Is this unethical?

I was playing in a 6 person SnG the other night.

It pays only two spots.

We were down to three and I could tell the guy with a slim chip lead had been disconnected and was on autofold. My other opponent I could tell did not realize this.

I was tempted to tell this person in the chat that we should just take turns raising his blind until he is blinded off.

I never did and I ended up hitting a big hand against the live opponent and busted him.

Would this have been unethical or a bad idea to put in the chat box?

Yes it would be, you can get banned, locked out of your account..
One form of cheating..

why would you want to tell him if he didn know?

if i were you i wouln have said chit...and i would be raising consistently as if it were a heads up match...make the other guy catch some cards in ordeer to call.

glad it turned out the way it did and yes you could get in trouble for asking this as kid stated

Yes, it would have been unethical and would have been collusion.

Lol I learn something every day i did not know that!!

Better to learn here than get your account banned =)

Yep, collusion not good.

I always feel guilty when I raise a disconnecter - I manage to justify it to myself somehow and do it anyway. I do remember a while ago I had a gent of a player wait for me when I disconnected at the end of a tournament with $100 difference between 1st and 2nd. He won.

one time when i was down to 8 people in a $4.40 MTT first prize being just under $1k 3 of the players were sitting out so some clown at the table says we should take there blinds WHILE A MODERATOR WAS WATCHING that was the last iv ever seen of him

Yes, it is definitely collusion.

Also, you shouldn't want to tell him anyway. That decreases your chance of winning if you guys keep your stacks even, and you wouldn't have busted him in the big pot.

Just curious about this...if you take a sitouts money by raiseing it called cheating?ive never heard of this..he chose to sit out and taking his chances to lose his blinds....now a disconnected player has a time limit to get his butt back in the game and i dont believe poker players show mercy......now left unspoken how can they have a problem with this.....collaberation with other players at the table is stupid anyways.

Thecheating isn't taking his chips, the cheating is taking to the other player on how to play the disconnected player. i would play as fast as i could to get the most from the disconnected player.

He is a better person then I am, and most others also. I guess he won the minute he dicided to wait for you. I guess i am not that nice.

A few nights ago i was at a table where a few players play alot together, when one of them told his friend not to call but fold after the flop. He had flopped quad 3s. I didnt care for this play so i reported the chat and acused him of cheating. They did not agree and just laughed at me. last night one of the friends was mad at me because his buddy got banned.
I just said thats what happens when you cheat. He then acused me of making it up. I just said yeah they would just take my word on it.

Good answer PokerJoe!

glad to know that. I have told players in the past. I won't be doing that again.

Was not aware it was wrong to tell people another player is disconnected.

Course my greedy attitude wouldn't allow me to do this. I'll steal the blinds gladly. I would expect somone to do the same if i was disconnected. As it has happend both ways with me when i have been ITM.

I remember I was down to the top 3 in a MTT with one player sitting out/disconnected. It ended up being a contest of who could steal the most from the poor bugger with raises and 3bets commonplace. It was actually one of the most interesting poker games of my life. Of course I managed to end up third...

I've participated in freerolls where 6 or 7 of the players at my table are on autofold and alternated taking the blinds with the other live players. Are you telling me that we could be banned from the site? To us it just seemed like the best way to ensure we'd go deeper in the tournament without risking all our chips. We signed up for a multitable tourney not a heads up tourney. How can anyone consider that collusion?

if you talked about about it in chat it could be called collusion

Anytime you discuss how to play against another players it's collusion. Doesn't matter what you "signed up for" or if it's a disconnect or a sitter.

What if hypothetically one of the live players chatted "Hypothetically, isn't it in the best interest of all live players to alternate taking each hand until the autofolders are gone"? Would that constitute collusion? Either way, I'll certainly never do that, since it's clearly not worth the risk of losing my bankroll.

Hypothetically the support folks could look at that hypothetical statement and see that it was thinly veiled non-hypothetical attempt to collude with others and still nail someone for it.

yes it can be seen as a form as cheating whereby you and the live player are colluding to make the money and can have serious actions taken against you like stripped of your winnings and banned from whatever online poker site you were on. Then again its a wierd situation where one of the final 3 is sitting out, and although he may have been disconnected, if he had a high enough stack to pay the blinds he could easinly be sitting out waiting for you or the other player to knock eachother off without risking his chips to make the money. Ehtical? no, moral? yes

This brings up an interesting point, and hopefully it isn't lost buried at the bottom of this thread, but what about the implied collusion when two people both notice someone sitting out. It is not unheard of for people to take a "gentlemanly" though I'd say its actually, and aside from the tax reasons I hate using sport, unsportsmanlike approach of alternating blind stealing. Is this a form of soft play? Which is a form of collusion. Even if nothing is ever said between the players.

And on the point of soft play, and referencing the instance where the guy told his buddy to back off, had they been heads up and he simply not bet/raised that could easily be considered soft play and thereby a form of collusion. If I'm not mistake there was a WSOP incident this year where a player was penalized for not betting the nuts when they were last to act.

No.. Don't tell him.. Just keep that information to yourself.. it will benefit you.

It would have been terrible for you, why give away free chips? I have been in this same situation maybe once, it didnt end with the disconnect hitting the money, but i just kept that info to myself and gained a nice stack in the process. Never give away those kind of things!

They arent your friends, trust me, play live and watch the people that you sit then and become 'friends' with take all your chips because you think they wont. Bad news.

I d not think you should have told him. It is up to him to be aware of the dynamics of the table.

...i definitly would not tell him,,,i can not see one reason to tell him...there are chips available to be won, your there to win chips and money, so thre would be no benifit to tell him...i know its collusion, but even if it wasnt collusion and was compltely legal, i still would not tell him...if the guy didnt notice, he doesnt deserve to know...

What did u do on the hu? Did u wait for him or just took away his blinds?

I've seen and done all of these at some point lol but not any more, thanks for the info

If he was smart then he took the blinds.

I have been at tables where a few people were not there, you can always tell when someone is not there that's when you raise every hand and take what you can get! Don't tell anyone if they don't know that's on them. GL

I understand that making suggestions about how to play a player (sitting out, disconnect, or friend v friend) is not allowed, but is pointing out that someone is sitting out against the rules? Not saying "hey he's out, let's take his blinds" but just "I think hes sittiing out" as a statement of fact. I guess you could put it on the same level as giving someone information/warning about a live players playing style, so I could understand it from that perspective.

No, just saying something like "I can't believe there are six people sitting out" or "That guy is sitting out" is not unethical. But you do need to be careful because while those comments in and of themselves are okay they can easily cascade into statements of collusion by others which could make you look guilty or in cahoots with them.

I wouldnt want to tell him anyway, unless 1st and 2nd got the same?