at least recommend that the player write down his cards, so that after the hand you can at least eliminate the possibility that the dealer simply picked out the best two from the muck.