The Decision That Brought a Poker Room to a Halt

I recently returned from the second annual Jack Binion World Poker Open. This tournament continues to grow, and is one of the premier stops on the tournament circuit.

On the last night of my trip, I witnessed something that I have never seen before. I watched as an entire poker room came to a crawl because of a decision that was being made at one of the live-game tables.

I was playing in a $50-$100 Omaha high-low game that was located two tables behind a big pot-limit game where the commotion started. I will detail what happened during and after the hand, as I witnessed and was told afterward.

The game was pot-limit Omaha with $50-$100 blinds. The hand played out uneventfully until the river. This is what happened:

The board showed 10-8-3-J-J.

Player A checked.

Player B grabbed his stack of cash and tossed it onto the table in front of him, betting approximately $10,000. The pot at the time, I would estimate, was about $20,000.

Player A grabbed his stack of cash and picked it up. He softly stated, "Well, you got me," as he started to count his money.

At this point, Player B, thinking that Player A had said he was calling, turned his hand over, exposing his jacks full of eights. Player A, seeing that he was beat, put down his cash, picked up his hand, and tossed it toward the muck.

This is when things got ugly. Player B, realizing what had happened, became outraged that Player A did not call. He swore up and down that he had heard Player A say, "I call." Since this particular game can generate pots in excess of $100,000, there was already a small crowd around the table. But the commotion made that crowd a little bigger, as players left their seats to see what was going on.

At this point, the dealer called for the floorman, as Player B was not going to let this happen. The floorman who arrived at the table is a respected veteran floorman and dealer. He assessed the situation by gaining insight from the dealer, both players involved, and the other players at the table. This process took about five minutes, and now the crowd was large, and it included me, as I love to see tough decisions made. In the meantime, Player B was yelling that Player A had said, "Call," and was causing quite a stir.

After what seemed like an eternity, the floorman finally made a decision, and in my opinion, he made the right decision: Player A did not call, and did not have to call. This completely outraged Player B.

At this point, the floorman should have walked away from the table, knowing that he had made the correct decision. If there was a follow-up to this decision, he could deal with it away from the table. However, he didn't walk away, and Player B continued to press his point. Player B then stated to the floorman, "I'll bet he has tens full; turn his hand over; he would have called with tens full." The floorman made a bad decision and turned the hand over, exposing tens full. This caused an absolute uproar in the room, and I'm sure that it made Player A feel bad. There must have been 100 people standing around the table, and my game had stopped dealing, as most of the players were watching.

A compromise was reached, and Player A agreed to give Player B $5,000, half of the bet.

I believe that Player A did nothing wrong, and should not have had to call anything. Player B made a mistake by exposing his hand prematurely. The floorman assessed the situation properly, and made a decision that I believe was correct, but then he erred by not walking away. By turning over the hand, he was no longer in a position to defend his own decision.

If there is a lesson to be learned from this situation, it's one that I have often stressed: Do not turn your hand over, or throw your hand away, until all action is complete. Also, there's a lesson for all floor personnel: After you have made a decision, walk away from the table feeling confident in what happened. If you have to deal with it later, the best place to do so is away from the table. Remember, the floorperson's decision is final.

Editor's note: Michael O'Malley's E-mail address and website are [email protected] and www.rzitup.com, respectively.