Why Do So Many People Stall?

[Cleveland Guy]

I was playing in the Pokerroom $15K guarantee last night with an average stack and 65 people are left. Top 60 place and our table has stack number 65. He has about 1100 left, and the blinds are are 600/1200.

The whole table decides to stall and help him try to make the money. It starts to take us 4 minutes to play one hand, as people are taking for ever to fold, call, min raise etc.

I don't see how this is +EV for the table as a whole. Aren't we trying to win and not just get into the money? Wouldn't people want to see more hands when the blinds are lower? etc?

I understand the guy on the short stack wanting to just survive and place 60th, but guys with about 25,000 in chips were doing the same thing.

It made no sense to me.

I ended up placing in the back end of the money- but by the time the blinds got to me they were at 1000/2000. I didn't have a lot of options left.

I am not complaining about my beat, and I'm always happy when I cash, but I gotta think it's not a good move for the table as a whole to stall.

[TheJackal]

Welcome to the world of online poker. They should moderate that a little better, I think they should have a floorperson button that you can press if someone is stalling. The floorperson can penalize the person if he keeps doing it, that should speed the game up. I like how they have a rake and can take your money, but if you need to get a hold of some help, you have to email support. They should really doing something about this...

[Lurshy]

I don't do it, but it is a very effective technique for moving up the the payout ladder.

I've watched short stacks with no more than a few BBs, stall their way up multiple payout tiers when in the money. This is not a rare event. By allowing others on other tables to bust before you do, you move up the ladder. Combine the stalling with one suckout or premium hand, and this can go on for quite some time.

Ironically, though people that aren't stalling at the table get annoyed, they benifit as well as they also move up the ladder. It does get frustrating see so few hands per level due to the stalling.

[kuro]

[ QUOTE ]
Ironically, though people that aren't stalling at the table get annoyed, they benifit as well as they also move up the ladder.

[/ QUOTE ]

They get annoyed because they are unable to increase their stack and put themselves in a situation to finish high up in the money. Aggressive play is absolutely key to success in MTT. They also get annoyed because they know what it is like to be short stacked at another table and realize that one of the other tables is playing 20 hands an hour.

[Cleveland Guy]

I was 99% certain I was going to money. I wanted to get a chance to accumulate a stack to reach the final table and win the real money.

I know that the shortstack would stall, and that doesn't really bother me, but why would 5 people "HELP" him?

[ZootMurph]

Cleveland... if they talk about stalling to help him in chat, that can be construed as collusion. Since it is effectively hurting you, I would have told the table to play their normal speed or I would report them. If it continued, I would then report them as promised. They'd only get a warning, unless this isn't someone's first time [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

But I can't sit and be passive about things like this.

[rybones]

just want to throw out an alternate view, I have never been accused of stalling, but then I make a point to appologize for my slow play and connections issues make me the slowest at the table. Alas, I know there are others with 56k modems who struggle.

The good news is that I am getting cable access for myself as a christmas present.

just my thoughts,

Ryan

[Cleveland Guy]

Fair point - but they go from playing normal speed to taking all the time.

I doubt it's the modem in that case.

[ardie]

I agree with your complaint about stalling, no I don't believe modem speed effects an entire table. I tried and miserably failed when I asked a table to speed up their play early in the tourney citing the fact that in that first hour of play we had all fell way below average in chip count. Their response was to slow down even more. Hopefully internet sites will find a way to remedy this.

[marley81]

Doesn't the tournament go hand for hand when you are that close to the money? Stalling does no one good, because you have to wait for other tables to finish anyways.