when short stacks pause to increase blinds to others

[PokerPaul]

getting close to bubble time, and there are 2 huge stacks..and 3 short stacks.

1 short stack deliberately takes as long as possible as blinds are about to increase within 1 minute and he is now clear.

Is this proper or not.....

unethical or good winning strategy

[ColdestCall]

I dont do it personally, and I dont like people that do. Personally I think it's a bush league play for angle shooting cheese lords, but that's just one man's opinion.

That being said, I can see why some people would think that this is perfectly within their rights to do, as it is not against the rules and anyone at the table is at liberty to do it at any time. Point conceded, but that doesn't change my opinion of the play.

Also, if I see someone doing this I will do my level best to try to screw them with the same play (or any other I can think of), and attempt to enlist the rest of the table to support my efforts to stick Mt. Slow Play with the BB on the next increase.

[bugstud]

taking your allotted time is substantially different than table collusion.

[ColdestCall]

"taking your allotted time is substantially different than table collusion."

No doubt, no doubt, and I'm not saying that I'm "right." It may well be that most people here think this small stack slow play is perfectly ok, and that's fine. Generally speaking, I always try to play it as straight as possible, unless someone does something that I feel is out of line, and then all bets are off.

[stocktrader23]

Usually they just want to get in the money eh? I've never seen someone slow down to make a particular person get a bigger blind. That would really piss me off, lol.

[ilya]

IMO, any and all stalling strategies are perfectly acceptable in an online tournament.

[cferejohn]

[ QUOTE ]
IMO, any and all stalling strategies are perfectly acceptable in an online tournament.

[/ QUOTE ]

They are specifically disallowed on Pokerstars, and discouraged on Party (they are considering making it official).

I always email support when someone is stalling all the time. If it is one or two hands just before the bubble, well, I grumble, but deal with it. If a player is doing it every hand 100 places from the money (this happens). I complain. Party Support *claims* they have at least notified the offending players that their stalling is poor sportsmanship.

Like I said, Stars will give more serious reprimands to obvious stallers, so clearly they do not agree with you Ilya (and, frankly, neither do I). "Because the software allows it" is a poor excuse. The software "allows" me to call up my friend and collude too...

[ilya]

[ QUOTE ]

Like I said, Stars will give more serious reprimands to obvious stallers, so clearly they do not agree with you Ilya (and, frankly, neither do I). "Because the software allows it" is a poor excuse. The software "allows" me to call up my friend and collude too...

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think that's a very fair analogy. Party explicitly & strictly forbids collusion. On the topic of stalling, OTOH, Party has this to say:
"If a player is constantly slowing down the game (called "lagging"), you may bring it to the attention of the player, but please be polite (our support team can assist in case of a connection problem)." It's doubtful that they are even talking about stalling (vs. a bad connection, which as you know is commonly known as "lag") - but even if they are, their tone suggests that they care even less than they do about profanity in the chat box ("We do not tolerate foul or offensive language in chat. (Violators will lose their playing privileges.)").

[PokerPaul]

actually yesterday was the first time i have come across this, and i was utg with short stack with 1 minute left in blind levels.. All of a sudden another short stack takes forever and uses all of his time bank before folding.

I wasnt sure whether i should be upset or whther online SnG STT this is common to edge into money..

Anyways...the irony is that i was forced to call allin on BB with J9..but i won. And the lagger ended up the next one out