When to take an emergency bathroom break,mid-tourney? (quasi-silly)

[PokrLikeItsProse]

Quasi-silly, but I recently had to consider this (although I was ultimately able to grit it out and wait).

Situation: Half-way between breaks while playing an on-line tournament, the call of nature starts feeling urgent and you feel that you must either visit the bathroom or you will almost certainly soil yourself. You are currently one table away from the final table and it is a full table.

From past experience, you know that the quickest you can be in and out is four hands, but it may take you as long as 7 hands. There is approximately a 10% chance that you will stop up the toilet and miss about 11 hands total.

When is the most advantageous position to make a run for it? Does your stack size matter? If there is a nonzero chance that you can make it to the next break, do you just try to last and go when it is no longer avoidable? Is there any tournament situation where each hand is so important that soiling your underwear is a lesser evil than missing a hand?

[PokerMatt]

I'm assuming this has to be a "Number 2." I can't see a whiz taking 4 hands unless you drank a case of beer and haven't broken the seal.

As for your other questions, I can't really answer them. However, I would say that if you're on the bubble it seems like you should hold out as long as you can, especially if you're shortstacked. I would be very angry if I checked out the hand history after the tournament and saw that I had something like AK or QQ while I was on the john with a stack of, say t15,000 and the blinds were at 2000/4000.

[ptmusic]

The first small blind hand you see that is unplayable, click the "fold" button online (not the "I'm Away" button!), or, ahem, fold out of turn in a B&M casino.

Run like hell, and cut the flow off early if it's taking too long, then run back.

You get action from basically two full tables of players before your button hand gets mucked, plus some extra time if you are online.

The big blind isn't as good a spot, because there may be only limpers, and you can play for free. And leaving in any other position doesn't give you as much time for your emergency break.

Trust me: small blind.

-ptmusic

Edit: I missed your estimation of 7-ll missed hands. That is way too long. I don't know in that case - I would probably go right after an early MP position, so the worst early positions would certainly be among those 7-11 hands.

[kuro]

Dude, you're passing up on EV by going to the bathroom. Don't worry though there's a simple solution that all the pros know about.

[regisd]

[ QUOTE ]
Situation: Half-way between breaks while playing an on-line tournament, the call of nature starts feeling urgent and you feel that you must either visit the bathroom or you will almost certainly soil yourself.

[/ QUOTE ]

you don't have a laptop with a wireless connection?