Ethics ? followed by a very boring procedural ?

[EWillers]

2-5NL the action is relatively unimportant. There's about 80 in the pot and on the river I bet 40. I get one caller. I table KT (board is J J 8 T 2).

My opponent nods in a dejected manner and folds his hand. Traditional fold, forward with enough force to go into the muck. Really into the muck. About 1/2 second later my opponent starts reachin' for the muck. He claims to have had the same hand. Now his cards are i n the muck, but I'd lay about 4-1 that I could still pull out his two cards.

Another player goes ahead and reaches in and pulls out a KT. I believe my opponent had KT. What to do?

The dealer was about to call the floor (I am about 95% sure the ruling would be in my favour). I push the last $40 call back to my opponent and ask if he thinks that's fair. He nods in approval and the rest of the pot gets pushed to me.

In hindsight, I realise that my opponent didn't speak english very well and may have thought that my gesture of pushing the $40 call back was the begining of splitting the whole pot. It kinda left me with a sick feeling in my stomach, not that I didn't feel that our solution was fair to him, but rather that he didn't fully understand our "solution" and without a floor intervention he might have felt he was treated unfairly.

Question #2 ( a totally dry and boring quesiton regarding procedural minutia)

Player in seat 1 posts the BB. On the next hand he moves to the vacated 3 seat. Seat 2 posts the BB on the next hand. (I understand that the dealer could have avoided this situation by simply asking the mover to go ahead and post his SB and play his button prior to moving.) Now, on this hand what are the array of options for the new seat 3. Can he:

1) Post a live out of position SB, sit out two hands waiting for the button to pass and then come in behind the button for free?

2) Sit out the next two hands posting his out of position SB after the button passes? Would this SB still be live as it is an out of position SB post (as opposed to a missed SB post) or does its "liveness" get forfieted after he fails to post on the immediate next hand?

I guess the thing that doesn't sit well with me on this situation is that having the player post the SB on the very next hand sends him down a path of having to post the BB and SB again on the next 2 hands. But, to do otherwise (let him sit out 2 hands after posting the SB) seems to smack of posting between the blinds and the button (I know that's not what's happening here, but it just doesn't pass my gut test).

[Dranoel]

Answer to Question #1:

His hand is dead. He clearly threw them in. Yes, he realized he made a mistake, but that is a lesson learned.

Not a nit at all, but he clearly discarded. Sorry for his luck.

Dealer should have pushed the pot to you.

[atrainpsu]

For the first part, there is no need to feel bad, you already gave him more than he deserved (nothing).
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1) Post a live out of position SB, sit out two hands waiting for the button to pass and then come in behind the button for free?

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In the casinos I have played, depending on the casino (and the dealers) you are entitled to move 2 or 3 seats to the left without having to pay the blind. So in this situation he wouldn't have to post the SB, but would have to post the BB the next hand (and the SB the hand after).
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2) Sit out the next two hands posting his out of position SB after the button passes? Would this SB still be live as it is an out of position SB post (as opposed to a missed SB post) or does its "liveness" get forfieted after he fails to post on the immediate next hand?

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He could sit out until the button passes and then post the SB, but it would be dead. I think the only time it's live is if you move out of the natural blind position and post it in another position during the hand you were supposed to be the SB.

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I guess the thing that doesn't sit well with me on this situation is that having the player post the SB on the very next hand sends him down a path of having to post the BB and SB again on the next 2 hands. But, to do otherwise (let him sit out 2 hands after posting the SB) seems to smack of posting between the blinds and the button (I know that's not what's happening here, but it just doesn't pass my gut test).

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Not sure what you're saying, but if the guy posted his SB to the left of the BB and then sat out 2 hands and came in for free behind the button, this is wrong. The player moved and in order to get in that hand he payed his SB. The next hand he would assume the responsibility that that seat has, which is the BB.

The easiest (and most beneficial for the player) way to handle this, is for the player to play his SB in the same seat, play the next 2 hands, and then move 2 seats over. No extra posting and you gain 2 extra hands in late position.

[SNOWBALL]

situation 1: give him half the pot, because he's clearly a new player. New players will be discouraged to play if they feel they are being treated unfairly.