[frob23]

First, don't be such a hot-head and you wouldn't find yourself in this spot.

Second, get or appoint a real tournament director who is informed and has final say in all decisions not involving his own hand (have a 2nd player who can stand in this role if the hand does involve the primary tournament director).

Third, if you want the protection of tournament rules then abide by the common procedures in place which help enforce them. This involves both (or all players) properly tabling their hands after all possible action has occurred (meaning one or fewer people involved are not all-in). Basically, when you were all-in with one caller, you both should have turned the hands face up in front of you before another card was dealt. Insist on this method and the problem becomes impossible in the future because a hand, once properly tabled, can not be mucked. So even if you got all ticked off, your hand could not be mucked and would be live. Also, on one occasion during a real long run, I tabled an all-in hand that I misread on the final board and thought I lost. But because the cards were tabled and it was everyone's responsibility to let the cards speak, I won when someone pointed out that I had caught a four flush on the board. This is for your own protection.

Fourth, an all-in hand can't be mucked but there is some discretion about how to read an all-in hand that was never tabled and was thrown face down towards or into the muck. There is a lot of subjective area here and a tournament director is always called (the decision can't be made by a dealer regardless of how clear it may seem). If the player's cards can clearly be identified and removed from the muck and came to rest above all the other cards in the muck, they may be declared live. This usually requires them to miss the muck or just hit the muck and remain almost completely off of it. If they both flip over, they may be declared live. If one flips though... that is up to the tournament director. One card is not a hand and a player without a hand can't win a pot. In the best interests of the game, the tournament director may determine that it is clearly a winning hand (or tying hand in this case) and award the pot to the person who mucked. But the TD does not have to rule this way and may rule the other way if there is a history of the player making this mistake, some doubt as to the upturned card's origin, or some other reason.

Basically, the person was probably wrong. You could have been awarded half of the pot. But there was no rule in place requiring that you be awarded half the pot. Next time, play correctly and you won't have to rely on this sort of decision. I might have awarded the pot to you in this situation but I wouldn't have to.

Fifth, because all those involved agreed to abide by the decision of the player who was called on to act as the TD, that decision stands. You lost the pot.