Spirit of cricket in poker?

jimmyp88

Imagine the situation where I am holding top pair after flop. I have A8 and the flop is 8 high. I am against one other player in this hand, and it is a DYM game. They are first to act on the flop, but they let the timer run all the way down and they are automatically checked and appear Away. Now I think they have been distracted momentarily and do not think it is a deliberate check. I then bet, then they suddenly reappear and force me all in, I think I called, but in any case I think they had Queens, but definitely a massive over pair. Is this strictly above board and in the spirit of poker, letting your status go Away to fool an opponent?

YoungUn

We shouldn't assume that they've done it to fool you. They could well have been picking their baby up and putting them on their lap, or answering the phone, or grabbing a quick snack, or they could have been having connection problems. I find it highly unlikely that they'd do that on purpose to fool an opponent.

If they did, it's a little unethical maybe, but it's nothing horrific like throwing a chair at someone at a live game because they've been outdrawn. Unfortunately it's just a limitation of online play.

Tikay10

Hi Jimmy,

I tend to agree with Young Un here - our evidence sample-size is very thin!

And to be fair, you cannot be "forced all-in", that's a choice you made, not him. But you'd have been happy if he had 7-7!

I do agree with you, as it happens, as to how cool it would be if poker was played in a sort of corinthian sporting spirit. And, on the whole, most folks are like you & me - we play the game in the right spirit.

But we all pays our money & makes our choice.

jimmyp88

Well what aroused my suspicion was that after I'd made my bet fairly quickly after he'd been timed out, he INSTANTLY re-raised me all in. If he was distracted by a young'un or telephone, he would not have been able to look at the flop or my bet as my bet was quick. I am heavily surmising I realise, but it just smelled fishy if you get me?!

JPDERRY

sounds like he was multi table,or a really cool move,i would have folded top pair top kicker in a flash,but we all dont think like me and helmuth

offshoot

whether he was sitting out or not should not be a factor when you bet. His play to sit out is no more unethical than your play to try and take advantage of him being unable to get to his computer.

kirstii

I've heard of people doing this intentionally on other sites and i believe it to be a poor tactic that only a poor player would use, however like Tikay says pay your money make your choice. Just got to outplay them for the rest of the game.

S1DEWINDER

Spirit of cricket in Poker...

Lunch after the first two hours - I'm liking it!

I think its a little unfair to attribute the bar running down as a deliberate act, there are any number of perfectly acceptable reasons why the person in question may not have done anything during the time. The instant all-in, I'm not sure, I'd like to think that there wasn't any of these intentions behind it.

YoungUn

He might have actually wanted to bet the flop, but was multi-tabling so his computer was a little slow in keeping up, so when he was forced to check he panicked because he was worried that you could be getting a free card. Then when you bet into him he feels he has to put it in because he doesn't want you to see a cheap turn.

That might explain his insta-shove. It's happened to me many times before where i've wanted to make a bet but my comp was too slow to action it, then I panicked about getting outdrawn and insta-shoved when someone bet into me.

VIRUSXXX

Have you considered that they may have run out of time when trying to find a bet size that they thought you would call? I have occasionally been in this situation when trying to extract the max value from a hand..

They probably assumed that on such a raggedy board they would have to put out a bet that looked like a c-bet in order to get you to make a mistake and call. 

The fact that you happened to be playing A8 and did their betting for them was fortunate as (and i'm making an assumption here since the info is not in the OP) your bet probably gave them the perfect shoving stack.

But, why not make a note, and see if this is a practice that they do often - or whether it was a "one off"

OMahonyO

Ive seen this quite a few times and I do think there are ppl out there that use this tactic, and as a result I never look too far into it. It doesnt bother me and I dont think its a right or wrong thing to do ethically.

CLIOKID

I see absolutely nothing wrong with what he did there tbh.

jimmyp88

Also in DYM games, what would you say your strategy should be if you 4th out of 4 remaining players and short stacked. You also think the opponents, which all have similar stacks, are waiting for the blinds to eat you up. How can I counter this as the short stack, being as none of them are calling an all in, but are raising a call?

maccol

In Response to Re: Spirit of cricket in poker?:

Also in DYM games, what would you say your strategy should be if you 4th out of 4 remaining players and short stacked. You also think the opponents, which all have similar stacks, are waiting for the blinds to eat you up. How can I counter this as the short stack, being as none of them are calling an all in, but are raising a call?
Posted by jimmyp88

In DYMs normally by the time we are down to 4 players we should only be open raising,never calling