Who decides first, straddler or poster?

[Glurfle]

CO is actually the one who needed to be kicked in the nuts - UTG was reasonable about the whole thing. This was just something that came to mind while we were pondering how the floor butchered the decision.

The actual situation happened last night in a 20/40 game at Bay 101. BB was in the 9 seat, so UTG was in the 1 seat. CO had his post out, UTG had his straddle out. Dealer starts dealing to seats 8 and 9, gets to seat 1 and announces the straddle. Dealer finishes dealing both cards to everyone, couple people fold, MP 3-bets, and around then CO tells everyone to stop and claims that the dealer was required to announce the straddle before ANY cards were dealt. I'm not sure if the 3-bet came before CO complained, and I'm not sure if CO actually looked at his cards first, but CO definitely had plenty of time to complain before all the cards were out. In any case, CO makes a big stink about it, we get a ruling from Norman that basically tells CO to sit down and shut up, CO makes a bigger stink about it claiming a different floor has made a different decision in the past, and Al comes over, hears the story and lets the guy take back his post and kill his hand.

Now most of the rest of the table complains because this looks like a clear angle from CO, who was a total douchebag anyway, and UTG asks what would happen if he wanted to take his straddle back since his only reason for straddling was the dead money in the pot. At this point Al just walked away, I assume because he didn't want to defend his decision, since quite a few of us were getting on his case about it. In any case, I think it's pretty obvious that the floor decision was messed up in this case what with the action already happening and the possibility that CO had already looked at his cards, so I wanted to phrase the problem in a way that was a bit more neutral. Seems like no one really knows, or at least hasn't said yet.

However, if I ever see a floorman at Bay 101 kick that particular guy in the nuts, I will automatically tip him at least one rack. Just on the off chance that the floormen at Bay 101 read this...

[StevieG]

This is different from the hypothetical that started the thread. There are significant actions before cutoff starts complaining.

How could the original floor decision have been overturned to allow the cutoff to take his post back?

[boscoboy]

i have timed out more than once reading his informative posts ( and staring at his avatar)

- its just not right to exert that kind of power over others

[mosquito]

[ QUOTE ]
I see no issue with the CO poster pulling back his BB so long as no cards are dealt.

[/ QUOTE ]

The only time you can be forced to post is if you kill the pot. If the hand has not started (no cards dealt) the pullback should be permitted. Gary at MGM has made this ruling while I was at the table.

[GuyOnTilt]

I would say that the straddle has to post first, but I really don't know. I doubt it's in a rulebook, but thinking about it practically, if I were the CO I could technically wait till the dealer had pitched to the first few players before putting out my blind and declaring my intention of posting from the CO, at which point UTG would no longer have the option to straddle. Pretty much that alone is what makes me think UTG should have to declare first if there's an issue.

GoT