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Apparently people are calling Daniel Negreanu an angle shooter for some actions that he took at the PCA. At the river, Negreanu raised a bet from his opponent. The opponent thought Negreanu called and then after being told that Daniel raised, the player attempted to reraise. Daniel then called for a ruling. Watch the below video:

http://www.cardplayer.com/cptv/channels/13-other-poker-videos/poker-videos/3964-2010-pokerstars-caribbean-adventure-negreanu-calls-floor

First, whether or not this is angle shooting is somewhat debatable. However, what is clear is that the floor man made the wrong call here. Action should have continued in the hand. First, action was to this player. The fact that he exposed his hand does not suspend his ability to raise.

If I was running the floor, this is what I would have done.

1. Go the situation from the dealer after telling both players to shut up.

2. When it became evident that Negreanu was not certain of the hand, I would have asked to see the player’s hand. If Negreanu called the hand correctly, then I would have him open back up the hand as an exposed hand. Otherwise, I would have just exposed the ace.

3. The player’s raise stands. Action is now to Daniel as to whether he can call, raise, or fold.

I have also been in events where the same situation was ruled on differently depending on who you got as a floor person. (One of these days I’ll share some of those WSOP stories.)  As a result, I can see where Daniel is coming from.  At the same time, I can also see how it looks like he is trying to get out of paying  a raise.

What Daniel did here does not constitute angle shooting in my book. I think it was more of a situation of seeing what was allowed. I bet you that if Daniel found out that the person could get away with doing that, Daniel would likely consider using it as a weapon.

Also, the way he went about it does not scream angle shooting. If he was sitting there adamant that the bet shouldn’t count, etc, then I would say that he was indeed angle shootings. Personally, if I were the player in that spot, I would have appealed the ruling to the head floor man.

Daniel did not angle shoot, but the floor was clearly wrong in his ruling. And for those of you not very experienced in tournament poker, while the floor decision is considered “final”, you do have the option to appeal to another higher member of floor staff. However, you better be really certain that you know what you are talking about if you do this and prepared to accept that decision as final.

Let me know what you think. Do you think this was an angle shoot? Roy Winston thinks so.