All-in Abuse During Tourney's

I would like opinions on what you prefer in terms of an All-in policy in Multi-table tournaments. On PartyPoker, our all-in policy only applies to those who are physically disconnected. If you "time out", you are automatically Folded. However, problems (unplugging the computer) can still occur.


1) Should players be allowed all-in protection?

2) Should all-in protection be allowed early and then turned off with two or three tables left?

3) Should it be allowed but the site has the right to disqualify anyone who abuses the all-in policy (i.e., unplugs their computer at a critical time in the tournament)? Incidentally, in addition to reviewing the hand history to see if this happens at a critical time, we can determine how a player is disconnected.


I'd like to hear your viewpoints.


Mike Sexton, Host

PartyPoker.com

I think that allin protection should be present, but this is primarily due to the fact that my stupid nVidea card causes WinXP to crash about 10 times a day.


A time bank of a substantial length should provide suitable protection for such events. You should allow enough time for players to restart a computer and log on to the net and your client. I don't like the idea of an allin protection where they are eligible for the size of the pot before that flush card fell and they pulled the plug.


Players with recurring problems could have such priviliges revoked, and be told that they will need to sort out any connection issues themselves, because they are slowing the game down too much. I do not play in many multitable tournies, as i have hardware problems (I spent $4,300 on a new computer about 2 months ago, and Dell is unable to do anything to fix the problems, and they seem unwilling to replace my computer or the video card).

Generally, placing an apostrophe after a noun indicates possession. Here the poster obvioiusly wanted to show the plural case of the word "tournament". Please refrain from such literary angle shooting. Thank you very much.

I like the idea of no all-in protection at all and giving players a clock, like Pokerstars does. You get two (or three) minutes (cumulative for the tournament) to respond, after that your hand is folded. Few disconnects last as long as two minutes. I suppose you could study disconnect histories to find out how much time works best. Anyone with a persistent disconnect problem shouldn't play tournaments online. If your computer has a heart attack, tough break, but you don't get a ticket to final table.


Option 3 is particularly inadvisable because (1) so many hands are "critical."

I think a timebank is the best way to do it, but with a toggle option for it activating on a disconnect.


D

Also the ability to work out a deal with a host, and hand for hand play. Pokerstars would have it right if they put a host on for deals in all of the buyin tournaments.

Quoting Mike from above "Incidentally, in addition to reviewing the hand history to see if this happens at a critical time, we can determine how a player is disconnected."


I find that statement to be quite incredulous. You have video cameras in all the players bedrooms? I do believe you have received some misinformation on this subject. You may be able to infer with a "fair" degree of certainy how a disconnect occurred but that is mostly assumption.


Net Kook Numero UNO

No all-ins and a timebank is the best, but with some modification that folded in some circumstances e.g. pre-flop in small or big blind in the early stages. The player could perhaps click a "use timebank" button after a certain point in the tourney. This would prevent hold-ups and preserve the time bank.

A legitimate "all in" might warrant protection, but how can you really tell?


I usually use a laptop to play at Party, and like many laptops, I ocassionally get a total "freeze up" where I can't do anything at all, including kekboard, and even, power button. It happened ot me once during the final PPM semi.


When it occurs I have to unplug the laptop AND pull out the battery, then replug, reboot. (I have my regular PC on standby to try and get back in quick).


OTOH, I hate all in abuse, and see it all the time in the 1 table tourneys and live games, (though less of it lately, since new policy went into effect).


Maybe a time bank and 1 "all in" early in tourney?

As far as I know those using Windows '98 and earlier O.S. get kicked off PartyPoker every 45 minutes to 1 hour because of a defect in Party's software upgrade 2 months ago. Their software drains system resouces until you go down no matter how much Ram you have. Apparently Party can't fix this. Mike Sexton declined to respond to my email of a month ago pointing out this problem and asking for help. The Party tech people headed by Chris Masters can't figure out what to do. Bottom line, apparently Party expects players to either upgrade to ME or XP (where system resources are handled differently) or go down hourly and not bitch about it. This makes tournament play a real challenge -- I have to reboot every 40 minutes in anticipation of impending PartyPoker freezeups. Because of this problem I think Players will experience more legitimate allins than other sites without such software flaws, and a liberal time bank like Pokerstar's should be a given.

As Martha Stewart Online says.

-----------

Generally, placing an apostrophe after a noun indicates possession. Here the poster obvioiusly wanted to show the plural case of the word "tournament". Please refrain from such literary angle shooting. Thank you very much.

----------


I guess the post is not from Sexton. Rather somebody at partypoker would have posted it on his behalf.


Mike, there seems to be some misconception here on "the ability to know how a player is disconnected". It is NOT possible, as somebody using a home computer might terminate the connection by clicking on disconnect or might simply kill the party application. In either case nothing can be inferred on how the disconnection has happened.


To answer your actual question as to whether All-ins should be there or not.


Other posts suggest the use of time bank, but then, if somebody is holding up the game for 3 minutes when it is down to 2 or 3 tables imagine the amount of difference it is going to create.


So, instead one all-in per tournament is fine, and every player has an equal opportunity to use or misuse it. Any player would use is it as the last ditching effort to save his game, but then he has only one such chance.