[DeuceKicker]

3/6 at the Bike:

I raise pre-flop with AQ from the SB yadda yadda yadda.

The board ends up looking something like Q J T 3 8 rainbow. There are three of us left at the river, and CO bets (I checked when the 8 came up). Button and I both call. CO--a pretty decent player--has tried to steal a couple pots, so I'm not sure he's got the straight. I don't remember exactly, but the pot was pretty healthy.

CO turns up KJ. Immediately the dealer yells out, "Straight!" which is pretty much what the table was expecting to see. The button (allegedly) turns up his cards, still in his hand, then flips them face-down into the discard pile. I do a double, triple, then quadruple take and turn over my winning AQ and say, "he doesn't have the straight."

The button starts yelling that he had the straight, but that he mucked it because he thought CO had the higher straight. The floorman is called over. He asks if anyone at the table saw the button show a 9 in his hand. I said I hadn't seen anything, but a lady at the table says she saw the nine.

The floorman says to give me the tiny side pot (button was all-in) and give the main pot to the button. My jaw dropped and the floorman gave me a half-apologetic look, then smacked the dealer in the back of the head (literally, which was kind of funny.)

A) How much fuss should I have made? Isn't the floorman's decision final? Did I really have any recourse?

B) Considering that the button is a poor player who bluffs and chases too much, was it correct to figure that I'd rather lose the battle but win the war by keeping this guy happy?

Earlier that night, a player in seat ten had shown a different dealer his AK (or she just happened to see them). The board paired twice and seat two showed a pocket pair BELOW the other two pairs on the board. Seat ten mucked his AK and the dealer turned them face up and declared him the winner. Another player pointed out that she could not pull his cards from the muck, and the floor agreed. Seat two with pocket fours won the pot.