Awkward situation

[HitHard69]

Home game, 1-2 No-Limit, starts raining out, and one player "Paul" goes out to roll up his windows and says "somebody play for me." Very common in our games since we all have basically the same pre-flop standards...any bets/raises we wait for the player to come back. Anyways, UTG+1 folds and plays for Paul. 4 to the flop, including me. Except when UTG+1 looks at Pauls cards, he exposes them to a player in the hand. Player in the hand says he only saw one card. Myself and the other player in the hand say that we get to know what the card is. At that time, Paul comes back in and we tell him what happened. He says fine, and the player who saw the card says he saw tha ace of clubs. flop come 4,7,K. I fold, player who saw Pauls card folds. HU between Paul and one other player. Turn and river are unimportant, except that each brings a $10 bet from Paul and a call from the other player. Player turns over 2 pairs and thinks he won becasue Paul didnt match his ace and so couldn't have better than a pair. Paul turns over pockets 4's for a set. Apparently our buddy thought a 4 was an ace. Paul insists he did nothing wrong and the other player in the hand says he was being nice and just calling instead of raising when he knew he had the best hand. Guy who's house we are at tells them to split the pot. They do, and then both cash out and leave.
Any suggestions on the best way to handle this? Personally, I think it was an angle shot by Paul. All he had to do was say "You didn't see an ace." Then again, it isn't his fault someone else saw his cards.

[sct]

I would normally have called the deal dead since it affected multiple players. If not- I would have made Paul play his ace face up on the table. Since he didn't have one- and couldn't produce it, I think the players would have agreed to end the hand.

[EStreet20]

HHHmmmmmm does anyone else see this violating the "one player to a hand" rule??? Give the guy two minutes to go roll up his windows.

Good luck,
Matt

[Fins]

Should have asked to see the card... if he says he didn't have an ace, a four would have been a pretty good guess.

If Paul heard the Ac call and didn't say anything then it's angling to me.

[Lottery Larry]

A lot of the problem was caused by the mistakes made along the way:

1) ". Anyways, UTG+1 folds and plays for Paul." So, he got to see FOUR cards and everyone else only sees two (their own). Bad decision, assuming UTG+1 looked at their cards before folding.

2) "he exposes them to a player in the hand." Show one, show all, not tell one/tell all. I'm not sure how this one should be handled, but I'd either declare a misdeal- no one raised, so the hands probably aren't that strong- or kill Paul's hand.
In this case, if Paul's hand is declared dead with an Ace not being in the hand, I would kill the hand and say "no Ace" and let people figure it out. You could expose Paul's entire hand also.

3) "He says fine, and the player who saw the card says he saw tha ace of clubs."
That's on the player then, not Paul. I don't agree that he's under the obligation to correct his mistake. As long as he doesn't confirm the "ace" in his hand, it's not Paul's fault.



4) " Turn and river are unimportant, except that each brings a $10 bet from Paul and a call from the other player." Hey dummy, what do you THINK Paul is betting with here? A single Ace?

5) "and the other player in the hand says he was being nice and just calling instead of raising when he knew he had the best hand" Guess he was wrong. Stupid to be taking an action that hurt himself. Everyone knows Paul's hand and Paul continued to play, so play that hand as you should.

6) "Guy who's house we are at tells them to split the pot. They do, and then both cash out and leave. "
Why, because they were upset?

7) "Personally, I think it was an angle shot by Paul. " Personally, I think Paul played smart enough. If someone misreads your hand and acts incorrectly on that action, why are you to blame? Paul wasn't invovled in the exposure, he didn't say that he had an Ace, it wasn't on Paul.

Which leads us back to the start of this all:

8) " and says "somebody play for me."

Now you know why this is a bad rule. If he's not at the table, kill his hand in turn as you would in a cardroom.

[Lottery Larry]

"If Paul heard the Ac call and didn't say anything then it's angling to me"

I would only agree if Paul exposed his own card. Since he didn't and the guy declared it incorrectly... it's on the spotter, not Paul. If you let the hands play on, you let them play with the information given.

[Lottery Larry]

why should everyone have to wait? Just kill the guy's hand and move on. It's only one poker hand out of hundreds being dealt for the evening.

Save the arguments such as this one and declare the hand dead and fold it.

[smoore]

I would enjoy playing in Larry's game.

[wingsfan]

I agree that people shouldn't be playing other's hands. Either muck Paul's hand or give the guy a minute to go roll his windows up. But aside from that, if this happened at my house, Paul would win the pot. It's not his problem that whoever didn't see his flashed card correctly. I don't even really see the argument here. "But John said you had Ac." If Paul doesn't actually show his flashed card, then the others should take whoever's words with a grain of salt. Of course, that brings the "show one, show all" rule into play too.

[Bulldog]

[ QUOTE ]
I would enjoy playing in Larry's game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just make sure you stay for the late night (1 AM to 5 AM) 2/4 limit w/half kill rotation game that includes Crazy Pineapple!