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Playing at my usual Monday night bar tourney, we are down to the final three. BB - call him Bob - is short stacked and announces he's going to be all in blind (he's got 600, bb is 400). Dealer - call him Doofus - calls, and I call in the SB with J10. Flop comes out Q high and Doofus bets. I fold, Doofus and Bob show cards. Neither player has anything-dealer bluffed be out. Turn J, river 10. Bob wins with A high and triples up.

Now this is a pet peeve of mine and I politely tell Doofus what a bad play it is to bluff at a dry side pot. This is the ONLY thing I'll get on another player for. I don't care if you crack my aces with 72 os, but don't push other people out of a pot when someone has the opportunity to knock out an all-in player.

Next hand Bob's all-in again and Doofus doubles him up. The very next hand, Doofus doubles him up again.

To wrap this up, Doofus went from big stack with about 2/3 of all the chips in play, to even with Bob and myself in 3 hands. He ended up being knocked out by Bob about 5 hands after that.

Go figure.

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Actually this isn't really a bad play on his part. He has two thirds of the chips in play. It is actually to his advantage for the small stack to remain in the game. Why? because the small stack gives him leverage to pick chips up from you. Everytime he makes a significant bet -- one that covers you or would signifcantly cover you, you are going to be hesitant to call with anything but a monster, because the small stack is behind you and you don't want to get knocked out in third when there is a short stack on the verge of elimination.

This stratgey can of course backfire, but it can be a very effective strategy to keep the small stack in when you have a dominating lead over both players relative to the blinds.