Taking advantage, ethical question

[chesspain]

You did the right thing by giving him the pot. The fact that he showed you his hand the way he did means that you both knew he had the better hand. Although many players in your shoes might have felt justfied in keeping at least half of the pot, giving him the entire pot was the moral way to handle it.

Reminds me of a hand I saw playing 2/4 at the Orleans:

Twenty-something guy, who looked and sounded like he just stepped off the LIRR (you NYC boys will know what I mean) is sitting two seats to my right in the #1 seat, drunk and having a great time playing fast and loose. On a river where the board looks like: x77xx, a young Asian guy shows his one pair of something, after which LIRR-guy flashes his 7, and drops his other card face down right on top of the muck. The dealer then proceeds to ship the pot to young Asian guy, saying that LIRR-guy needs to show two unmucked cards to win the pot.

Not surprisingly, LIRR-guy goes berserk, saying things like "Come on...give me a break...I'm new...you all know I had the best hand, etc." Of course, the floor rules against him, and then he begins to really whine and sulk. Fortunately, over the next hour I was able to jolly him back up, and he proceeded to have a good time again, even being able to eventually laugh at himself after the sting of this lost pot wore off.

However, what I found most disturbing was that his opponent did not even offer to split the pot with him, which is what I believe most decent players would have offered to do. Or maybe I'm just less cutthroat than others.