Sloppy Play or Angle Shooting?

During the session I described here, I saw an unusual situation in a hand I wasn’t involved in regarding a player exposing his hand prematurely.  At first I thought the guy had just done something stupid, but the more I thought of it, the more I thought he might have been angle shooting.

I wasn’t really following all the action on the hand; I believe I was actually jotting down notes on a hand I was involved in at the time.  But on the river, with an obvious straight out there, and two players left, the last player to act flipped over his hand.  The trouble was that the player who had first action claimed to have not yet taken any action.

The player who exposed his hand indeed had the straight, but it was King high.  A glance at the board revealed that an Ace high straight was possible.  So the guy had the second nuts (there was no pair, and no flush possible).  Now, this is a guy I’ve played with before, an older gentleman, generally a tight player who is capable of the occasional bluff.  I’d never seen him do anything like this before, and I’ve played enough with him to know the guy knows the rules of poker pretty well.

It was clear that the old guy had turned over his hand thinking the hand was over, that his opponent had checked and he was checking behind and showing his hand.  The trouble was, as soon as the guy tabled his hand, the other player said, “I haven’t acted yet.”

Old guy says “No, you did, you moved your hand to indicate that you were checking.”  The guy denied doing any such thing.  The dealer was unsure of what happened.  He did think the player had made a motion, but he hadn’t read it as a motion to check and he hadn’t turned his attention to the old guy to see what he was going to do.

With the other player insisting he hadn’t checked, and with the old guy’s hand exposed in front of him, the other player put out a bet of $25.  The dealer was willing to accept that as a bet, but the old guy said no, he couldn’t bet and insisted the floor be called over.

As the dealer waited for the floor to show up, I was surprised that the old guy, the old veteran, had made such a rookie mistake.  You don’t table your hand unless you’re sure the hand is otherwise over.  Surely he knew this.  Whenever I’m in that situation, I almost always ask the dealer if I can show, or if the other player had indeed checked.  The only time I don’t do that is if the other player has made such an obvious checking motion that no one could have missed it.  Or if he audibly said “Check” loud enough for the players at the next table to have heard it.

By the time the floor had arrived, the other player was saying it was ok, he would take his bet back, hand over.  In fact, he showed his hand and he had the exact same King high straight the old guy had.  He was just trying to steal half the pot with his bet.  After all, if he could get away with it, the old guy might indeed think he’d only bet there if his exposed hand was losing to the Ace high straight.

But the old guy insisted on getting a floor ruling anyway for the future.  I don’t think he liked what he heard.  The floor told him that ultimately, it was up to him to protect his hand.  Since the dealer hadn’t turned to him, since the dealer hadn’t indicated that the action was on him, he should have checked with the dealer before exposing his cards.  In other words, if the other player had insisted, his bet would have been valid.  This is exactly what I thought, and I almost said something to the guy.  I almost said pretty much what the floor said, and then added, “You’ve played enough poker to know that.”  But I saw no reason to get involved and agitate the old guy further.  Especially since the floor had already told him what I was going to say.

I should add that there was some “mild” warning to the other player about being careful with his gestures, since there was some issue there.  I have no idea what that player did with his hands, if anything.

I thought it was weird that the veteran player had goofed liked this, and then chose to make a big deal out of it.  But as I thought about it more, I had to wonder if maybe the guy was angle-shooting.  He didn’t want to bet because he was afraid of a bigger straight.  But suppose he was wondering how big a bet he could call there with the second nuts?

Is it possible he tabled his hand knowing full well the other guy hadn’t acted, and planned to insist the guy had checked?  If the other guy bets, it’s tough to call knowing the most likely best case scenario is chopping the pot.  This way he gets his chop for free.  Maybe he had taken advantage of some minor little hand movement the guy had made to try his angle?  Make it impossible for the guy to bet his Ace high straight?

I don’t know.  I’d never seen the guy pull anything like that.  On the other hand, I was really surprised that he tabled his hand like that.  Just on the basis of how much poker the guy has played, I think it is more likely he was angle-shooting than screwing up.  But who knows?