| Correct ruling?
Hi folks,
I run a small poker league. We play once a month. Points are kept and at the end of the year we have a tournament of champions. We usually have between 12-20 players each month. Over the last two months a few rules questions have popped up. Here they are.
CASE #1
A river bet is called. The original better lays his hand down face up and declares, "I have two pair." The caller lays his hand down FACE UP and says "you got me beat." Guy at the table says, "hey man you got a straight." Caller rakes chips in. Original better gets pissed. What is the correct ruling? I rule that the cards play themselves and regardless of what caller says, his hand is his hand. The dealer is responsible for officiating the hand, not the players. In this case, the dealer was not the guy who spotted the straight. But in my opinion, that is irrelevant.
CASE #2
A river bet is called. The caller (for some unknown reason), lays his hand down first FACE UP. The caller has A-K on a Q-10-3-7-9 board for ace-high. As soon as the bet was called, the better says "you got me, I was taking a shot" and threw his cards FACE DOWN. After the caller rolled his hand over the original better says, "Oh, I can beat that." He then picks up his cards and shows A-3 for one pair. What is the correct ruling? I ruled that the player made a folding motion and threw in his cards face down. Therefore his intention was to fold.
However, now that I think about this in retrospect, I could be wrong. Since he played his hand to the showdown, his hand is also live as long as it does not hit the muck. It has been about 6 months since I have played in the casino. But I believe the dealer flips over each players cards that goes to a showdown. When you play online, you can go back into hand history and see what each player that went to showdown had in their hand. So, do the cards play themselves in this case as well?  | 
