Interesting Hand

[BigPair88]

  This scenario came up the other night.

Cards were dealt, and as everyone was checking them out, one player says "Ace seven" kind of under their breath.
Another player then says "You got Ace Seven? You just said Ace seven. Didn't you just say Ace seven?"
The player who allegedly said it has absolutely no idea what the other player is talking about.
Keep in mind that no one else heard the player say this.
After the hand plays out and the cards are flipped up, the first player actually did have A7!!
It was determined that they unknowingly whispered out "Ace Seven" under their breath.

Here's the question....

I know that in poker, you can NOT tell the truth about your hand when asked.
You must lie or your hand is dead.
Knowing this, is the A7 a dead hand?
If so, does it have any bearing on the ruling that the player had absolutely no idea that they even said it?
Also, does it matter that the player was not answering a question as to what their hand was?

BTW- To add insult to injury, the A7 lost at showdown.

You may now feel free to move about the cabin.....

[Wedge Rock]

Generally speaking, it's only a problem if its an angle shoot...

Might give a caution/warning in the above situation, teliing Mr. A7 to be more aware...  If it keeps happening, even if unintentional, it might require a penalty.

[KPrather]

Is the "You must lie" rule really a poker rule, or is that a WSOP rule?

[Martini]

That rule never made sense to me. Our game specifically allows the player so say anything he wants about his hand (or even show any number of cards if he wants) as long as the action is heads up.

Since the person who heard it announced it to the table I'd let it ride and tell the person to be careful not verbalize anything about his hand unless you have a house rule permitting it of course.

[pauld22]

We had a similar situation a while back in our home game.  One of the guys plays a ton online (where you can clearly say what you please without repercussion) and happens to be a rally solid player.  It was late into the night and he was getting pretty exasperated at seeing trash hands.  As he's looking at his hole cards I clearly hear him say "Jack seven" as he's folding his hand.  I shot him a look as if to say "did you really just say that out loud?  Are you really that stupid."  I was the dealer and confirmed that he did indeed say it.  I hadn't yet mucked the cards so I turned them up and announced to the table that "Mark just folded J7."

In your situation I would have tried to confirm what the player said.  Whether they acknowledge that they have the hand they said or not I would have informed the table that I was pretty sure I heard that player say A7 - strictly in the interest of fairness to the other players.

[stooks99]

It's my understanding that telling your hand is punishable by penalty, but not a dead hand.