Vanessa Kade showed outstanding sportsmanship but did I show Sportsmanship?

[blkmoney12]

During Vanessa Kade's very notable win in the 15th anniversary Sunday Millions tournament, when the final table was down to three, Talibebes was the chip leader but had lost his internet connection. Rather than take advantage of the situation Vanessa used her own time bank until Talibebes reconnected. This was indeed an example of good sportsmanship.

I had a similar situation in a tournament played on PA PokerStars. Someone had sat out (similar to the one in the Sunday Millions) for the rest of the game. I'm not sure if the player was disconnected or just did not choose to come back and play out the rest of the game.


My question, did I (we) show good sportsmanship? The 3rd player and I decided to keep playing - the chip leader sat out and did not rejoin for the rest of the tournament. Should the other remaining player and I, have called support about the situation? or should we have continued playing as we did? Could this situation be considered bad sportsmanship? What do you think?
I have a video of the game I had played and the topic in question starts at the 4:11 mark where the overwhelming chip leader sat out the rest of the tournament.

 

[alien666dj]

In my opinion, if you are going to play in an expensive tournament, you should prepare a backup internet connection in advance. In your situation, I do not see anything condemning. After all, you have come to win the tournament.

 

[Shells]

I agree with alien666dj for the most part. It's true, we do come to win - when this happens, in a similar situation, I will use some of the time bank to see if the 'sit-out' is trying to regain a connection or is coming back. After a few hands, if they don't make it back, we play as normal. But of course, I am usually playing tournaments under $10.

 

[hugh blair]

Agree with fundiver199 and alien666dj players responsibility to be there and prepared I have fallen asleep 1st out of 15 players 10 hours into a tournament at 6am after being awake since 6am the previous day and wake up few hours later to see you have finished 3rd/4th type pop ups on my computer screen.
I always wonder was it better to fall asleep in these spots instead of busting 7th or 8th?:laugh:
Have played a lot of tournaments where my opponents fall asleep too most likely as 5am or later and they are playing too long.
Or other reasons like internet disconnections not fun when it happens in $100 spin as these games are fast your blinds get devoured with a 1k prize but that has happened to me and villains also in those games too.
I use different internet connections if fails in house got my phone as second back up and I also purchased a third prepay modem from different internet provider and that device I can top up with €20 and bring with me when leave the house even for example.
But this game was an exceptional case compared to normal games and I will give Vanessa credit for being an exceptional lady and a well deserved champion of this tournament.

 

[fundiver199]

I can see, why Vanessa did, what she did. She is a known pro, and a lot of people were watching that stream. So by showing this sportsmanship she invested in her image, which might well be worth more than stealing a few blinds, before the guy returned. I remember, there was an incidence at the online wsop at GG Poker, where another pro did not wait for an opponent, who showed up late for a heads up match. And he got quite a bit of stick for that from parts of the poker community.

However if you are playing regular online tournaments, that are not streamed, and/or you are just some unknown amateur, then its probably almost a little bit naive to give to much courtesy to someone, who lost their connection or are sitting out for other reasons. Its quite unlikely that favour will ever be returned, when one day its you, who are sitting out or lost your connection.

So I just play on normally, whenever this happen, and I certainly dont run my time bank. I want to have that available, if I face a tough decision later. I would also not consider calling for a support person to come at the table. What are they even supposed to do? Pause the tournament for half an hour to see, if the guy comes back? I dont want to sit around and wait for that.

Then they could stop the tournament and pay out the rest of the money, as if a deal had been made. But if they do that without the consent of the sit-out player, they could face complaints from him later, that he was just in the bathroom and had planned to come back and play. He is sure, he would have won the tournament, so they cheated him, and now he wants compensation.....

The way, I see it, when we buy into an online tournament, its our obligation to make sure, we will be able to play it, which include having a working internet connection. Since this guy apparently never returned, its quite likely, he simply had to go and decided to settle for third or hope to fold his way to second. This is just basically not your problem. So just play on and be happy for the easy payjump

 

[rachelle2291]

You may not have just recently signed a big contract to be a poker ambassador like Vanessa recently did with ACR. It would be important for her to maintain a good public image ($$$). I do not know Vanessa and she might be just a real nice person and she wasn't even thinking of her public image when she let her timer run down.

 

[fundiver199]

I have fallen asleep 1st out of 15 players 10 hours into a tournament at 6am after being awake since 6am the previous day and wake up few hours later to see you have finished 3rd/4th type pop ups on my computer screen.

This is another fairly obvious reason, why people might suddenly sit out and not return, and I have also experienced situations, where I suspect, this had happened. Like playing against people from Canana, when its 5 am in the morning there, but well into normal day hours here in Europe. And suddenly the canadian gentleman is sitting out and dont come back

 

[terryk]

It's called class,,,, and part of the reason she ended up winning,Good karma never hurts.$$$ $$$

 

[papapokera85]

In a word, SHE is cool.

 

[edwooley]

You have come to win the tournament.

 

[darthjewel]

I think that this scenario should be covered in the tournament rules and judges could stop the game for 15-30 min and try to contact the player.
The decision by Vanessa Kade was nice and warm, but I do not see anything justifying the word 'outstanding'.
Take for example a car race. It may be stopped or restarted in some cases,
but when your car stops due to the engine failure nobody breaks and wait for you to fix the issue.

 

[fundiver199]

I think that this scenario should be covered in the tournament rules and judges could stop the game for 15-30 min and try to contact the player.

That might be ok, if its the final table of the Sunday Million Anniversary edition with 1,5 mio dollars for the winner. But yesterday I reached the final table in a 2,2$ and 5,5$ MTT on Stars, where in both cases there was around 250$ for the winner. And I honestly would not want to sit and wait 15-30 min for someone, who lost their connection.

These tournaments last more than long enough already, when you run deep. Also the sit-out player cashed already, and they might even still sometimes be able to fold their way to some payjumps. So its not exactly a human tragedy, that they lost their internet connection at the final table. Better luck to them next time.

Finally pokerstars actually give players additional time, when they have disconnected, and the tournament clock is stopped. For some reason that seemed to not happen in the Anniversary tournament, which the commentators also wondered about. Often that time is enough for people to reconnect, or they might miss and single hand or two and then be back in the game.

 

[SpanRmonka]

This was a great show of sportsmanship from Vanessa!


I'd like to think if I ever get to a final table that's televised like that I would do the same, but in any other normal circumstance I'm taking taking advantage of free chips if they are on offer. Not that its ever likely to be a problem I'll come up against!!

To be honest tho, I have numerous examples of playing really badly when people sit out, I seem to feel like every raise is down to stealing free chips, then end up getting over involved with pots I shouldn't have and losing. Its been a real problem lately.

 

[darthjewel]

@fundiver199, I was referring to a big event.
In case of an everyday game - no mercy.

 

[akmost]

I would stall for the first orbits , this can easily happens to all of us but yes I always have a back up plan just in case. I would stall and maybe spend some of my timebank if there was 3 handed but after a while I would play normally , after a while it's not my problem anymore, sorry.

If I was HU though I don't know , I would do the same at the beginning but after many orbits of stalling OK again it's not my problem anymore especially in those casual tournaments I participate.