This Never Happened to Me Before - Ruling

[Kevin J]

Folded to me on the button and I raise. I'm in the 9 seat and the 10 seat has his cards on the other side of his chips where I can't see them. I look up and see the BB fold and the next thing I know the dealer is pushing me the blinds. Thinking its over, I release my cards and take the chips.

My cards are already in the muck (and the chips in my stack), when the 10 seat (the sb), say's WAIT A MINUTE! It's then that everyone (including the dealer), realized he still had his cards! When the dealer pushed me the blinds I assumed the 10 seat must've mucked already. But obviously, he didn't.

What happens now?

Result: I gave the 10 seat his sb back and everyone was happy. The floor never got called right away. But eventually someone did come over and we explained the situation to him. He said he would've ruled that I got to keep both blinds. His reasoning was it is the 10 seat's responsibility to protect his hand. I actually disagreed. He DID protect his hand! Granted, they were slightly to where I couldn't see them, but nothing intentional (he had a lot of chips). So yeah, the sb wasn't paying attention (he was talking to someone behind him), but neither was I and neither was the dealer! NO ONE noticed he still had cards! What if he was simply thinking about what he wanted to do? Is it his responsibility to stop the action? Why should he have to do that? If anything, I think he should've got both blinds and my hand should've been declared dead, cuz it's now in the muck. But then you have the problem of making a player take chips out of his stack after they've already been awarded to him. What a mess.

I'm curious to how an experienced floor person would've ruled here. Thanks.