All-in (maybe question) in a max bet room - How do you rule here

The angle here isn't about trying to go all in and get a fold, the angle here is that he is pretending to go all in to see what the other guy does. The other guy could say "call" and then turn over his cards. Ultimately the "angler" sees only that it is an instant call and decides the other guy has a big hand and his bluff catcher is no good.

In theory the Villain here could be asking if the other guy is all in, but in reality the other guy said it 2 times in different ways and pushed $300 in chips forward. If he had said "all in for how much?" I would let it slide as a non call.

Here though the bigger problem is that Villain could have said "all in?" and nobody realized it was a question because of tone of voice or because when he asks questions he doesn't raise the sound of the last word (like Americans do). I personally don't believe that is what happened given all that you described. But the Floor must have thought that given the way the Dealer described it, it was ambiguous and went with what the player was pretending he meant.

It is also possible that Villain doesn't know about the $300 max all in rule and was confused as to whether it was all of his chips or just $300 (the amount of chips that the guy pushed forward). I think that this is hard to believe because whether it is $300 or all in it is only like $75 more anyway.

very good point, didn't even realize guy may have been confused and didn't know the rule since it's not often that the $300 cap comes into play at a $300 max buyin game

Not an easy decision. If both players are not known for angle shooting and are considered good customers, I'd rule it was a question. The bet is 300 and the action is on the second player. I would remind both players to be careful about what they say. If the second player is a known angle shooter, I'm happy to rule that he is in for 375, citing rule 1.

Since P1 pushed out all his chips and initially said all in, I don’t see how P2 can claim anything other than a $300 bet. If P2 plays there often, he knows of the $300 cap. If he doesn’t, then he heard all in, or something similar and the chips were pushed out.

So if he plays there normally, asking all in doesn’t make sense and his action words were called. Seems clear to me he owes whole stack.

If he normally doesn’t play in Wash, then assume he doesn’t know of the $300 cap. Or maybe he does but thinks P1 exceeds that. But if dealer is confident there was no ‘ is he’ in front of the all in, he declared all in. Again used action words when action on him.

It may seem harsh, but if you use action words with action on you, you are committed to that action. If he is local, then he should know the rules around the cap. If didn’t he does now. If he is not local and leaves angry, I am sorry but long term game impact is nil. Thus I don’t invoke rule 1 unless there is some strong evidence not included.

Now thank goodness P1 didn’t play the single chip all in game. That would make the potential for asking a question much greater. But since chip movement and verbal bet aligned, we don’t face that question.

"All in?" often sounds the same as "All in.", in a noisy cardroom.

When it's you're action be careful with, call, raise, fold, all in...

Unless the dealer said it was an obvious question I'm ruling all in.

Since player 2 pushed out the $300, why wouldn't he be held to at least the call?

If he didn't push out the $300, I could see the grey area.

Was this at Fortune?
I don't play in WA as much as I used to, but the dealers would typically slow things down and clarify when they heard the words all-in. Mostly because it was rarely said by regs. It sounds like that didn't happen in this case, and perhaps that's why the dealer slanted the story to favor the caller.

Not saying this is a dealer error, but had the dealer been more detailed in controlling the game it may not have occurred, so it likely contributed to the issue.

In my experience, dealers and floors will err on the side of caution with all-in/SL issues and grant leeway to (non-reg) players that are possibly confused by the max bet. They want those players to have a good time and to come back. Not to leave thinking they got angled.

Agree with steam.

Unless the dealer can confirm there was more said than just "all-in", I'm holding the player to the jam since action occurred behind. If other guy was bluffing and snap mucked, I'm not sure our all-in guy would be so fast to claim they didn't jam. In general, you should never be saying poker actions unless you intend to do them. Poker rooms are noisy and not everything is heard as intended. Best to protect yourself from even the slightest chance of winding up in this situation.