Player throwing cards at me - Did I handle this right?

[habsfanca11]

It's long. TLDR notes at the bottom.

15/30 Local Card Room. Seat 1 is just a miserable wretch, especially when he is drinking. And he is drinking tonight. Type of player who gets absolutely incensed when someone sucks out on him and who typically holds everyone else to a higher standard than he holds himself to. Everyone else is just plain lucky. You know the type. I've had a few run-ins with him before. Most notably, a couple of months before after I won a pot off of him, he started making some hand gestures, in effect calling me a jerk-off. After I was done racking my chips I confronted him by asking him if the gestures were meant for me. He muttered some sorry excuse that I only half heard about him just talking to the guy beside him and I let it rest. The next week I saw him out front of the card room and he apologized for being so frustrated at the table. Not exactly an apology for his behaviour but a make-good gesture that I took for what it was.

So on to Friday night. For him, he had been playing pretty erratically. Or as I saw it, with a much wider range than he normally plays. We get involved in a multi-way pot that checks around on the flop and he bets the turn. I'm the only caller. I spike trips on the river and check-raise him. He flashed his hand to me and he has second pair with a turned flush that didn't get there. The pot has been pushed my way and as I reach out to drag it in when his cards come rocketing over - hard enough that they make a pretty loud "click" when they hit my stack before rebounding into my hands. Remember he's in Seat 1 with the muck in front of him (and I'm in Seat 8). I push his cards out onto the table for the dealer to collect and he condescendingly asks, "Did you think your hand was good when you called?". I replied, "I wasn't sure, I had a piece and a draw, I just didn't realize you had a better draw."

I didn't say anything after that and played a few hands before going over to the floor. Out of earshot and away from the tables I explained what happened to the floor, saying I didn't want to make a big deal about it , but what should I do if it happened again? The floor said to definitely call him if it happens again.

So you can guess what happens. We get involved in a three way pot where he flopped broadway and I have the nut flush draw. My draw never comes in and fold on the river. He flashes A,Q and then sails his cards over my way. The dealer is trying to push him the pot and he gets a little tangled up with the dealer while he is pitching the cards so they land in-between the hands of the guy beside me in Seat 7. Seat 1, points to me and says, "Those are for you" (twice). I ask the dealer to call the floor.

The floor finally gets called and tries talking to him to get him to smarten up. They wind up having a pretty heated exchange and the floor tells him to rack up and leave.

I don't know any other way to handle this and was looking for some advice. It's not something that happens very often. Felt kind of dirty getting someone kicked out and not handling it myself. Any ideas? Advice?

Cliff Notes:
Player throws cards at me (hard).
Couple of hands later I talk to the floor - he advises me to call him next time.
Player does it again (but softly this time).
I call floor - player gets kicked out.

[AngusThermopyle]

Loc: Becoming Clueless

[Homer]

seems pretty standard to call the floor and have the player ejected unless he is a really big donator and you're willing to put up with the abuse.

[SNOWBALL]

I would have warned the player the first time. Your approach was fine though.

[Chipr777]

Nothing wrong with the way you handled the situaton. Players , or dealers, shouldn't have to put up with abuse from players.

[AngusThermopyle]

I would have told the player myself the first time. Why does everybody have to run to the Floor with their problems without trying to resolve them themselves in a nice low key manner?

The second time seemed to be a non-event. I would not have called the Floor.

[chucky]

Given that the player had a history of abusing you, going to the floor the first time seemed reasonable. The second action by him did not seem that bad in my eyes, but abuse is a cumulative poison.

[tommyrotten]

Dealing with jerks like this is Floor's job, not yours, so you played it right.

Also, you didn't get the guy kicked out, he got himself kicked out. If he had handled his end of the conversation with the Floor like a man instead of a clown, Floor wouldn't have booted him.

[MicroBob]

I agree that OP didn't get this guy kicked-out.
Floor talked to him about it and from the OP's account it seems obvious that if the guy hadn't freaked he wouldn't have gotten kicked-out.

All he has to do is behave semi-tolerably when the floor tells him that he shouldn't be doing that and he most likely could have stayed in the game just fine.

Pretty decent chance that this isn't the first time this guy has done such stuff nor the first time that the floor has had to deal with him.
Possibly more history that led to his getting the boot than OP knows about.

[Fnord]

Why don't you want this guy at the table again?