Do i have a right to be angry?

I was playing a heads up tournement on PokerStars. Before i tell you what happened ill say this is pretty much where i make all my money online, i win 70-75% of my heads up so i play to win, not to get lucky. What happened is we started the tounrey and i got down early 1800-1200 which is easy to come back from. Then he disconnects, they stop the tourney clock the first 3 hands(which took forever) then restarted the tourney clock but didnt fold his hand for 30 SECONDS every hand. 20 mins go by and then he gets back. GREAT! its now 1700-1300 in my favor, 2 hands later blinds go up to 50-100, i go on a cold card run and he goes on to win since its all luck once blinds get that high. So i wait all that time and lose, i think either they should sit him out if he is disconnect, stop the tourney clock, or just cancel the tourney, not change it into a lucky. Should i be mad, and do i have a right to ask for my money back?

[A-Baum]

How would you feel if you were the one who was disconnected in the middle of a HU tourney? I think they try to make it as fair as possible.

If i were the one. And this has also happened many times to me. Most times for some reason i get sat out, which really sucks. I'd say a chip count chop would be fair, but then you might have players disconnecting on purpose. I think its most fair to either give them 5 mins then sit them out, or do it how they do now, but stop the tourney clock so blinds dont escalate.

I recommend not needlessly upsetting yourself and becoming angry, especially over something this trivial. And yes, I know first hand the frustration of players with poor connections and repetitive use of the time clock. Futhermore, some players will make dubious use of the time-clock or play as though they're on Thorazine. I surmise some do this to irritate their opponent. But more often than not, it's inadvertant.

In my opinion, this is just a liability of playing heads-up sit and go's at Pokerstars. Their rules are clearly stated and the time clock works both ways. You can complain all you want to Pokerstars but I can almost guarantee a refund is not in your future. Even if the large blinds (caused by the previous delays and time-clock activations) undermined the influence of skill you did have a chance to win. And I highly doubt their exists many fishy players who:

1) Realize they're devoid of poker skill
2) Realizing the above, intentionally delay the game as the best possible strategy
3) Persist in using this strategy as it maximizes their chances.

If you do email Pokerstars, I can really only see one possible benefit: the complaint might be recorded. And if others complain in the future they might issue a warning if they think the behavior is intentional. But I highly doubt you will get anything more than some superficial empathy and a refresher course on time clock rules. I think it would be unreasonable to expect much more.

Good luck,

JeffreyREBT "Wherein I don't promise to make you rich without trying, or even trying very hard; I do promise to say things that will make you FEEL rich."

Thanks for the response, i guess you're right and theres nothing i can do about it. Just sucks thats it took forever and then i had [censored] luck. Oh well, ill live.

[emonrad87]

Yeah, it really isnt that big of a deal. It's their policy, and that's what is done in all cases.

One time I was playing on party and my AIM buddy list window got maximized and then wouldn't close... I closed it just in time to see my top set get folded in a big pot... I was pretty pissed, but I've gotten over it now.

[bwana devil]

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If i were the one. And this has also happened many times to me. Most times for some reason i get sat out, which really sucks. I'd say a chip count chop would be fair, but then you might have players disconnecting on purpose. I think its most fair to either give them 5 mins then sit them out, or do it how they do now, but stop the tourney clock so blinds dont escalate.

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when he got reconnected you could have asked him if he wanted to chop. it may be stars' first HU chop theyve done.

bwana

[jman220]

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If i were the one. And this has also happened many times to me. Most times for some reason i get sat out, which really sucks. I'd say a chip count chop would be fair, but then you might have players disconnecting on purpose. I think its most fair to either give them 5 mins then sit them out, or do it how they do now, but stop the tourney clock so blinds dont escalate.

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when he got reconnected you could have asked him if he wanted to chop. it may be stars' first HU chop theyve done.

bwana

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Actually, Stars is even more awesome than that. I was once playing a $50 HU against a guy who was having connection problems. He asked me if I'd agree to cancel the match if stars agrees, I'm not a dick so I said sure, and Stars support cancelled the match and refunded our buyins+the fee.

[handsome]

How's that work? Did you just send an email to support?

[jman220]

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How's that work? Did you just send an email to support?

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Yeah I'm pretty sure what we did was I shot a quick email to support and in the meantime we both kept folding to each other preflop, they answered very quick, and then a support person just told me to let the other guy lose to me, and then they refunded us both the entry fees, and took the winning portion out of my account and transferred it to him.