Party Poker Shortstack Abuse

[GoodTiMes]

Here it is...

Dear Party,
While I am generally impressed with the gaming service you offer there is one thing that annoys me and a lot of other players.
Currently you allow your minimum buy-in to be 1/5 of the max buy in. So when I play 2000 NL, players are allowed to buy in for $400. And if they win or lose a pot they are allowed to leave the table and re-enter the table at the $400 mark even if they had more money on the table just 20 seconds ago.

This is different from many of the other top poker networks and causes a huge problem in the games. These players who buy in for the min (shortstacks) usually have two moves.

1. Go all-in preflop, usually over the top of a pre-flop raise
2. Fold

This is wrong and hurts the game on a number of different levels.

1. By going all in pre-flop they destroy the pace and flow of the game. The other players have to play less hands to adjust b/c they have to be in fear of being raised over the top preflop. This is bad for you b/c it also results in less rake for you guys because the game becomes less loose and aggressive.

2. Whenever I see two of these type of players I immediately leave the table or don’t play there at all b/c for one going all in with out see a flop isn’t real poker and that’s a waste of my time and its not as fun to be forced to player a tighter more conservative style.

3. So when the shortstack goes all in preflop and wins a race to get his stack up to $800, he is then allowed to leave the table and come back with $400. This is absolutely ludicrous, I’ve never heard of taking money off the table in a NL, PL game.

How to Solve the Problem:

1) The most common way this problem has been solved by the other major poker networks is not to allow the shortstack to leave the table and come back with a different stack amount for a designated period of time. So if the abusing player doubles up to $800, he cannot come back to that same table with less money. With a bigger stack it is much less mathetmatically equitable to have a strategy of going all in or folding pre-flop.

This is good because now for atleast one hour, I am spared of this player ruining the pace of this specific tables’ game. I will actually get to see flops and play real poker.

2) Another way to solve the problem would be to increase the minimum buy in. Changing the buy in from 1/5 to 2/5 would go a very very long way in solving the problem.