Tournament Lesson: Protect Your Hand or You'll Be Eliminated
There seems to have been a bit of controversy out on the tournament floor and, well, it wouldn't be a poker tournament without some controversy.
What we gather is that Leandro Csome raised and Gustavo Prato moved all in from the small blind. The player that moved all in had his chips up to the betting line and his cards sitting next to them. The player in the big blind announced a fold and the dealer swiped both the big blind's cards and Prato's cards. Csome made the call and tabled his hand as it was all he had to do to win the pot because Prato didn't have a hand as the dealer had accidentally mucked it.
The incident was explained to the floor staff in a few languages, English, Spanish and Portuguese, before a ruling was made. The ruling was that the all-in Prato's hand was mucked and he was therefore eliminated from the tournament with Csome winning the pot. The reasons for this were that Prato's hand had been mixed in with other cards and he did not protect his hand.
Prato attempted to plead his case, but the ruling stood, as the tournament staff explained to the player that he must protect his hand at all times and that mistakes can happen. This also brought up the question that what if Csome hadn't made the call and simply just mucked to give Prato the hand? According to tournament director Mike Ward, it would have been "fair" for Csome to do so and allowed, but nothing can be done after the fact.