Texas Holdem going all in with cards under your chips

Question

Is it considered a muck or folding your cards if you go all in with your chips and your cards are under the chips. When you push the chips in and your cards in at the same time?

Answer 1

In the comments Bogdan asks a very good question, because there is no legitimate reason in the world you would want to do that.

Pushing your cards out under your chips is unusual, unexpected, confusing and disorientating to the dealer and other players. One really ups the chances of your cards being mucked (by mistake?) when you do that.

Most house's have a betting line and a forward motion rule. Some have both. Where I am at for example, in No limit games the line rules, in limit games the forward motion rule rules. The rule in either form applies to bets and mucking cards. At any rate giving your cards forward motion or your cards going over the line is mucking the hand. At best you are opening your action up to a ruling by a floor person. Since there is a ruling it could possible go either way for you. I am sure that is not what you had in mind when you pushed all in.

Is it considered a muck or folding your cards if you go all in with your chips and your cards are under the chips. When you push the chips in and your cards in at the same time?

You will see rulings all over the spectrum with this, leaning toward you would get away with this move. However, you might get unlucky with me making the ruling, which would be your bet stands and your hand is dead.

Here's why... First note I used the word "move" in the previous sentence. What you are doing here is making a move. You may not think your making a move, but none the less it is a possible move. The floors job is to protect a game with a ruling, and if they let a possible move slide, they are not doing the job. The move here is to simply push the rules to make a situation chaotic and confusing. The upside for the player is that they get information, and they also get a shot at saying "I was going all in" or "No I was folding" depending on what they find out, whom is making the ruling and what they can get away with.

It may be you are green and naïve, If it comes down to a ruling I would rule against you. As a dealer though if the infraction is minor, and none of the players are calling for a ruling, I will ask you what you are doing, and explain to you that you need to either put chips out or your cards out. I would explain to you that the next time you do both I will kill the hand and thank you for the nice tip you put on top of your cards as you mucked them (or maybe I will push the bet back). If however you do this and it has confused things to the point were players start to act behind you, I am calling for a decision.

At any rate, this is a great move when done well. But you need to understand how the floor is likely to rule on it, and how the dealer is going to handle it else you stand to loose a big bet.