moral dilema

[I, Zimbra]

1) If you do know the person involved...?

Brado said that he agreed 10% with his opponent. This assumes that they know each other well enough to at least be able to chase up potential winnings after the live game is over.

As it happens, I think I know which event he's talking about (I finished in 4th place that day), and I have to say that in his shoes I would have waited - knowing that I'm going to be playing with the other guy on a regular basis.

But this brings up a potential moral landmine - if I didn't know my opponent, would I still wait? Surely if waiting is the right thing to do, then it's the right thing to do in all situations?

In the past, I haven't always waited. It was before I really thought about the implications of such a tactic. If there are four or more players left and one is disconned, I don't think it's practical to wait; it's just too difficult to co-ordinate the act of waiting, and there will likely be someone at the table, probably short-chipped, who won't play ball. If there are three, (as in that Sportingodds invitational) then you're right on the borderline of possible waiting. Some people would say yes, some people would say no. With heads up, then it's more practical to wait - the last time I was heads up with a disconn'ed player, I did wait - and ended up losing the Heads Up after he reconnected.

I agree with tank that this is a personal question - there's no hard and fast rule, and I wouldn't look on someone as evil and corrupt for choosing to take the blinds in a heads up situation.

The main problem for me as regarding waiting, is of course that you never know how long the other person is going to be disconnected for. If you could know that it's just a USB broadband modem and a dodgy USB port, which will be fixed in a few seconds, I would wait every time - but the disconnection may be symptomatic of something deeper and less easy to fix. In which case, it's just not practical to wait. The guy might not come back. In these days of good broadband access it's rare, but it does happen - as the SO Invitational proved. There's no way to tell which type of disconnection it is.

This is where having the option to make a deal comes in - if the opponent is disconn'ed for a long time and the blinds rise to crapshoot levels in the meantime, it would be nice to have the option to chop, just so that one can sit out without feeling like an idiot for passing up a great chance at winning the tournament. In this way the disconnected player would not be penalised for an "Act of God" screwing up his/her tournament, and the 'lucky' opponent has the opportunity to do the right thing without risking $s.

As it is, without the option to do the deal, then doing the right thing becomes a harder sell.

i.e. "I want to be a nice person, but there are heavy dollars on the line... what do I do?"

Which I suppose is why some people hedge their bets: "I'll just take a few... to get me back in it... and then wait for a bit..."

We can't all be Andy Black, weeping over the guy who isn't there to defend himself. Poker is enough of a competitive endeavour to make sure that some people would stick to their alligator blood guns and kill the opposition in any circumstances - and also which is why I say I wouldn't look with disfavour on someone who habitually did that... all it means is that I would be more inclined to do it to them if the situation fell my way.

2) There is another distinction that it might be worthwhile to  consider - which is, the difference between how to behave at the heads-up stage of a MTT, as opposed to a STT.

As a recreational player, however, I am enough of a sportsman to say that I generally hope to win my battles with the other person connected and at full strength; there is a bit of a pyschological let-down in winning a tournament if you know that you didn't need to play any poker to get the win under your belt.

So in MTTs, again, I would be more inclined to wait - but in an STT? Well, they come along two-a-penny and I don't attach nearly enough 'glory' to them. If I don't know the person on the other end, and will probably never play them again, I could feel perfectly justified in taking the dollars and running.

---

I believe it's a complex situation to consider, neither black-and-white, nor cut-and-dried.

I don't pretend to have a concrete answer...

[mex]

this is what i often do......... I rasie the hands i would normally raise with if 3 way HU depends on the person.

[patman]

ok.

i had a frustrating sng 10 dollar buy in. Murdered it and got to heads up where i kept getting intermittently disconnected and it showed as me siting out. The other guy never tried to steal my blind and waited. I was chip leader by far so basically he was accepting 2nd place by doing this. He could have raised all the time and got himself back into a playable position.

i dont know if i could have done what he did but i have a note on him to thank him and play fair by him...thats the way i`ll work it.

[action man]

lmao, @ bolt, thats quality,   i agree with sunday 8:00pm's reply, my thoughts entirely

[matt674]

If my opponent is too stingy to be bothered to get broadband to replace his dial-up or is using some tinpot broadband company that reroutes its signals via Guatamala, Outer Mongolia and Kilmarnock - three of the worlds most out of the way places then it isnt my problem. I'll take the chips every time.

 

[MrMoves]

I raise every time.  A disconnect is not my problem nor my fault.  What if he's offline for 3 hours?  Maybe his boss walked in and demanded he stop playing?  Are you supposed to sit there and wait forever?

[Sark79]

If my opponent is too stingy to be bothered to get broadband to replace his dial-up or is using some tinpot broadband company that reroutes its signals via Guatamala, Outer Mongolia and Kilmarnock - three of the worlds most out of the way places then it isnt my problem. I'll take the chips every time.

 

lol, Matt.

I would like to take this time to show you that Kilmarnock has many famous residents ( ok, I admit these are scraping the barrel. But I couldn't find anyone else).  I have heard, there is a talented up and coming poker player from the town though 

The below examples are taken from   http://www.knowhere.co.uk/502_heroes.html

1.One of the creators of the "Tweenies" is from Killie originally. Also, the wee minging boy at the beginning of Braveheart goes to Kilmarnock
Academy

2.Cat Weasel (Most famous Tramp to walk the earth, apparently he used to be really rich, but now seen walking the streets of Killie and not Milan.)

3.Apparently Kirsty Wark is from Kilmarnock. I thought that the fat one out of High Road was from Killie as well, but it turns out she's from Prestwick.

[matt674]

i know squire, just a bit of primate leg pulling - next week it'll be somewhere else, Didcot is looking like being favourite at the moment

[Sark79]

Why Didcot?

I never realised Kilmarnock had a famous tramp.  I actually think I have seen the guy the website is talking about. 

[allym]

Raise like a fiend!

In it to win it!

[b4matt]

LOL @ bust the mouse.

I raise and rob... sorry Karma people