Updated on 22 Feb 26 by
Barry carter
Poker Expert

Controversial ruling caught on live stream

Was it an angle shoot, or a joke? Judge for yourself with this hand that got the poker world talking over the weekend.





As has often been written on this site, the Live At The Bike cash game streams show a side of high stakes cash games you don't always see on the polished high production broadcasts, and that's a good thing. They show poker how it is played, or argued about, in card rooms all over the world. 

Case in point, this unusual hand where a player called 'Armenian Mike' slides a chip tray across the table then takes it back, claiming hit was a joke, but the rest of the table thinks otherwise: 

What really had the poker community up in arms was more the fact that the floor manager delegated the ruling decision to Mike's opponent Ryan Feldman, rather than do it himself, which Garrett Adelstein, who was at the table, brought up later on in this video.

Thoughts on the ruling? Let us know in the comments:


Poker Expert

Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2, Poker Satellite Strategy, PKO Poker Strategy, Endgame Poker Strategy, GTO Poker Simplified, Mystery Bounty Poker Strategy and Beyond GTO. In 2025, he won the Global Poker Awards for Best Book and Twitter Personality of the Year.