We've Got Controversy
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With lots of money on the line, it's no surprise that players get very angry if they feel wronged by a dealer error or a floor decision -- or, in some cases, both. Players on Red 368 were protesting a recent ruling to no avail. Sabyl Landrum and Tim Flanders checked the river and went to showdown. There was some confusion as to whether Landrum called a "nut flush" or a "small flush". Flanders apparently thought she said "nut flush" and dropped his hand, facedown, on the table, near the muck. Before the dealer could kill the hand, however, Flanders picked his hand back up and opened it, tabling a ten-high flush -- better than Landrum's small flush with 
.
Controversy then erupted about whether or not the hand could be considered tabled. The dealer told Flanders that he had folded and killed the hand. Flanders howled in protest, causing a floor to be summoned. That floor ruled that the hand -- even though it had been tabled face up -- was dead. The floor said that Flanders had surrendered his hand and it should be considered mucked. It didn't matter whether or not Landrum mis-called her hand; players always have a obligation to protect their hands.
Several players at the table, including Flanders and Nick Schulman, felt this was a patently wrong decision. The floor offered to summon another floor; Flanders insisted that that be done. But the first floor refused to hold up the action while the second one was summoned.
The discussion spilled over for a solid 15 minutes into the 20-minute break. with Flanders protesting his case to supervisor Charlie Ciresi and then eventually TD Jack Effel. The discussion raged as to whether the hand had been mucked, whether it had been tabled, and what the proper ruling should have been. Effel eventually concluded that, indeed, Flanders' cards were tabled and that he should have been entitled to the high half of the pot.
Everyone involved agreed that the total amount of the pot was 24,000 and that Landrum won the low half uncontested. The break was extended so that the tapes could be reviewed to verify all of the actions at issue. We expected that Flanders will be awarded half of the pot out of Landrum's stack.
However, after a few minutes, Effel came back to the table and ruled that Flanders' cards were close enough to the muck that they were considered mucked. One of the supervisors re-enacted what he said had been seen on the tapes. However, after all of the supervisors left, Nick Schulman remarked, "I saw the whole thing. It definitely didn't happen the way they just said it happened." Even the dealer was overheard to remark, during the discussion that occurred over break, "I should have pulled his cards in and I never did."
Flanders is, understandably, beside himself with outrage.