What if the player mucks his hand and the dealer reveals the cards (I know he isn’t supposed to, just hypothetically) and it is realized that the mucker was mistaken?
If the hand touches the muck, it’s dead.
Help me out with “muck.”
The muck is the area in the center of the table where dead cards (burn cards, folded hands etc . . .) are gathered. You fold by pushing your hand towards that pile. Once it touches that pile it cannot be retrieved even if you can point to your cards in the pile.
Hi, I am a poker dealer by profession. Two fundamental rules of poker are “it is the players responsibility to protect their hand” and “cards speak” Een if I as a dealer misread a hand, the cards speak louder than anyone. Concerning the muck, the general rule is that cards that hit the much for any reason are dead. However, the poker room manager can declare a recoverable hand “alive.” Also, if a pot is pushed to the wrong person, generally it is the dealer that must pay the pot if the wrong winner does not wish to give the pot back or it can’t be recovered.
Since this is a home game in the OP, the house rules should stipulate these things.
Also, as a poker dealer, I have to say, your opponent showed poor sportsmanship. We have a regular player in our tournament who, for lack of a better phrase, has floppy hands, occasionally, he fumbles and puts out more chips than he intended because of his hands, I know this about this player and do not enforce our most hated house rule that “your cards are your perimeter and any chips that cross your cards constitute your bet” when I recognize it was due to his inablity to maintain control of his hands. You are dyslexic, you should insist that “cards speak” be in force in any game you play. We have players that are almost blind, colorblind, in wheelchairs, are deaf, etc. It is not reasonable or sportsmanlike to penalize someone for handicaps. Example: the legally blind player plays hold’em. We read the board to him as the cards come out.
Taking a pot from a dyslexic person for not recognizing a straight (easy to miss, even by pros) is tacky. Then again, while your regular opponents know this about you, they should enforce it as a house rule. You are expecting a very common poker rule to be enforced. Which is one of the hazards of home games.
You could always fly this one past the guy. If players are head to head and all bets are called, and player A shows his hand and player B folds his cards face down, but they have not yet hit the muck, if Player A asks to see the hand, the hand is NOT killed and the dealer turns the cards over, if Player B’s cards actually would have won, Player B wins the pot. However, if any other player asks to see Player B’s cards, his hand is first killed by tapping it on the muck before it is displayed and is no longer a live hand and the original winner keeps the pot regardless. That is one of my favorites, and one I adore enforcing.
Unless there’s some sort of house rule to the effect that “you must humbly call your hand” the dealer obviously did the right thing - the guy clearly knew he had 4 queens.
Another example of why “cards speak” is the right rule.