Ruling help

[kodonnell]

I am usually the one providing ruling advice, but I am not 100% sure on this one.

Hold'em cash game at showdown. First player shows a straight, mucked around to me. I throw my cards towards the muck face down and they hit the chips in the pot. As the first player starts raking in the chips, I state "hang on" and flip my cards over showing a flush. Only about 2-3 seconds passed from when I tossed to when I said hang on. I wasn't paying attention to my flush draw, only my missed straight draw (with a pair) and did not notice the last card filled my flush. Since it is my house and I make the rules, I declared my hand was not mixed into the muck and therefore still live. After reading Roberts rules, I think this is still correct.

This is a low stakes friendly game and there was all of about $3 in the pot at the time so no one really compained too much...but I felt bad about it. I told the players I would get a ruling and let them know.

Any comments? And at what point is the pot no longer available to be won? I am thinking once the declared winner has taken possesion of the pot?

This reminds me...I was at a tournament at a casino (Trump...er...Spotlight 29) and a player was decared the winner and he started collecting the pot. Another player stated "but this guy over here had a straight". "This guy's" hand had been mucked by the dealer as well as the 5 up cards. Another player agreed that he did have a straight. The dealer pulled out all the cards from the muck, and with help of the other players, recreated the hands and the flop, and determined he did have a straight beating the original winners hand and gave the pot to the new winner....amazing. They were even going to roll back the security tape to see the ruling. Now I remember why we play home games... I can get amateur dealers for free at home....no entry fee. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]