I'm the only one playing!
It happened to me last night in the Poker-millions UK freeroll... I'm doing alright at about 8-10K in chips, and I realise that everyone at the table but me is sitting out. So I figure to take my time and not get the tables rebalanced anytime soon. I must have had 20-30 consecutive hands (winning only 175-200 chips per hand) where I entered the minimum raise and stole the blinds at the table.
When one player dropped out and was eventually replaced with a 'player' who only had about 2,800 himself, (I had already creamed about 4k in chips from the sleepers) I kept quiet. When he eventually commented on how everyone was folding, I arranged with him to take it in turns to continue to steal the blinds, which we did for some time.
This does involve a certain amount of trust and even laying down the monster hands, in good faith.
This continued for a while until another sleeper was lost to the blinds and was replaced by a real player, the tables were then rebalanced and it was back to regular play again.
We never spoke of it since...
I think it boils down to professional freerollers, hoping to register in a tourney and the fold their way ITM. Even if it's only a few cents, it's the lazy man's way of playing Poker!!
Check out this thread on the subject at
Titan Poker.
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/pok...titan-poker-betfair-poker-158385/#post1262479
It's a common problem, but I suppose it's only in the freerolls that it happens, who'd sit-out a tourney with a buy-in? Full-tilt doesn't show on-screen when someone is sitting out in a tourney, but it appears in the hand history. Everest poker eliminates anyone not signed in for a tourney , as does UltimateBet although Everest goes one step further and ejects anyone who sit's out for an extended period of time, which seems to me like a resonable way to handle it.
Failing that, if your software displays those sitting out, grab a screenshot of several hands and inform your
poker site. It's their problem too. They can either eliminate players from the site or issue warnings, or just ban them from the freerolls... they'll wake up when they have to buy-in!!
But there's nothing worse than dropping out of an MTT when you've been grinding against 3 other players at the table and six sleepers. So beware of the uncooperative types too!
Good luck, see you at the tables.