Going all-in question

When going all-in at N/L Holdem and 2 people are left but one throws cards down at end face down thinking he is beat but then sees that he has a straight beating the other guys trips, who wins the hand since the guy threw his cards face down into the middle thinking he lost the hand.

Depends on a couple of things, I think the most important at this point will be the intentions of the player who threw the cards down and where the cards are physically when his intentions are made known,

If his cards don't hit the muck, and he declares to the dealer to flip them over for him they are still live and playable.

If his cards hit the muck, if the dealer picks them up and slides them to the muck before his intentions are made clear they are out of play. Edit some more; Anytime the cards hit the muck they are out of play no matter what the "intent". Intent may be clear but if the dealers shove them into the muck they are out of play. The devils in the details.

Some floormen may differ and put more emphasis on "intent" others on the physical location of the cards, then intent, but I think above is the most common guideline.

Edit added; If the cards don't hit another players cards, if they don't hit the muck they are playable if turned over by anyone ... they are playable.

Thanks MrDaMan this gives me a better idea of how this should have went as we allowed the guy to turn his cards and win the pot.

This is a friendly home game (well was till this happened ) so we allowed him to turn his cards as they had not gone into the muck but he had not asked the dealer to turn them but his intentions were he was beaten so this tells me he shouldnt have and should be more carefull when reading the cards.

Cheers
Kev

Here is the info from Robert's Rules of Poker...