should this have happened in a pub league tournament

I was playing in the pub league winners tournament on Sunday the buy in was 10$ I made the ft tablebut wasnt not invovled in the hand im ready to talk about.There where 5 players left the blinds are 4000-8000 im utg and i fold early position decides tooo go all in for his last 100000k in chips the player who was suppose too act was not at the table. The person who runs the tournament decides too take a look at the cards and goes and get him in the smoking section of the bar the ft was at the non smoking section. The other player who has 90000k in chips gets a chance too look at his cards and decides to call the sb and bb folds. When the hands get filped up plaer in the cut off has pocket 44 and the player on the button has pocket 55 the pocket 55s wins the hand crippling the pocket 44s chip stack. who went out on the next hand and didnt make the money. I was very strange too see this because of the fact that if no one is seated at the table he is supposed too be mucked. my question too u all is should the players hand with the pocket 55 should be muck when he wasn't seated when his turn came.

If I remember right you have to be in or standing directly behind your seat when the hand is dealt for your hand to count, if not, it supposed to be mucked, I play in a bar league also and that's pretty much the rule in my league

Nobody should have looked at the cards regardless of the "in your seat" rule which varies from place to place.

1. New first card of the deck states that you must be behind your chair when the first card comes off, to prevent potentially seeing someone elses hand when you are returning to the table. This has caused a ruckus ie google Daniel Negraenu's reaction

2. The minute someone besides the player looks at the hand it is dead - tournament director or not. The decision is do you go get them to look, not do you see if you think he would want to play. And that would be an local rule, the global rule is not at the table then your hand is mucked.

In our pub league if your not at the table your cards are mucked. People go to the bar to get drinks all the time and just wait until they are not in the blinds.

every respectable tournament should have rules about when a hand is mucked if a player is not present...usually it is if they are not touching their seat by the time the first card is dealt....sometimes it is the last card.

either way, once it is their turn to act and they are not present, AUTO MUCK by the dealer!

nobody should EVER be looking at a players cards unless that player exposes them! EVER!!!

sounds to me this is friendly bullcrap league that doesn't bother to be sticklers about the rules, and if you are friends with those in power you'll gain an unfair advantage.
I'd suggest either not playing in this league anymore, or becoming best friends with the staff...

With pub poker the rules can sometimes be more relaxed, especially if there is beer flowing. You just need to know what the rule is before you sit down.

blkmoney12 said:

The person who runs the tournament decides too take a look at the cards and goes and get him in the smoking section of the bar

Click to expand...

Wasn't his Brother-in-law by any chance?

The hand should've been mucked no question about it.

If I were the other player that got busted, I would have been pissed. I would talk to the person that is charge of the league. Ask about that situation. If they say it was OK, I would be looking for a different place to play.

Especially with the "in your seat rule" I've seen it applied in vastly different ways in pub/bar games. It varies from as much time to go to the bar, get a drink, have a smoke as you want, to not being in your seat when the first card is dealt you get mucked, and some interesting variations along the way, thats fine.

I have never seen where a player, organiser or anyone else for that matter can actually look at someone's hole cards without the hand being declared dead. If I was you, i would ask the organiser of this game to get a clear set of rules for his game together to avoid disputes like this one in the future.

How can someone else have looked at his cards? thats just totally bizarre. I would go crazy if i was there. so what, if the guy in charge didnt like them, would he fold them for him?


IMO this is totally wrong.

IMO the hand should have been mucked without being seen by anyone.I would make it a point to ask about this rule before I played the next time and make sure that its clear to all who play.