Heads Up with Opponent Sitting Out

Hi All

Being relatively new to online poker, I experienced my first case of being heads up against an opponent that had been sitting out for half the SNG.

Being new, I just kept raising on the small blind to steal his blinds. Was this the correct thing to do? I didnt see much point waiting around for him as he could have been gone indefinetly, however I did feel a little guilty, as he was a dominant leader.

Did I do the right thing, and what should i do in future?

It depends, (your welcome dj), if I'm playing someone I know or someone who has earned my respect at the table, I might wait a bit to see if he has a connection problem. It is totally up to you how you handle this situation.

He's sitting out? Merry Christmas! I would raise his blind every time and expect him to do the same to me if I was sitting out.

Instaminraise every hand, and hope he doesn't reconnect before you've taken the bulk of his chips.

Is that kinda dirty? Yeah, probably. But I'd expect no less if I was the one disconnected.

yea unless he's an actual friend who youve known for a long time, screw it... ive been on both ends of this.. computer problems, emergencies, who knows... it happens!!
If you get on the good end of it, raise as quick as possible every hand

i HAD THIS HAPPEN WITH ONE OTHER PLAYER. HE OFFERED A DEAL. SPLIT THE BLINDS. HE WOULD RAISE ONE TIME THEN I WOULD. THIS WENT ON FOR SEVERAL BLINDS UNTIL OTHER PLAYERS FILTERED IN. IT'S YOUR JOB ON THE FELT TO GET THE MOST CHIPS.

Different situation - OP is talking about a heads-up situation, where there's only you and one other player in the game.

The situation you've just described, where everyone except you and another player is sitting out at a full table and you agree to take turns stealing the other players' blinds, is collusion.

The game is the game. I would min raise and take the blinds.
Its a bit cruel, but then again, a HU game has only one winner.

You really don't know if it is a computer problem, or if the player just decided you weren't worth his effort to play. Only with someone whom I am friends with would I even attempt to do anything different.

I see people talking about this on forums all the time. They always act like it's ok. I think it's collusion too but for some reason a lot of people don't see it that way.

what is he supposed to do, fold to every blind by the sitout? Cmon. You raise.

raise ad infinitude friend or not...

...but I'm an asshole and suck at poker so I need all the +ev I can get...

He registered for a game and wasn't present for the match so ultimately he should get blinded out anyway. I don't think you were in the wrong at all, he should be there to defend his stack. Just take it has a freebie and be grateful because that doesn't happen often!

If you've got his telephone no call him, otherwise take it!

If I am friends or reasonably well-acquainted with my opponent, I would stall for a while.

If I dunno who my opponent is, lolinstaraising.

I disagree with everybody. Doesn't a sitter insta-muck when you flat call? Why raise when a call does the same job.

Oh, and I'm all for being a gentleman at the table, but I'm stealing as many chips as I can before he returns.

I believe that you do well on having played thereby; the important thing is that you have initiative; and if you achieve it playing thereby; game is correct.

Here the important thing is that you have a control of your decisions and these never leave of control; since I said the important thing in heads up is have initiative at all time.

Regards

The idea of poker is to win. No matter who your opponent is, that's your only goal. If you have pocket aces and two more come up on the flop are you going to fold because your friend (or grandmother) is playing the hand? I don't think so!

How does it decide whether or not to insta-fold?

I went heads up against someone with the blinds at 100/200 and only had 1000 chips to his 12500, but he disconnected. But even tho he was disconnected it still gave him the 20 seconds or so to make a decision.

God, that took ages to win.

I think this depends entirely on the site.

On Full Tilt (only place I've got an account FWIW), it gives the disconnected player 90 seconds to reconnect (I think it's actually a 90 second time bank for the whole game) so the first time they disconnect you have to wait the full 90 seconds. If they don't make it back after that, then it auto-checkfolds every single hand. So if you minraise every hand, the only time your opponent will reach showdown and be eligible for the pot is when they're all in for 1BB or less.

This isn't the same thing, butI was in a tourney with I don't know how many started, but the poeple weren't sittng out. It was like they had the fold to ny bet checked(the whole table). All I had to do was min raise and their blinds were mine. Then people other people started filtering in so it was back to the grind. I didn't feel bad for them cause they weren't sitting out they were there just folding.

I look at it this way. If they're sitting out by choice, they deserve to be blinded away. If they're out due to computer or network issues, why drag it out any longer than necessary.

Either way, finish as quickly as possible.

If I was heads up against someone I knew and liked, I'd still finish it quick and give them back a share at a later time, maybe even a full split.

I would raise every hand. I'm sure the opponent would do the same if the situation was reversed.

This would be known as collusion, and cheating, if you were at a live table and the player walked away to use the bathroom you could not do this the dealer would put a stop to it immideatly if it was talked about.

Wow.. just played a HU tournament game where this happened to me. I instinctively called and grabbed every blind. Until the last hand where the opponent came back and was probably steaming when s/he shoved the remaining third of the stack in (probably out of frustration.) That was the last and only hand played because I won the showdown. I felt REALLY guilty and panicked, like I stole something... so I immediately googled this situation and... just shocked I did the normal human thing to do.
:0

[Alternately: the Justice League me would have ticked "Sit out" also after taking a few blinds and realizing this guy is probably on the toilet.]

Had this happen to me a few times, usually they come back after a few hands. In the meantime, I instaraise every time. Not going to sit and wait for them to reconnect or come back from whatever they're doing. I'm there to play.

raise to get the chips most that sit out never show up to start with or are just blinding out to hopefully get in the money

If he just disconnected i give him 4 or 5 hands, then I takeoff, money is money, time is time. And if a player ask me for a minute, I'll give it.
Of course all that generosity goes out the window if i need a win real bad!

Its the opp falt for sitting out, get all the chips u can b4 he connects.

thats a freebie...

we play to make money so i would not even give your opponent any time to return. take as many chips as you can as fast as you can. were not here to be generous and if your opponent gets mad well thats his problem.

Eazyy. Blind him to death...

umm, anyone who felt guilty about steeling the blind of an opp that wasnt there, umm stop playing poker right NOW, this is not your game, more importantly people who said if its your friend, wait, well thats wrong too. Im ruthless ive refuse to chop with my best friend of 20+ years, you are my enemy till the game is over.

oh and for you newbies just calling will fold your opp hand if hes not seated, however; if your in a three handed situation, raise, as the other opp may not realize the opp is not seated, as this happens to multitablers, also if the live opp limps, raise it so he doesnt catch on, that opp is gone. It may cost you a little, cause your probably folding this hand at some point, but it may allow you to keep steeling the blinds with your live opp, none the wiser.

I'd definitely instaminraise him!

Its not your fault that he lost his connection? It'd be too time consuming to just wait for him to get his connection running again.

Your target should be to finish the tourney/SnG before he returns!

raise every single chance as fast as u can and pray the blinds catch up fast!

I'm definitely raising every hand and stealing the blinds, because HU, that's what I'm likely to try to do anyway. The more you wait, the higher the blinds get which means there is less play involved so as unfortunate for your opponent as it may be, your under on obligation to wait around so just raise and take it, and hope his connection stays down just a little longer.........