online etiquette?????

Say you're in a 9 person sng, top three obviously cash, and the chip leader says he has to go and sits out. If there's only 3 left, is it wrong to keep taking his blinds to get heads up with the other person who's still there? I know colluding isn't allowed and whatnot, but should you just play it out with the other present player? I had this happen to me today and wasn't sure.

it's up to the other people if they want to go along with it. however, i wouldnt really talk about it in the chat log much if at all. i dont see a problem with it.

I think the sitouts are fair game. If a person has to leave they should have never registered. Getting that close to the money and sitting out is not fair to anyone playing. The object of the game is to gain all of the chips, not to tip toe around anyones feelings. This is just my opinion and "Opinions are like Azz holes, everyone has one"........lol

not bad ettiquette at all, it is bad ettiquette to sign up for a tourney especially a sngo then sit out, if a dude tells me hes leaving he is not making the money if I can help it. On the other hand if you really have to leave its best not to tell anyone so you dont get ganged up on.

It has NOTHING to do with etiquette--It has EVERYTHING to do with winning OR loosing! If a player decides to 'sit out' then he is informed right at the outset that his antes and blinds would be taken regardless! An', personally, I LOVE free antes/blinds! Nutin' wrong with FREE MONEY, I always say!

You are not allowed to make a verbal agreement to knock the sitter out. I'd be happy to stay afloat by playing small pots and stealing blinds here. If it was a shorter stack that sat out I'd get more aggressive to see if the other player tries to hold on for second instead of fighting back. If so, you could have a huge advantage when it gets HU.
Its interesting that Full Tilt doesn't let you know someone is sitting. You have to figure it out for yourself.

take the blinds! All you have to do is call right? Just don't get too caught up in stealing his measley blind that you end up bluffing your way out of the tournament!

i would say take their chips as fast as you can. i would think if you were never planning on colluding, but then if it was one away from the money, i'd do it until the other person is gone and then resume normal play.

They kinda do but they kinda don't let you know - if you look at the history for the previous hand, it'll have "is sitting out" after their name and chip count.

I'm kinda in two minds about them making it more obvious. Yes, it'd definitely be handy, but at the same time there are a lot of people who don't seem to notice they've got a sitout at the table. Having a sitout and three ignorant people can be an even bigger advantage than just having the sitout.

Spot on with the rest of it - there's absolutely nothing wrong with letting the sitout blind themselves out and moving yourselves up the money ladder. Just for crying out loud, don't actually TYPE what you're going to do in the chat box! That is softplay / collusion.

O.K. I am really gonna put on the dunce cap here. I have been playing since December and learning more all the time. Just started playing tourney's about 2 mths ago so I am rather ignorant. If the person is sitting out they are posting blinds and gonna lose them anyway, I am not understanding how it is stealing the blinds or colluding. If someone has a brief explanation or a link to one that would be great. thanks

There's nothing wrong with stealing their blinds.

What there is something wrong with is actually saying to the other person "Let's just take turns stealing their blinds". When you do that, you're colluding with a player - you've stated you're going to play soft against each other, and work together to knock the third player out in a position lower than what they might otherwise have gotten. Explicit soft play and collusion are against the rules.

O.K. but why wouldn't ppl just play the hands as if the sit out wasn't there. Against each other and ignore the sit out? I am really not trying to act stupid i really am, lol
I do get put that person in a lower postiion but its just one position.

Just don't say anything to the other players. If you can see that they are sitting out and the other players don't notice its dead money in the pot

Depending on the tournament, that one position can be a decent amount of money. And if you both know they're sitting out and they're not going to come back, then it's also free money. So it's worth going after, you just can't break the rules while you're doing it.

Yes I suppose it could be haven't been there yet but i guess it makes sense. Stalling on the bubble never made sense to me till I was there a couple times then I understood. Thank you

Not poor etiquette I don't think, because technically everyone present at the table agrees to it and is not getting hurt. But I think you could be busted for collusion, especially if when it's someone's turn to steal the blinds the other person has AA and folds preflop. Maybe I'll write to Stars support to see what their stance on this is.

its not collusion as long as u dont get together with another player verbally with the intent to cheat , its no different than someone sitting out at a live tournament their blinds will be collected . If that person chooses to sit out that is their choice.I have seen this and evertime it has happened i just raise and take their blinds thats not collusion thats someone that has walked away from the game and the risk they take by doing so.

Actually, if you read the rules on pokerstars, it specifically says that it is against the rules to make an agreement like that to steal the blinds.... i imagine the other sites have similar rules though im not sure

I do the same thing especially when the person siting out is too my left and its folded to me. I do not think there is anything wrong with that

hey theres nothing wrong with that.. its the c leaders problem for sitting out... i wouldnt consider it bad etiquette...

It's not collusion if you dont talk about it and plan it out.. I'd just continue to play cards and steal his blind as often as possible and try to stay out of big confrontations with the other guy. That's definitely not cheating that's playing poker.

Without any verbal (chat) agreement, a simple matter of taking an absent players blinds should not be considered collusion. In fact, I think it's prudent.

when I have had to sit out in agame I realize I am losing my antes and blinds so I dont see the problem.

But one question what is the true meaning of colluding?

Radman

I would not really have considered that unfair. sometimes online tourneys take a long time. This would obviously be a different case if it was a sit n go or something but if it was atleast 1k or 2k people then it really isnt unfair. You cant blame the guy for having to leave and most likely it was important because im not leaving the final table as chip leader for something thats not important

Collusion is when you work together with someone to disadvantage someone else. In the school yard, it'd be called "ganging up on someone".

The big issue in poker is the difference between implicit collusion an explicit collusion.

In the case of implicit collusion, a couple of players will work together to the disadvantage of another without saying (verbally, or in the chat box) what they are doing. The most common example is two players checking a hand down when a third player is all-in. It's collusion, but it hasn't been stated and since nothing can be proved, nothing can be done about it. Most players accept this form of collusion, BTW, because by its nature it only happens in certain very clearly defined circumstances (like that mentioned above) and most will actually expect it to happen.

Explicit collusion, on the other hand, happens when a player or players actually state their intention to collude. They actually say / type "Lets check it down" in the above all-in situation, or say stupid things like "Lets take turns stealing the blinds of the guy that's sitting out". In these cases, the players are clearly colluding and it can be proved. Oops.

So, I have seen a few times where, in a freeroll, I will be at a full table and everyone else will be sitting out. I love this part of a freeroll. I just sit, laugh, and keep clicking where the raise button appears.

However, one time that this happened, a short stack got knocked out, or moved and a not sitting out player took their place. As soon as they noticed, they typed "take turns?" into the chat box. At that point, I decided that this guy was not to get more than 1/3 of these blinds. I bullied him up and down taking the chips of everyone sitting out, and a lot of his too. I figured if he needed to ask me to get the 1/2 of the chips, then he was a weak player.

Turns out I was right.

The moral of this story is don't ask the other player to take turns, start playing mostly like it was a heads-up game. If they are desperate to take 2nd, they will let you walk all over them and steal most of the now sitting-out 3rd player's chips.

I checked out full tilt's site terms and I didn't see anything specifically relating to this, though they had a blanket rule about playing fairly which gives them a lot of discretion in a situation like this (and they may outline this specific situation as I believe they refer to another rules page in the site terms which I could not find). And I also took another look at pokerstars page where they seem to outline this situation, its in the prohibbited chat section on their website, and the situation they refer to is not where someone is specifically sitting out, but rather gets disconnected and is out of the game for that reason. In fact, they even say its a fine line, but do you really want to cross it, especially considering that they specifically say that you risk forfeiting your prize money, or some portion of it.

Also, I have an online etiquette question so I guess here would be a good place to ask it.

I just finished playing someone heads up razz and in the beginning of the match he took a commaning lead, something like 2.5 to 1, which ended up going to a 5 to 1 lead, 2500 to 500. At this point, he starts playing ridiculously slow, using his timer and waiting until he absolutely had to make a bet, even when it was beyond clear that he should and would raise as i would have like k q up and he had 2 lows up. It was pretty clear that he was trying to hold the game till the blinds went up thinking he could knock me out more easily - unfortunately for him, I like the higher blinds and made a great comeback and knocked him out, but is what he did bad etiquette, or is it a common heads up strategy?

I don't really think that is consider colluding, because the chip leader knows that he is giving up at that point in time. If he leaves and everyone else at the table agrees then i don't think it is wrong. I myself always propose this in this situation and have been in this situation quite a few times. sometimes the people agree, sometimes they don't. It is really up to the table and the players at it what to do. So let the overall census be your guide.

I's best to just try to play normal with the other player but try to take the blindsrom the sit outs. I really hate when in this situation but having a coupld of sitouts.

hey if a person sits out their money is fair game, and you don't owe them anything. I'm all for blinding them out

I was in a S&G once where it was down to three handed.....myself of course, one huge stack and one sitting out with about the same amount of chips as me. I sort of assumed without saying anything at all that the big stack would go after the 'sitter' (immediately to his left) and I'd probably end up 2nd. Much to my surprise, the big stack kept dumping SBs to the sitter and bullying me. I finally asked wtf he was doing to which he replied if I wasn't good enough to beat a guy sitting out, then I didn't deserve 2nd. He was clearly dumping chips. I probably should have reported him.

What is this online etiquette you speak of is there such a thing.?? lol

It is only collusion if you two talk about taking the sitter's blinds by taking turns or such. Unspoken it is just comon sense to blind out the sitter before putting yourself at risk of being knocked out.

I do not think that it is bad to take the blinds. You are not stealing them every one knows the rules when they sign up. It is going to happen anyway even if he is in the game and not palying due to a cold deck. He will still lose the antes and blinds . But I also agree that if you can not commit to the game do not sign up.