Florida rooms don't allow dealers to muck showdown hands

[AngusThermopyle]

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The Isle in Pompano and the Hard Rock Hollywood, possibly one or two other rooms, have recently set a policy in which the dealer is not allowed to muck hands at showdown. As he's reading hands, the dealer must turn losing hands face down in front of the player but cannot gather in cards until after the pot is awarded.


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I'm sure I'll be in the minority here but to me this constitutes a folded / mucked hand. So if you table your hand and the dealer consequently turns it face down, it is now folded / mucked.


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Wrong.
Wrong.
And, wrong.

3 players table their hands. Dealer thinks Player A wins.

"Standard practice":
Dealer reaches over, grabs Player B's cards, and jams them into the muck.
Dealer reaches over, grabs Player C's cards, and jams them into the muck.
Dealer starts to shove pot to Player A.

Player B and Player C claim they had winners.
Want to sort out the mess?

"No muck showdown":
Dealer reaches over, turns Player B's cards face down.
Dealer reaches over, turns Player C's cards face down.
Dealer starts to shove pot to Player A.
Player B and Player C claim they had winners.
Easy to sort out. Just turn the hands over and verify the winner.

And please don't say the players should "protect their hand". With a lot of newer players and speed-happy dealers, it is easy for the dealer to grab the tabled hands and muck them before anybody can say something.

As far as not allowing a player to muck his own hand without tabling it, I think that might be a misinterpretation of the procedure.