My email to Party Poker regarding structure

[Bigdaddydvo]

Excellent, well thought out message to the folks at Party. In the multi freeroll I played in last night, the stalling was simply agonizing as we approached the money. Please post results.

[Solaryn]

So you believe that stalling is NOT a valid tactic if it annoys you?

[DeeJ]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm willing to bet that it's a generic "thank you for your thighs, they are very important to us."


[/ QUOTE ]

That's what I read his message as, anyway.

[PokerGoblin]

Stalling is a sleazy tactic, however within the rules it is not illegal, so if people are going to do it there is nothing Party can do in that respect.

Party tournaments become a crapshoot near the end when the avg chip stack is only 10x the big blind. In this structure, you will blind off 15% of your chipstack every orbit.

If they were to extent the length of time between rounds in the latter stages, say 30 minutes rounds after the second break, they would help eliminate a lot of the problems caused by the stallers.

Another problem is the fact that the blinds go from 500/1000 to 750/1500 to 1k/2k. In 30 minutes time the blinds effectively double, making it increasingly more difficult to build a stack. If you don't pick up a playable hand for 2 or 3 orbits you will be blinded off.

Just my take, if I get a response I will post it.

Later

PG

[Absolution]

All online multis have the blind problem. That's just how it goes. They need to finish quickly.

I agree though that stalling is sleazy. I don't do it. There's a great story on Daniel N.'s site about a guy who tried that at a major event and the entire room turned on him. If it wasn't for internet anonymity... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[DonButtons]

Yes, I think the hand for hand needs a little touching up improvements by party poker.

B/C it takes forever for every table to finish 1 hand before they start the next hand, I think they should base the hand for hand period based on hands (like in sngs), and not on time. Or, change the blind level times during hand for hand. The hand for hand period usually messes up the blind system, and when you actually make the money, the blinds are huge compared to the short stacks.

I think the practice of stalling is horrible, and if I see someone stalling, I know there playing just to get in the money, and I will steal their blinds a lot.

[HigherAce]

As I do agree that stalling sucks and ruins the bubble play I have to disaggree that this is a poor concept. I guess there's only two goals in MTT. Finish in the money or to make the final table. If someone has no chance of making the final table I think stalling is a brilliant tactic for them. As I said I hate it but when it comes down to it they are trying to win. period. anyway possible. If they stand no chance against seasoned players in the longrun I say it's a good move for someone about to blind out. It ruins it for the rest of the players but then again they wont be sliding their winnings to you.
SPEED tournaments....laf [/i]
...just a thought from the other side of the fence [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[DonButtons]

lots of flawed tournament theory

I shouldn't see anyone from 2+2 stalling, unless your table is about to break, and you want to skip blinds, other than that, it gets you no where.

[davidlee]

stalling is within the rules, and untill they change it you just have to deal, what makes matters worse is the hate spewed at the stallers who aint listening anyways. it amazes me more people don't stall with the smallest stack and 1 to go or so, i'm from the whatever it takes side. the few times ive had a large stack i found it profitable to have a staller at my table especially if its #1 or 2 and you aren't getting moved. what do you miss in an hour 5-10 hands ?

[MicroBob]

if you're extremely short-stacked, reasonably close to the money, and have a full-orbit to go before being blinded out you would be foolish NOT to stall...because you can be damn sure there are short-stack stallers on every other table who only have 3-4 hands to go before being blinded out.

Thus, if you don't stall you will have a good chance of getting blinded-out and letting the guy only 3 hands away survive long-enough to beat you into the money.

I have stalled before....but only because I see every other short-stack doing it on every other table.
Frequently there are 2 or 3 stallers on my tables (and I assume on many of the others). Sometimes if you're a 'friendly' guy the big-stacks will stall for you too.
There's frequently an attitude of 'good luck joeshmoe567...you're just one player away of making the money'. This kind of psuedo-collusion happens all the freaking time and is pretty annoying.
But, again, since there are stallers all over the place it is a good idea to participate also WHEN it is in your interest to do so.

The best thing they could do would be to alter the hand-for-hand structure appropriately.
Sometimes it is NOT hand-for-hand when virtually EVERY table is stalling....and thus hand-for-hand would speed things up some. hand-for-hand is obviously kind of annoying compared with earlier rounds since it takes longer. But at least it's generally faster than stalling.
Sometimes it goes to hand-for-hand when it doesn't need to.

This happens, for example, in a satellite that only pays for the top place or top 2 places...yet it is hand-for-hand with 2 or 3 tables remaining. 30 players left and it is hand-for-hand for just 2 prizes. ridiculous.
Also on Stars when it goes to hand-for-hand when the next highest prize is only $0.01 higher than the current 'locked-in' prize.
Really freaking annoying.

Also on Stars satellites where 20 players might win an entry...and it doesn't go to hand-for-hand until there are 21 players left...There will usually be non-stop stalling with 30-35 players remaining and it just turns the game into a gigantic stall-fest.
Annoying.