Floor ruling
 

Got out of work early yesterday, enabling me to play some real-live, brick & mortar poker. It was a lot of fun to hold chips and cards after so much mouse clicking.

Played a two-table $30 buy-in NL tourney. Finished 6th, with top three paying. Ah well.

Anyway. About 3/4s of the way through, the big blind was a clearly inexperienced player. One player limped, and small blind completed. When it came around to the BB, the dealer said "Option," and, misunderstanding, he pushed his cards forward past the line as if to fold. His neighbor told him it was free to check, so he pulled his cards back -- they had not touched the muck.

The limper, somewhat of a table captain, insisited that the hand had been folded. The dealer called for a floor ruling, who said that since the the cards hadn't touched the muck, the player was entitled to keep his hand (which he later called another bet on and ended us losing more than if he had folded early). Given that this wasn't the WSOP and that the guy was rookie, I agreed with the floor, and thought the limper was being somewhat of an asshole.

Agree/disagree with the ruling? The conduct?

It all depends doesnt it. Watched a TV tourny recently and alot of internet rookies qualified and kept making similar mistakes, the tourny director offered no slack. I felt bad for them but it was for alot of money. If it was a local small buyin tourny like you outlined everyone should let peeps find their feet and make the odd genuine mistake.

There are newbie tournys in a few casions around London, where alot of slack is given to people make mistakes due to lack of experiance.

I can see where the limper had a problem here, but I can't argue with the ruling. In a small game like this I think you can be a little lenient, especially when some of the players are just learning the game. As long as you tell the player that if he makes that mistake again the hand gets folded. If the hand never touched the muck the limper really doesn't have a technically strong case.

Agree w/ Floor.
 

I agree w/ the floor's ruling - the cards didn't hit the muck!

What he said.

I'd rather see the floor make a ruling and stick with it for the tourney. No, if you do it again shit. That pisses me off more.

I coach for a living and I hate it when referees are "warning" players repeatedly throughout the game. Make a ruling, stick to it, manage the game, but don't try and teach people how to play along the way.

Not your job.

Off Subject:

That's really cool that you have a B&M that can spread a 2 table tourney for that small of a buy in.

A place I go to has 10 man SNgs for $125 buy-in. They have room to have 1, maybe 2, of these going on at the same time.

The structure is a joke, IMO. You get 20k in chips, the blinds start at 1,000 / 2,000!

You should see the suckers lining up to play these. I've seen guys bust and reenter 3 times while I was waiting for a seat at the limit tables.

Basically, you play AK for a raise, get called, and you don't hit anything on the flop, your tourney could be over.

All over the place here in Seattle
 

Several card rooms in Washington do these, and the best part is no rake - 100% of the prize pool is returned to the players. They serve as feeders for the ring games. The only catch is they tend to do them in the afternoons when the casino would otherwise be empty. Having a day job, I don't get to play them as often as I'd like.

I hate hands like this because I am so often the limper guy. I like to see things go my way at the table, and if it would have been good for him to fold I will push it

I'm not too much of an asshole, am I? ;)