Unethical or good strategy?

[stak14]

Ok, so last night I was accused of cheating at the final table of a tournament on Golden Palace Poker. I don't think what I did was unethical, although I can see their point.

Here's the situation:

4 handed at the Final Table of an 18 dollar rebuy tournament, a little over 1300 for first place. There were three of us with a little more than 100,000 in chips and one shortstack with around 25,000.

I quickly realized that the other big stacks were playing way too tight because they were afraid of being knocked out while the short stack hung on. They were playing simply to move up the ladder and get a higher payout.

I seized the opportunity and began playing very recklessly, and they in turn allowed me to run the table over. I was stealing more or less at will and building my stack up at the expense of the other big stacks.

The short stack was playing kind of carefully, looking for a good spot to get his chips in (I thought he was playing too tight)

At any rate, all that exposition is to set up this hand...

I had stolen myself up to like 170K and the small stack had blinded down to 14K.

With blinds at 5/10 K I was in the BB with a random hand. (I honestly forget...let's call it 10 4 offsuit, because it was somewhere around there) The short stack raised all in, 4K more to 14 total and the small blind folded. I was faced with the obvious, no brainer decision of calling 4k into a pot of like 25 k.

I folded.

the other two big stacks went crazy and accused me of collusion and cheating and soft playing and so on.

I merely reasoned that it would be a better situation for me to keep the short stack alive.

As it turned out, the move sort of paid off. I was able to continue stealing blinds more or less at will, and by the time the next player got knocked out (NOT the shortstack who, in part thanks to me, made a comeback) I had a huge chiplead.

By the time we got 3 handed I had around 75 per cent of the chips in play and coasted to the victory. All throughout this the rail was accusing me of cheating and collusion etc.

I ran the story by a poker playing friend of mine and he felt my actions were "unethical" because I didn't "play equally tough against everyone."

I still maintain my actions were ok but I'd be interested in other opinions.

Thanks,

Stak

[DaNutsInYoEye]

Not unethical at all unless you happened to know the player and were doing it as a favor. From what you explained though it was just an intelligent decision to keep the situation favorable for you. I've heard of people doing similar things to keep the bubble alive when they were running over the table. GG.

[KoRnholio]

I replied to the same post on FCP just now, but I'll do it again

My new response would be to tell them (the 2 other medium stacks) "But I had 7-2 offsuit, I had to fold, that hand is the worst" and make myself sound fishy

[bode]

this is fine. and a really smart play actually. gg

[stak14]

Yea I posted this on FCP too because I wasn't sure people would want to read that huge long post. I'm glad people did.

Thanks to everyone for replying, I'm glad you all feel I did nothing wrong.

[jdubs]

nice job. I keep forgetting about this tactic..lol.

[jdubs]

It's disussed in Erick Lendgren's book "making the final table" BTW. In the section on SnGs....But obv. appropriate in your case here as well. GG.

[WildBobAA]

If you know that you can bully the bigstacks b/c of the shortstack then it's a great play. You probably won the tournament because of this one hand. GG

[bigspenda73]

Nice sir

Exploiting an edge=+EV
Not exploiting an edge= -EV

[fjuanl]

not unethical, its good strategy

[donkbee]

I think it's funny that anyone would ever make that comment in the first place.

[AHiltz]

that's when you quickly type in the chat "WTF, I hit the call button not the fold button!!!". Don't let them know what you're up to.

[Warpe]

Personally, I like "oops"

[biondino]

I think Harrington also talks about this kind of situation. I thnk you did exactly the right thing.

Think about it - you could in a way accuse the two biggies of the same crimes in that they were playing ultra-tight, avoiding getting into pots against each other, etc. etc. There is no ethical difference at all - they had been soft-playing for ages, the way you tell it. Nice work.

[johnny_fish]

wp nh

If they had a problem with it they should've asked the tournament director.

[thenonsequitur]

Nothing at all unethical about this. gg, stak.

[drmcboy]

post count +1

[Sprayed]

Need to get to 1180. Nice play. Sometimes you win by not playing ABC poka.

[fasin8ing]

Here is a nice trikflow lesson ....

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...hlight=#369753

[phantom_lord]

This is thinking poker. It makse perfect sense to do this if it turns the rest of the table into weak passive pussys. harrington talks about it vol2 i think

[Hartlin]

Wow.. impressive.. never would have thought about that, thats brilliant!

Very nice, good job man!

[jackvance]

Man, best fold ever.

[nutsinho]

i think your play was brilliant

[WildBobAA]

let's all get on his knob

[pokerroomace]

Not unethical at all unless you happened to know the player and were doing it as a favor. From what you explained though it was just an intelligent decision to keep the situation favorable for you. I've heard of people doing similar things to keep the bubble alive when they were running over the table. GG.

I don't think it is unethical and it may have been a good decision to let him live. But it is very risky letting him live on. I think the best idea is to probably put your 4k in and take that pot too.

If you fold - the 2 medium stacks at the table might wake up and realize they have to start playing more aggressively. They might start reraising you and stealing your blinds. I'm not sure what the best play is - but I'd probably call the extra 4k. Your stack will be 25k bigger if you win the hand and thats approx. a 15% increase. Quite a lot and you move up the ladder and you'll still probs run over the table.

I agree though that it is definitely not unethical unless you know the person or have made some kind of secret deal with him.

I love playing in situations like this where people are just folding every hand so that they can make it ITM. It's great.