Can weak players damage your game?

Before I get criticized let me provide an example: Suppose there are 9 players at the table, players (e,f,g,h) are A+ players. Players (i,j) are solid B players. Finally players (k,l,m) are very weak players who play many hands and think the whole game is about bluffing.
Lets assume early in the tournament player (e) gets involved in a pot with pocket kings. Players (k and l) foolishly get involved for all their chips because their pocket 7's and suited K,J seem like a decent hand. Anyway, player (e) puts them all in and wipes out their stacks. Now there are seven players involved but only (e) has a huge stack.
Doesn't this seem somewhat unfair? To make it clearer assume you start in a tournament and one player starts with a chipstack 3 times the size of yours just because.

I can also argue myself in this regard so please don't get mad at my question, just want to see what others think.
[I useto play blackjack and would get so angry when other players attacked the player at third base for ruining their game. It never occured to them that a foolish third base can hurt them just as much as it can help them.}

Thanks for your thoughts!

[BluffTHIS!]

Hell yea they can damage your game. They can stop showing up and leave you sitting there trying to get a dollar off one of the rocks who are left.

yes, in a sit-n-go (best example i think) you have to be somewhat in the running for getting the worst players' chips.... obviously if you don't get good cards, there is nothing you can do about it.

i suppose you could also make an argument that bad players hanging around in a hand improves the odds for other good players to stay in against you.

[soko]

No, if these guys suck and are just as likely to go all in with junk when sombody puts in a big raise they are just as likely to go all in with you as they are the other soild players

over the long run there will be an even distribution of the good players winning the sucky players chips early in the tournament

their buyins become dead money, regardless of who is going to be holding their chips

[Vollycat]

In my opinion, isn't that called 'tilt'. If there is some outside force that is going to influence your play because you cannot mentally over come the situation, that's a form of tilt to me. Sure, if the player is a good big stack player it can make more things difficult, but the better players will usually rise. Can't let someone else's fortune change how good you can play.

[ QUOTE ]
Now there are seven players involved but only (e) has a huge stack.
Doesn't this seem somewhat unfair?


[/ QUOTE ]

This is always going to happen; in MTTs, STTs and it is ALWAYS apparent in a ring game. Some people have deeper pockets.

I used to feel the same way, but it is just a constant. If your gonna play poker. you have to be confident in the amount of chips you have are enough to win. There is no set amounts of chips you need to win, I have lost tourneys in 2 hands that I was chip leader for 100's of hands, and won tourneys where I had 2-5x BB's for the most of it until the final few. Just concentrate on making your next decision the best it can be.


to sum it all up POKER IS NOT FAIR, and thats why I LOVE IT

Anybody can be player E. Luck is the way humans make themselves feel better. When you do well, you generally don't see any "luck" involved. When you lose, it's all luck. You are just as likely to be player E as any other person (including player E). Over time, you will make money off of poor players in ring games, as player E did. In tournaments (my game of choice), these guys can kill you, because even if you play perfect poker by the book, one fortunate draw can break you. This is why pot odds and EV don't mean EVERYTHING in tournaments. A little thing called expected utility can make a -EV decision the best decision in a tournament.

In conclusion, donks give you money in both tournaments and ring games, but in a ring game, you get the money when you rightfully defeat your opponent. In a tourney, you get chips which have NO real value. Those chips can be taken by a donk with a bigger stack. You can just cash out of a tournament when you're ahead.

[UATrewqaz]

Well playing any "type" of game long enough can get you dull.

I'm used to the loose/passive .5/1 party games and recently have been playing alot of stars 1/2, it's much more semi-loose/aggressive. I've had to learn to respond to the donk bets.

There are still plenty of bad players, but my style has had to change.

[lotus776]

excellent point

[ QUOTE ]
Now there are seven players involved but only (e) has a huge stack.

[/ QUOTE ]It's not always (e) that gets the chips. Sometimes it's f, g, h, i, or j. And, it should even out in the long run.

very good posts, u guys.

short answer: yes, playing bad players too much can skew your thinking, your mental toughness, and very importantly (and related), discipline.

but on a positive note, it takes only a day or so to switch to high gear again.

[ohnonotthat]

Hurt your game ?

Or

Hurt your chance of winning that particular tournament ?

*

If it's the latter you were already been given the answer.

In the long run this sort if thing will even out; you will have the Kings as often as anyone else and I assume the 7s and KJs will call you just as they called the other "e".

I was in a tournament (limit holdem) recently where one of the players announced his need to quit; he further announced that he would raise all bets for the next 10 hands or until he went broke.

Obviously there was an advantage to be seated strategicaly vis a vis him but this too was random; he hapened to be 2 to my left but he could as easily have been in any of the other seats - or at another table.