stalling

we've all seen [or been] the guy who grinds every sec. of time bank,folds down to chip irrelavance,and basically concedes any chance of winning a tournament for the sake of a cash.While certainly there are times this is what ya gotta do,but in smaller format tournaments why???Most times in small buy events you have a lot o f ppl [hrs of play] and first tier cashes of like half a buy-in. So ,to me, it will always be funny whats going through these peoples minds when they realize they are playing hrs to win peanuts???

I Did it when I was very short stacked and very close to money - I rather stall and get to money instead of folding and getting 0$.
So its pretty simple logic - Short Stack + Spent 4-5 hours of my time already = STALL for $.

ofcourse this is only when your really short stacked and just want to get paid, When your Small/Medium stack this is not stupid.

It is a strategy. I would only do this if I was past the button and was close to ITM with a very short stack.

Otherwise, I usually play to win because a min cash is usually 1.8x-2x the buyin including rake.

I would do this only when you we are really in the bubble.. like playing Hand to Hand.. otherwise it is really silly

I've done it. Not proud of it but there you go.

Well if it's a small buy in $5 or less then I'll just go for it, but if I'm playing a $20 or $30 tourney and I'm really close to the bubble I might delay my play a little bit, but I try to not make it obvious. What I really hate it's hand for hand and people stall when the other tables are waiting only on our table. That is the most ridiculous bs that I see.

skrsh76 said:

I would do this only when you we are really in the bubble.. like playing Hand to Hand.. otherwise it is really silly

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Stalling when playing hand to hand is useless, cuz you still have to wait for all the other tables to finish the hand (Hence "Tables playing hand to hand)
so its just a waist of time really.

You should stall before you get to hand to hand stage.

Stalling is so damn frustrating! Just play the Damn game!

I like when it's reaching the bubble time because I know I can pick up some valuable chips.

Like most the answers here people usually do it when low stacked and close to the money.. Otherwise in my opinion it doesn't help you if you stall.. But I remember there was a playe he was stalling when he was very big stacked and I asked him why and he said he rathers to play a lower amount of hands because he know that if he folds right away he will be playing 2 times the amount of hands as apose to other tables!

One odd thing about stalling is that it reduces the chances for everyone at the table of coming in first place, by reducing the variance at the table.

Generally, stalling is against terms and conditions so can lead to getting the account shut down.

It's frustrating when other people do it, so I try not to do it myself. Though if the cash was big enough I suppose i'd swallow my pride and stall ? (Though i'd hate myself afterwards).

I hate when people stall... ESPECIALLY when I am short stacked.. I am playing for top 3 at least and I want to get as many hands in as I can before the Blinds go up and make my stack even smaller.. When people stall it doesn't increase your chance of winning it decreases your chance of getting a double up,

To be a winning player you need more top 3 finishes then you need "I didn't bubble(s)"

Plus its kinda boring to wait

I think people who feel that they are only gaining by stalling are making a mistake, yeah you pay the blinds less often but you also see less hands that are worth shoving as a short stack and less chances to double up.

Of course I see why people do this if they're playing for min cash, but if you're spending hours folding 98.5% of hands in an MTT to get min cash IMO you're wasting your time. If you were playing to win and lose a big hand, and wind up with 2BB on the bubble then just shove and stop wasting people's time.

I don't stall regardless of my stack size and where the bubble is, it's stupid and lame and I feel that it's what weak players do because they're unable to compete.

If your stack is so small that realistically you have little chance of doing much more than a min-cash and the min-cash is significant to me like $50+ then I'd time bank as well since you make $50 like 90% of the time and make $1000's or $100's such a small % of times.

S3mper said:

I hate when people stall... ESPECIALLY when I am short stacked.. I am playing for top 3 at least and I want to get as many hands in as I can before the Blinds go up and make my stack even smaller.. When people stall it doesn't increase your chance of winning it decreases your chance of getting a double up,

To be a winning player you need more top 3 finishes then you need "I didn't bubble(s)"

Plus its kinda boring to wait

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^^^
this is all true
you stall and you play less hands
but way to go with the min cash- which still usually doesnt work anyways
grow a set and throw it allin

p.s. your playing wrong if you let yourself get that small a stack around bubble time (or anytime lol)
learn shove/fold ranges
might as well fold all your monster hands too so you dont get sucked out too, sigh!

i was like them too once (hangs head)

I'm not really a fan of stalling at any point of a tournament. It seems to me that one of the biggest complaints of professional poker players during a tournament is slow play preventing them from seeing more hands before blinds escalate. I would think that the same principal would apply regardless of where the money bubble is.

I know some possess a different opinion. I suppose it's a matter of perspective. Where some see blinds approaching and want to stall to avoid paying them, I see blinds escalating and want to try to see as many hands as possible before they do. Where some want to avoid playng hands and hope someone else gets knocked out, I want to see hands and take a shot at trying to increase my stack.

You don't have to agree with me. You can try to fold your way to wherever you want and I won't complain about it. That's your business. But your stalling affects me. It's preventing me from seeing hands while the blinds are escalating. And that irrirates the hell out of me.

I do it near the bubble and feel no regrets, but there are too many players in freerolls and pocket change tournies doing it every hand, start to finish. It is the only thing that truly tilts me besides my own dumb mistakes because I can't think of any reason for it besides collusion with players either at the table or at other tables. Other than that or tilting some random like me, can anyone give me a possible reason for doing it that makes sense so I can get over it?

im not a fan of stalling because I still wont cash most likely.... understand why its done but I would rather shove and get lucky then hope people bust while I stall

i always stall, when the money is near. It lowers the variance.
But KK and AA i play and often i regret it LOL

But i fold AA in certain satellite situations..

couldnt stand those americas cardroom mtts with no hand to hand play

So right, but, who hasn't done it. Sometimes it just helps your feelings.