"I Play the Board," I lose the pot, I miss a bet.

[M.B.E.]

Thanks, Tacjedi, for getting Ciaffone's response to this.

In my view, the Hawaiian Gardens rule should be abolished. The rule should be this: if either of your cards hits the muck while your opponent still has a live hand, then your hand is dead and you are not entitled to any share of the pot. I see no rationale for the HG exception to this rule that a player's cards can still be live if he declares he plays the board.

Perfectm asked why the opponent released his K6 without exposing it; didn't he know that he had aces and kings, which beat aces and jacks? Most likely the player assumed (reasonably although incorrectly) that Sparks's hand was dead when it hit the muck unexposed. The player either didn't hear Sparks say "I play the board" or didn't appreciate that under HG rules the effect of saying that was to make Sparks's hand immortal.

Ciaffone's rule 8 of section 5 is ambiguous and, in my view, unnecessary. Just delete it. If a player wants a share of the pot, let him show both cards.