Poker puzzle

[Galilee]

Here's a good puzzle: there are four of you left, blinds are 100/200, you have 2000 chips and so does the guy on your right. Then the guy on your right's computer blows up (or whatever ... I hope the poor guy didn't have a heart attack - it was only a $6 game!) meaning he's just going to blind away his stack. Tragically, you're in the worst position to be stealing his blinds, but of course if you do nothing and let the bigger stacks eat him up then you're guaranteed 3rd place.

The hardest decision I had was to fold AJo on the button, and obviously you'd never fold AA (right?) - but the last thing you want is to lose to a guy who's not even sitting at the table! So ... what hands do you play?

[kenstall]

I've had this happen a couple of times.
My standard move is to play my normal game but let the time tick down to give the player a chance to reconnect.
Unless...
If the guy has been a jerk (on the chat not by beating me) then I will grab his stack at will.

[Galilee]

Haha - it never even occurred to me to give the guy time to reconnect! That makes it a ethical dilemma as well as a maths problem. Well, my brain can't cope with both, so I'll just stick to trying to make money from the situation!

[Hold em 888]

My feeling here is that you have to play very aggresivly from the SB with strong hands. You can pretty much assume that the two chip leaders will be betting almost all hands in order to take the BB off of the disconnected player, so by re-raising all in, you would almost certainly take down the pot right there. You must not do this too often, because eventually the chip leaders will call you, giving you a chance at getting eliminated. If, however, you do it seldomly enough to give the impression that you are being selective with your hands, you opponents ought to give you the respect you deserve, along with a few of their chips. Another reason it's important to be aggresive like this is because you don't want the fact that a player is disconnected to guarantee that you finish in 3rd (no better, no worse). This will happen if you play too weakly to the raises and allow you chips to go almost as quickly as the D.C.'d player. Chances are, you are forced all-in by the blinds the hand after he gets eliminated. And, if the D.C.'d player manages to double-up the hand he is forced all in, you could still end up in 4th place. Wouldn't that be a killer?

[Marcotte]

[ QUOTE ]

The hardest decision I had was to fold AJo on the button,

... what hands do you play?

[/ QUOTE ]

If I'm reading this correctly, the Away player is UTG (and folded) and you fold AJo b/c you don't want to run the risk of going out 4th. But depending on when the blinds increase, you may go out first anyway if you check/fold along with him. (ie, if the next level comes up in less than 6 hands and the change happens on your BB). Plus he could always get lucky and win his all-in blind hand, while you do not.

In this situation, I would not only be trying to steal the Away players blinds, but the other two as well. I wouldn't be as aggressive as I would be if he were still playing, but I would still try. I want 1st place, not 3rd. I would definately play AJo. You have 10x BB, so you're not going to see a lot more hands. This is probably going to be one of the better ones and is pretty strong 3 handed.

(Another thought - stealing his BB from UTG isn't as bad/hard as it seems. If you fold and the button raises, the SB will be hard pressed to not read it as a steal. If you raise, it is a protected pot, so it will be harder for the button or SB to put you on a steal.)

As to how to play it... that's a little tougher. With 10x BB I usually push, but I'm not sure its correct in this case. If you think the blinds will fold to a 2.5bb raise, then I might try that.

As to what other hands to play, I'd say AK, AQ, KQ, KJ (maybe), AJs, ATs, KJs and pairs down to 7 or so. Probably also Axs with x>6 and Kxs with x>7 or 8. Anyone think this is too tight or loose for this situation?

[Galilee]

I should add that on PokerStars (don't know about everywhere else), if someone is away then they ALWAYS fold, even when they're all-in, and even if their blind is simply called - so there's no way they can win a hand.

So you really can't lose here if you do nothing.

But ... if you played this situation over and over, finishing 2nd on one occasion would make up (just about) for going out in 4th in another ... not to mention any 1sts you might get. So I think I was wrong to wait it out!

[jwvdcw]

what about if theres 3 of you left, the chip leader disconnects...then what?

Very difficult because you both want his chips, but how do you go about it?

P.S. I would expect people to blind me out in that situation, so I feel nothing unethical about it.