Cheap shots in live poker. Strategy or cheat?

I recently watched a video on yt, this guy had a realy strong hand (full house I think), and on a river card he said "I raise...no, no, I'm sorry, I'll just call". Then some ref or something involved and said that he had to raise, to make his original decision. So he raised, the other guy went all in with 3 kings, and lost...
Would you sad that was fair? All is fair in love and war...and poker

Raising with the nuts but pretending, you just wanted to call, is called an angle shot, and it is definitely bad etiquette. I have seen this hand as well, and the decision of the tournament director to inform the other player, that this had happened before, and that the angle shooter had shown the nuts each time, is also a little controversial. It might have been more appropriate to state, that this had happened before, give the angle shooter a penalty round, but not mention what hands he had shown down.

these are the basic rules. talking counts as much as putting chips on the table. poker is far from fair. especially at the end of the game.

Depends on the context and since I wasn't there I can't say much. From what it sounds like: this is probably crossing the line. "Hollywood-ing" (intentionally acting in poker to get your opponent to take an action favorable to you if they "buy" the act) is a legitimate poker tactic. To what extent does this become misconduct though? If a ref had to get involved, then they probably went too far. Faking hesitation before an all-in shove is one thing, but saying one action and then trying (even acting) to change the action is getting more into the realm of cheating.
p.s. side note, casinos have cameras not only for cheat detection, but also for resolving disputes. However, these cameras do not have audio. What you say isn't valued as much as what you physically did. If the person "raises" and then changes their mind mid-way: did his "raise" chips cross the line to the dealer? If the chips were "officially" bet, then a raise is a raise and they can't change to a call mid-way; if he never actually "raised" his chips, by giving them to the dealer to put into the pot, then he can fairly call instead. Again, context is everything and I wasn't there personally. From the fact that a ref got involved, I'd say the player in question probably went too far.

Phoenix Wright said:

If a ref had to get involved, then they probably went too far.

Click to expand...

A ref had to be involved, because a declarition of intention is binding and can not be changed. So when a played has said "raise" but then change his mind and wants to only call, a ref need to force him to make a minimum raise. The real issue in this hand is, that the player WANTED to be "forced" to make a raise, because he had the nuts. But he wanted the other player to THINK, this was a mistake, so that he was more likely to get called. He claimed, he did not speak english, which was clearly a lie. This is called an angle shot.

Sounds like you are talking about the Freitez angle shoot .. infamous and hopefully wouldn't work at the professional level today because everyone has seen it. The ref in that decision warned the player Freitez did this several times already in the tournament and had the nuts each time. Forced min-raise which was then called

It is not good sportsmanship for sure. If I was the victim, I would be quite angry, and as a spectator, I would store this info away in my hard drive to use against him when I got the chance.

Lol the angle...
If you gonna do it I say at least be smart about it. Some casinos don't allow it some don't mind it. Some people do it in a very annoying and obnoxious way. Then again the situations that are created to allow such to happen are just as random as the getting aces vs any hand. So whether you like it or not its part of the game.