Intentional miscalling of hand at showdown

[JeffBship]

At foxwoods 4/8 about a week ago, a guy showed his hand and said trips. The other player in the showdown flipped his and said two pair, then pushed his hand in the middle. The dealer was already shoving the pot at the trips guy when 2 or 3 other players said the second guy had a straight. The second guy was an older gentleman sitting at the far end of table and had several times had trouble seeing the cards at the far end of the board.

Well, clearly the straight wins the hand, right? Well the trips guy flips out and throughs a fit. His claim is that since the dealer had declared him the winner then it was his pot (there was around 50 bucks in the pot). Every single person at the table said give the pot to the straight guy, and he continued to through a fit. Even when the floor came over and agreed the straight guy gets the pot, trips argues that since the dealer made a mistake that the dealer should pay for it. He wanted to keep the pot and have the dealer match the pot out of his tray to give to the straight guy.

Well, I almost got up and left the table. I didn't want to play with a guy that would be such a jerk. Luckily for me and the other regular, this guy was so worked up over all this that he went on a tilt bing and rebought for about 500 bucks over the next hour, finally leaving busted.

By the way, I was talking to a dealer about Omaha one time. With so many cards there are often mini-debates about the best hand. She said at dealer school they train them to look at the board and decide what two cards are the nuts (hi and lo), then they can easily just check for those two after the showdown. This sounded like good advice and now before the showdown I mentally decide what two cards would beat me.

For instance: Board is QxT9x and I have J8. If no flush or pair on the board, he needs a J8 to split or KJ to win. Having decided this before the showdown, it's a quick check. I've also found this has improved my play since it lets me know exactly what cards he would need and I can then mentally review his play and estimate if he has them. (ie..did he raise UTG? J8 unlikely. Did I get a happy tell when the Q hit and put him on Qx, etcetera)

Moral of the story: One pot isn't going to matter much in the long game...if you're the trips guy be graceful and let it go, it's better for the game. And if there's a jerk on tilt at your table, just be patient and he'll pay you off.

Other moral of the story: Everyone makes mistakes, even dealers. Watch the cards.