Poker Etiquette Question

[Richard Tanner]

I was playing in a cardroom around where I live yesterday and ran into a situation that I was fairly unfamiler with.
Ok little background, it's a 1/2 NL game, table seats 10 (9 were playing at the time) and of those 9, three were the house players/game hosts. The host that will come into play later has done some things in the past that I would consider angle shooting (ex. He'll say "what did he show" on alot of hands in the hopes that the dealer will expose cards that weren't shown in any case [idealy the dealer would not show them, but in a busy game mistakes can happen]). This game is also prone to alot of soft play and things that you certainly wouldn't find in a casino (ex. giving the last bet back to a player that made a bad call into his buddy and the like).
In addition the the hosts, one of the players was a friend of said host that had come from out of town (i.e he wasn't a regular). On one particular hand the host and his friend got into it with raises before the flop and a bet and call afterwards. On the turn and river it had become obvious that the friend had made his hand and that the host had missed almost completely and yet called bets upwards of 150 on each street (the friend had trip nines shown down after a river call and the Host mucked mumbling about having had buttom pair).
As the Host was mucking, I asked quietly (he was sitting next to me) "what did you have there". My question had two reasons 1) Human curiousity/info gathering but really it was about 2) my suspecion of the host basically chip dumping to his friend in order to keep him in the game and give him a little gift. I didn't ask for his hand to be turned over as I didn't want to make a big deal about it without having all the facts, I just wanted to see if my suspicions were justified.
After I asked the question he snapped "I lost 300 on the hand that's what I had", and the other host told me never to ask another player about their hand. I, for one, don't care about the outcome of a hand, I try to answer all my opponents questions (if I feel like I should) as politely as possible, and if I don't want to answer I just say "I don't want to share what I had" or something akin to that.
I feel like I might have been out of line asking him instead of just asking the dealer to see his hand (although that would've started WW3) because I'm uncomfortable, but tolorent, of all the oddities that already go on in this game, but this would've been the straw that broke the camels back.
If you read this far then I figure I should reward you by getting to the point. My question to you has two parts, first, did I do something wrong by trying keep my thoughts quiet and just ask the player and second, is there anyway, short of just cashing out and not returning, to deal with something like this.
Thanks

Cody

[TakeMeToTheRiver]

[ QUOTE ]
is there anyway, short of just cashing out and not returning, to deal with something like this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not as I see it. leave that game.

[The Ocho]

why would you care about a guy chip dumping in a cash game?

[Richard Tanner]

[ QUOTE ]
Not as I see it. leave that game.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was afraid of that, oh well always another game, thanks for the advice.

Cody

[Richard Tanner]

[ QUOTE ]
why would you care about a guy chip dumping in a cash game?

[/ QUOTE ]

I suppose for me, it's really just an ethics question, I mean as I said "I'm uncomfortable, but tolorent" of most of what goes on, but someone doing this, to me, is going to far. It's hard enough to play a full table of people, it would get harder if two or more were activally working against you.

Cody

[daryn]

to answer your question, yeah, it is poor etiquette to ask a guy what he just had when he lost.

[The Ocho]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
why would you care about a guy chip dumping in a cash game?

[/ QUOTE ]

I suppose for me, it's really just an ethics question, I mean as I said "I'm uncomfortable, but tolorent" of most of what goes on, but someone doing this, to me, is going to far. It's hard enough to play a full table of people, it would get harder if two or more were activally working against you.

Cody

[/ QUOTE ]

at what point were these guys working against you? the hand you cited had one guy giving chips to another in a heads up pot in a cash game.

[Richard Tanner]

Ok, that seems resonable, so what's my play if I think something's amiss, ask the dealer and make a big deal over what may or may not be anything (and worry that even if it is something, run the risk of having another of the hosts say "That's just how we play here").
I'm open to my only option being "rack up and leave" as I'm really only playing in this game as a favor to a friend, but I'm just curious as to what other options are really viable, if any.

Cody

[Richard Tanner]

Well, the host has plenty of cash in front of him and the friend doesn't really have that much (he had about 300 at the start of the hand, and as the game had been running for a while, his stack was pretty small), so it would seem that the host is giving money away to his buddy to keep him up in the game.
If the host wants to loan him money outside the game and bring more chips in, great, if he wants to stake the other player outright, fine, but this seemed as if he was just trying to move chips on the table without buying (think rounders with worm at the Taj).
Also, feel free to call me a nit on this one, I'm asking these questions to get feedback, I don't profess to know everything anyway.

Cody

[Spook]

if he was really chip dumping, do you expect him to tell you the truth?
I would just ask the dealer to show you the hand.