Here is one for you...

4-6 Hold-em in Calgary Alberta. It was my second or third hand at the table, so I was trying to get a feel for the table. There were a couple of obvious characters.

Pre-flop seat 4 is short stacked and can't complete the raise so goes all in. A couple of folds, includnig me, and then seat 10 raises the bet and seat one re-raises. one other caller and seat 10 calls. Three live players and one all in. Flop comes and the caller checks, 10 bets, 1 raises and caller folds. Both 10 and 1 check the turn.

The river hits and 10 bets. 1 raises and 10 folds - obviously on a draw and didn't hit. 10 "whooops" and slides his cards into the muck! He had forgotten that the 4 seat had been quietly all in.

4 became far less quiet - he loudly exclaimed that the cards were dead and he takes the whole pot. I'm not sure about the US gaming laws, but here the hand is clearly dead.

The dealer calls the hand dead, and there is lots of discussion at the table, so the Houseman gets called over and rules that since the player still had his hands on the cards and they could be distinguished from the muck - that it was a live hand.

4 seat FREAKS out. Wouldn't give up or show his cards. The house threatens to have him physically hauled out and starts a countdown. Another room supervisor/house comes over to help out and calls the same as the original house - the cards were live and playable. 4 is really mad now and demands that they either pull the tapes or get the casino manager in. By this time, half the remaining players are either involved in the discussion or trying to watch the fight that's about to start.

The Room Manager gets drawn in and makes the correct call. The hand is dead and 4 gets the pot. 1 is now freaking out - never coming back, filing a complaint with gaming, foaming at the mouth and as he walks away to the cage to cash out his last few dollars, he takes a poke at 4 and smacks the back of his head knocking his hat and glasses off.

Picture the rest... chips everywhere, security on top of the 1 guy with 4 sitting there with the biggest sh%t eating grin on his face. He turns of 2-3 off suit. His "winning" hand was the board.

I know this isn't just the dealer, but the whole mess of folks. The dealer made the right call. It made the mood at the table quite sour for a short time, and with the focus clearly not on the game, I took a couple of nice pots.

The finale - I ran into the 1 seat at a game on the weekend. I asked him about it and he said he knew the right call was that it was a dead hand, but that the opposite call had been made the week before in a 1-2 NL game for guess who? Seat 4.