Poll: online disconnection ethics
I was playing a 1K buy-in sit-and-go at Party last night, when the following situation came up.
We were heads-up. 1st place paid $4500, 2nd place paid $2500. We were roughly equal in chips... he might have had a slight lead on me.
The blinds were 300/600 with 10K total chips in play. It's important to note that 300/600 is the final blind limit for these SNG's--there were to be no more increases, so that wasn't a factor. My opponent disconnected. Party gave him the extra disconnection time, but he was gone (for a while, as it turned out).
My opponent wasn't an asshole, if that would be a factor in your response... he hadn't put bad beat after bad beat on his opponents, he hadn't typed anything stupid in the chatbox, etc.  I had nothing against him... he had played well and deserved the win as much as I thought I did.
So... what's your course of action?
We were heads-up. 1st place paid $4500, 2nd place paid $2500. We were roughly equal in chips... he might have had a slight lead on me.
The blinds were 300/600 with 10K total chips in play. It's important to note that 300/600 is the final blind limit for these SNG's--there were to be no more increases, so that wasn't a factor. My opponent disconnected. Party gave him the extra disconnection time, but he was gone (for a while, as it turned out).
My opponent wasn't an asshole, if that would be a factor in your response... he hadn't put bad beat after bad beat on his opponents, he hadn't typed anything stupid in the chatbox, etc.  I had nothing against him... he had played well and deserved the win as much as I thought I did.
So... what's your course of action?
Comments
I suppose if you wanted to be really generous you could sit out until he gets back, but at what point do u give up? I mean for all you know hes never coming back.
If it were me, I would wait if I am playing in a special/friendly tourney like the TCP tournies, otherwise, I go hard at cleaning the guy out before he returns.
Personally, I'd give a reasonable time -- something like 5-10 minutes and then start blinding the guy away. I think you can't wait more than that, as there could be so many reasons why he's disconnected and won't be back.
Cheers
Magi
I would give him some time 5 minutes seems about fair and then start blinding him away. You can't be expected to sit there and wait forever for a guy to return.
Mark
The flip side of this is that the disconnected guy could have gotten AA in the SB and folded.
Personally, I'm in favour of the first option, although I can see why people would choose the third. I don't see the point of the second though (blind him slowly) - either keep it even or take his money as quick as you can. Anything else is teasing
When I was sitting across from the disconnected person I gave a very genrous 5-10 minutes for them to reconnect. after that I started blinding him out.
When it happened to me once (I was the short stack at the time about 1 chip to his 3 or there about), I had my router crap out on me and had to reset the whole connection. (Took about 5-8 minutes to do) By the time I had gotten back on line I was down to about 200 chips or so. I am not sure if he waited 5min or not but I think he did wait at least 3 minutes or so since I figured that if he had been blinding me off I would have had no chips left.
Thats probably what I would do unless the guy has been a complete jerk, but when the money is up there ($1000 SnG, or even $100 SnG), I am not sure if I can say I will do what I did in the $20 SnG.
I was in an interesting situation in a SNG. We were at the bubble and one of the players had been sitting out for some time. He was down to the short stack by now and another player had a slightly larger stack and could simply sit on his hands and get to the money. I was a mid stack and the big stack was raising nearly every hand, daring one of us to risk busting out when we were basically guaranteed making money by taking it prison style willingly. I'm curious what strategies people would use if they were in the various players' shoes.
I agree with the Karma statement. If this happenned to you, I am sure there would be a post about it here the next day. I personally view it as a bit of angle shooting.
This has happenned to me before and I waited. It was the beginning of a Heads Up match on Paradise and I waited. Did my opponennt appreciate it? I don't know. But I don't want to win like that. But that's just me. If I am given too much change I return it.
Hammer
Thats why I said in my post that if the money is up there, I'm not sure if I will wait around for the guy to comes back.
Post of the year.
Yep, I know soooo many folks who's actions are not in line with their talk. Fortunately, all the folks I've met from this forum would lead me to believe they do what they say. Each person has been a pretty upstanding, straight up person who are not only trustworthy, but also give of themselves freely. They do the right thing.
Like I said, I wouldn't let poker change who I am and feel it shouldn't change others.  So, you should do what you think is appropriate.
Cheers
Magi
Pause the game and eat the rest of his pizza!
Cheers
Magi
I'd wait a few mins in general but there is a point at which you just have to take the other persons blinds - what if they arent able to get back on? Do you want to wait for 30 mins?
I think I'm going to make this the subject of my next CPP article. That wasn't my intent when I first posted this... but now I need a topic and this is interesting me. Don't worry, I won't steal any ideas. Blinds are another matter. I'll just write my own thoughts on the subject, although I may include the poll results and very general comments about the variety of responses I've read.
For the first few hands after Party gave him the time, I played slow. And then I thought: what the hell am I doing. Then I tried to take all of his blinds as quickly as I could. I did this by checking the 'Muck Losing/Uncalled Hands' button to speed things along, and I just called from the small. It auto-folds him to even just a call, and that way if he came back at the last second I wouldn't be risking many of my chips by raising.
He reconnected when his stack was down to about 1200 to my 8800. Doubled up to 2400 to my 7600, and then again to 4800 to my 5200. We were pretty much even again, and then I went on to win it anyways. But it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth... soured the victory a bit, which is why I thought I'd see what you folks would have done.Â
Would I do anything differently next time? Probably not. An edge is an edge is an edge, as long as you're not cheating. I think that's an important distinction to make... "Taking advantage of a situation" vs. "Cheating". Exactly where people draw the line between the two is up to them, and it looks like there are some damn fine human beings on the forum. My hat is off to them.
I think the discussion about stakes being a factor/non-factor is an interesting one. For example, if it was a play money game, I'd have probably waited for my opponent to reconnect. If it was a $20 SNG--which, without being deliberately smarmy, is about the same thing to me--same deal, I'd probably have waited for him to reconnect. What's the difference? Money. When you're playing at the higher end of stakes you can afford to play at, you care about the outcome in a very real way, and you'll do just about anything (within the rules of the game) to swing it your way. That's poker!
Exactly, whether it's $20 or $2000 you're playing to win. The site gave him the extra disconnect time that's life deal with it, take his blinds without over committing your chips.
The whole point is you were playing for real money and in your case, enough that it mattered to you. At least your values can't be compromised cheaply.
On the reverse side I am pretty sure no one would want to lose a tournament the same way due to a power failure or a problem with your ISP.
In the end it is an ethical question. There are no steadfast rules about it. But I am sure not as many people would be apt to use this technique in a live tournament if you had to look at your opponent in the face afterwards.