player folds, then dealer returns his cards back

[Luca P.]

Hello guys, I had this situation:
player A preflop raises, player B calls.
Then player A, for an unknown reason, folds his cards (dealer did not turn the flop).
The dealer then stopped his cards with a hand and returned them back to the player. Then he called me. BTW cards did not touche the muck, and the forward motion was a clear fold even if it was not the time
What you do?
I ruled the hand live.
What about you?

[Nick C]

Hello Luca P,

I would have ruled the same as you. The cards were live and all bets were in the pot. The problem that some others might have is the dealer preventing the cards from being mucked. I would expect a good alert dealer to act exactly the way your dealer did. The risk, of course, would be Player A losing the pot if his cards did reach the muck.

[Luca P.]

Hello Luca P,

I would have ruled the same as you. The cards were live and all bets were in the pot. The problem that some others might have is the dealer preventing the cards from being mucked. I would expect a good alert dealer to act exactly the way your dealer did. The risk, of course, would be Player A losing the pot if his cards did reach the muck.

you telling me the dealer did a right thing (stopping the cards and give them back)?

[Tristan]

I like when a dealer stops them.  When this happens, it is a mistake.  I don't want to be too harsh on the novices that make these mistakes and scare them away from the tournaments...and we don't need to give the other player a free win.

[Nick C]

Yes!

[Alessandro 'Maverick' Galietta]

Luca i've to answer u in english 
In my opinion, in this case u made the right decision because the hand is alive but i prefer that my dealers put the cards in the muck when a player declares fold with your voice or with a forward motion.

[Nick C]

MaverickGalietta,

I'm sure there are many others that feel the way you do. The difference for me is the fact that both players were in for all bets. Appears to be a definite mistake without malicious intent.

If the dealer did muck the hand, we can all agree that the hand could easily have been irretrievably mucked. The player would have no one else to blame but himself.

I just don't think that would be in the best interest of the game, to intentionally kill the surrendered hand.