What's with all the sitting out?

Played in my first cardschat free roll and was surprised to see half the people sitting out. There was only about 400 total, so sitting out for an hour doesn't make sense to me.

I was also expecting, well, a bit more chat. Only one player was kind enough to answer any questions.

Which site was this freeroll at?

This Sat afternoon's Pokerstars.

A lot of people register and but dont make it to the game for some reason or another. Others get a big stack early on and then just ride it to get in the money. Its just one of those things...sigh

I don't know this is the case for most or any other people, but today's I was playing at work and there were some problems that I had to handle that took a couple hours.

A lot of sites don't actually tell the other players when someone is sitting out, but I noticed that at Cake Poker it does tell you when others are sitting out. Is it the same at Pokerstars?

i dont know if they do...i think full tilt does...but usually you can tell if they fold or check the BB then fold quickly when betted to

Ya ive seen that a lot to people sitting out. Sometimes people sit out for the whole tourny i dont get why if they were going to sit out why sign up.

Sat in one pts tourny for an hour and 20 minutes before aother live player showed up. Got rich off of the blinds big time. When live players started to show it only took a half hour to break the bubble. Main problem with that game is you could sign up 2 days in advance so lots of people do just in case they feel like playing it.

Had another site KO no shows after 20 hands post folded in a row, no matter how big of a stack they'd built up. Wish they'd all do that!

are you saying you are against people going away after a while when they are certain they would cruise into the money? i kinda thought that was the good part of the 'leaving the tourney' syndrome.

No I'm talking no shows, or very late shows. The big stacks sitting out doesn't bother me as much. But arriving and playing for an hour with 2 or 3 live players with everyone else out is so frustrating. It's a short table with very passive play, and you can't build any pots or count on reraises to push out weak hands. It's driving me nuts! I might have to sit out!!

I have heard (in a poker chat forum) that there are those with multiple accounts. The log in with both during a tournament and play both as long as they can - alternately logging in to and out of each account until one has an advantage or busts.....

Merlin333

By sitting out I mainly mean the no shows. You bring up a good point though, If a player in a tourney leaves permanently that is his choice and I would consider that quitting. It's whole different thing if they take a break for a short bit and come back to play.

I'm saying that I'm for fair play. Leaving the game when you can coast past the bubble isn't fair play to the rest of the people at the game in my book. If YOU were at the table wouldn't you want a shot at that chip stack or would you rather it be put under glass where you couldn't touch them except as the blinds pass?


Are you saying you're fine just making it a little bit into the cash if you can and post fold out of chips rather than playing to win? You never want to be the last man standing?

I love blinding out post /folders!

I think it's a lot more fair than deciding "I have to go" and dumping all your chips off to a single player - which in a lot of cases is the alternative.

In money games, I don't think there can be any argument about people sitting out: they've paid for the seat, they've contributed to the prize pool, if they just wanna go slowly broke it's their call.

Freerolls are maybe a little different because they didn't actually contribute to the prize pool, but in 90% of cases all the sitouts go broke before the money bubble bursts anyway. So I say just take their blinds and be done with it.

I have to agree. My thoughts were based on this was brought up on a freeroll thread where players have not contributed to the prize pool. I was speaking only of the no shows, hour + late shows and the build a stack and leave the game for good players. All that does is drag the game out far longer for everyone. (re:my post about sitting for 1 hour and 20 minutes at a ten seat table in a tourney without one live player at the table. Nothing to do but hit raise every hand dealt is rather boring.)