Who wins the pot?

I have never seen a ruling where a player whose cards were in the muck pile ever got a pot by saying out loud what they had and never having tabled their hand.

Even though in this case the Dealer massively screwed up and cost Player 2 the pot by saying "straight" when it was only 1 pair.

Here if I was player 1 and I had accidentally misrepresented my hand I would give player 2 the pot. If I was the Floor I would consider working out a way to get the player who got screwed a benefit from the cardroom that would be more or less the equivalent of what the player lost. Like a free weekend stay at the casino hotel with some free meals. But most casinos I have played at would not do something like that. Mohegan Sun once screwed up a tournament really badly by giving players at a new table more chips than they had given all the other players. Rather than fix it when they found out 2 hours later, they gave all of the players that had been given 5,000 fewer chips a $20 free meal. However the 5,000 chip mistake was actually 33% of the starting stack and the tournament cost $330 so the free meals coupon should have been for $110 not $20...

I saw something like this happen at Bay 101 many years ago in a 20/40 LHE game. The player who had bet the river declared a straight and didn't turn over his hand. The other player mucked his cards and the player then turned over his hand which was like a low pair or K high. The floor was called over and ruled that the player who had lied won the pot. The player was warned not to do it again. And then a different player did the same thing but this time the other player didn't muck their hand and the 2nd lying player lost the hand. The craziest thing about what happened was that there was a Floor who was playing in the game (which was allowed at Bay 101 if they were off duty). And that Floor never said anything. I was stunned.

Are player 2Â’s cards mixed into the muck or are they still identifiable? The only way I could see ruling that player 2 wins is that his cards are still identifiable and are subsequently tabled showing a better hand. Otherwise, player 2 could very well be angle shooting - we have no idea what his cards were. He CLAIMS he had a better hand than player 1, but there is no way to prove this.

In general, it sucks, but a player with a properly tabled hand is always going to win the pot vs another player whose hand is mucked. There really is no remedy once the cards are mucked.

Player 2 could have done either of two things to remedy this - 1 read the board and player 1Â’s hand himself. Yes the dealer called the hand, but dealers do make mistakes and/or 2. Table his hand even though he thinks he lost. Had he done so, there would be no dispute. I know many players donÂ’t want to show unless they have to, but is there really all that much EV gained by not showing a reasonably strong losing hand? Enough to overcome the loss of this particular pot? Somehow I doubt it. Situations like this are not common, but they do happen. Always protect your hand and make sure you are beaten before mucking (or just table anyway).

They were mixed into the muck.

If P2 tabled their hand then turned it back over and mucked, they get the pot. I don't mean flashed, I mean properly tabled. If they were never tabled and lost in the muck, they're gone and P1 wins. How do you know they even had 2 pair there?

Take it as a lesson to always double check before mucking.

They were never shown. No telling if Player 2 actually had 2 pair.

This is the correct response. At worst, you can kick P1 out if they have a history of this or you feel like it was intentional. However at the end of the day, it's on P2 to confirm for themselves that they are beat. Otherwise you allow a player in P2's spot to angle their way into a pot any time their opponent miscalls their hand. P1 announces straight, only has top pair, P2 mucks 2nd pair and says "hey I had two pair! He said straight!" and wins the pot? Sorry, no.

I do believe RRoP had a rule where intentionally over-declaring your hand may cause result in forfeiture of the pot. However RRoP is not used in many rooms these days and you have to be certain it was intentional. IME 99% of miscalls are people just misreading their hand.

As played. P1 gets pot as P2 never tabled a hand. P1 can be warned for over declaring. If has history of this P1 can be told to leave or even permanent banned.

If P2 had tabled a hand, not flashed tabled, then cards speak and best hand wins.

The RRoP showdown rules say if P1 over stated intending to get better hand to discard then P1 MAY be forced to give up pot. Was a floor decision.

This happened to me when I was dealing a few months ago. I think it was one of my finer moments as a dealer.

On the showdown, P1 says "I have a straight," and tables his hand, which was not a straight. P2 throws his cards forward toward the muck. I look at P1's tabled hand, confirming that there was no straight. All the while, P2's cards are sitting an inch or two from the muck. I make no effort to grab those cards and pull them into the muck.

After another moment, P2 looks at me and says, "Can I table my hand?" I say "Sure, go ahead. They're still live." P2 reaches forward, retrieves his cards, and tables the winning hand. I kill P1's hand and push the pot to P2.

P1 tried to berate me for a while with comments like "Do your job, dealer." I was having none of it.

Imo, player 1.

Whether mistake, joke, or angle: people misrepresent their hand all the time; that is why the cards talk.

"Of course I lied Phil, it's poker"

$300 is a cheap tuition for player 2 to learn that you never muck facedown until you have seen another hand that beats yours.

I usually table my losers face-up. It has saved me many thousand dollars. Once I recovered a pot after it had been pushed, because the everyone (including the dealer + myself) misread the hands, but the floor was able to check the cameras and confirm i tabled the winner.

Intentionally misrepresenting your hand at showdown is cheating.

Lying about you hand or other stuff during the action (iow, what your quote refers to) is very different.

I prefer the RROP rule that overcalling your hand forfeits the pot. I don't even care if it's "deliberate" or not, as that is impossible to know.

Am I the only one who thinks the dealer should be paying the player?

He announced straight and mucked the mucked the other hand without seeing a straight.

Not completely out of line to muck when a player announces straight and dealer confirms.

That isn't the RRoP rule. Here is from Showdown of RRoP...
"Although verbal declarations as to the contents of a hand are not binding, deliberately miscalling a hand with the intent of causing another player to discard a winning hand is unethical and may result in forfeiture of the pot." (emphasis added)

Dealer is there to ASSIST + Cards speak + Player responsible to protect their hand = you can refuse to tip him but no place is ever going to make dealer pay the loser.

Yep, and as I said, I would prefer even tougher rules.

I am surprised no one has said, it depends on house rules.

Artichoke Joe's in San Bruno, California, has a rule that if you overstate your hand at showdown and your opponent mucks in response to your overstatement, your opponent gets the pot.

In thousands of hours of playing there, I have seen this rule enforced on only one occasion. An obviously drunk player was betting every street and then wildly overstating his hand value at showdown (e.g., saying "full house" when the board was not paired). A regular picked up on the pattern and started calling him with nothing and then insta-mucking when the drunk guy overstated his hand. The regular got awarded the pot a couple of times. And the drunk guy was too drunk to realize why or be bothered by it.

I don't think the rule can be enforced if there are more than two players at showdown. In that case, cards speak and any mucked hand would be dead. And the rule wouldn't apply if the caller tabled his cards and showed a weaker hand than what the mis-announcer actually had. The called has to muck in response to the overstatement.

Well, perhaps no one has said that because it is true of literally every rule and every ruling made in a poker room. We are more apt to mention it when it is a rule that is more likely to vary room to room. I suspect that is less like to be the case with this one, but it is possible. And you are not wrong, room rules trump all.

It comes down to whether Player 2’s hand was retrievable. If it was, they win with two pair. If it wasn’t, the muck kills their hand and Player 1 wins. Misreading your hand doesn’t forfeit the pot.

I don't think anyone is arguing that misreading your hand forfeits the pot.

These are the subtle situations that separate great dealers from just good dealers. Unfortunately you probably were not properly compensated for it and dealt with more gruff from the angling player than you deserved.