Stalling is terrible strategy

[Toro]

I just bubbled out at 29(27 getting seats) in Stars satellite for entry to Sunday tourney. When we got down to about 36 players the whole table including me starting stalling like crazy. I had about 20,000 and was about 12th in chips and figured I would coast right in.

Wrong. We stalled so much that by the time the BB got me I was anted down to just below 20000 and suddenly just before I had to post the BB, the blinds bounced up to 10,000/20,000 and I'm shocked to see I'm all-in.

Then the whole table folds to the button whos got about 60000 and doesnt need the chips but he calls. SB had a few chips left and he folds. I got K7s and the Button got A6o and I don't get lucky.

Was kind of pissed at the button for calling with that. Couldn't figure out why he would jeopardize 20,000 in chips when he was assured of getting in. If he loses that hand and it lasts a little longer he puts himself in a bind.

But my main point is that all the stalling hurt me a lot more than it helped me. Without the stall we would have gone around the table at the lower blinds and I could have made it through my blinds while the real short stacks got knocked out. I will never do this again with a decent stack size.

[M.B.E.]

Good post, Toro. I find it amazing how people think they are being so clever by stalling -- then the blinds get to them and they are all in.

Personally, even in cases where it is an effective strategy I think stalling is a cowardly way to play poker and borderline unethical. But in the turbos, stalling really does tend to hurt the stallers. To be more precise, stalling will tend to hurt the medium-to-large stacks, but benefit the small stacks and (to a lesser extent) the very large stacks.

[Nixon]

I was playing at UB the other night in a multi, and had a staller directly to my left.

My feelings on people who stall are that they do not trust their skill to advance them further into the Tournament, so they do whatever they can to place a little higher, because they know they are not going to win. (The staller was 3rd in chips with about 28 or so left at the time he started.)

Jut my thoughts.

[whiskeytown]

you were playing a turbo satellite, weren't you...

I have had mega problems with this...everyone hunkers down in an unreal fashion, but with blinds going up every 5 min - you get about two people a level -

it's pretty ridiculous - they should change turbos to hand for hand on the last table b4 the money or something -

I sorta quit doing turbos after barely squeaking into the money when my 3 BB stack became less then one BB by the time a blind came back to me.

RB

[Toro]

I'm embarassed to say that I can't remember if it was a Turbo or not. But regardless of whether it was or not, the stalling was so bad(myself included) that the blinds just swallowed us up.

Lesson learned by me. As for the ethical question of doing it, I didn't have a problem with that because I jumped over to the other tables to see what they were doing and they were all stalling too. So, mistakingly thinking that the stalling was giving an edge, I did it too, with the thought that if I/we didn't do it we would be at a disadvantage relative to the other tables.

So my conscious was clear as far as the ethical quetion.

[Eder]

Stalling is fine, but be sure to push if you get the hand...I doubt you get any callers...btw turn off chat after this

Actually I did this the other week, unfortunately I pushed my 5BB stack with AQ from MP and ran into AK in the BB...finish 6 out of the money, but I would do it again I think.