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Live MTT - something off the top for the bubbler?
Tikay10
Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 160,472
A fascinating situation arose at SPT Brighton.
1st place was £18,740 & a min-cash for 35th place was £440.
As is often the case, when they were on the bubble someone asked for "£440 off the top for the bubbler".
The rule here is that if everyone agrees, that's fine, but if just one person objects then it is not allowed.
And one player DID object so they played on.
What would YOU do in this spot, agree or refuse, & why?
1st place was £18,740 & a min-cash for 35th place was £440.
As is often the case, when they were on the bubble someone asked for "£440 off the top for the bubbler".
The rule here is that if everyone agrees, that's fine, but if just one person objects then it is not allowed.
And one player DID object so they played on.
What would YOU do in this spot, agree or refuse, & why?
Comments
Big stack-refuse.
All a question of whether I am the person who can be the big stack bully on the bubble...
That said, if you're one of the big stacks then you get to use the bubble situation to your advantage and exploit the smaller stacks. If the bubble drags on for a while (which I believe the one at the weekend did), you can add a good amount of chips to your stack during that time, which you otherwise wouldn't be able to do if there was nothing riding on the next elimination.
Has put me right off paying the bubble if I'm almost guaranteed not to bubble?
It did get me thinking though...are you essentially just giving money away if you're a big stack?
If the short stacks were strangers would this make a difference?
Would you walk up to these people in the street and just hand them money because they asked?
Why should it change in a poker tournament?
Good topic!
Actually happened to me at a comp at Hill Street, Brum, a few years ago.
9 handed Final Table, 8 paid. Question asked and only one 'loud' regular said no. There were two very short stacks (less than 5 bb's) and myself on about 8 bb's. I found JJ in small blind so shoved and got looked up by J2. You all know the next line, sigh.
Consoling myself with a pint downstairs, I then found out that when the other two small stacks went out that a deal was done. This was only 1/2 hour after my exit.
So, yes......a bubble saver is good for the actual game. But not for some players. Probably the same kind of players who play sats for cash....but I wont go there
One of the times from my few visits to a casino to play a tournament, I remember a similar deal was being proposed, however, it didn't only take money from 1st prize, but several payouts (I can't remember how many though), so it was spread, and it wasn't essentially one player's prize being affected.
But when I was in the position to decide on a deal or not, the TD gave all players 2 cards. Probably a red and black one. And you gave the dealers either the red one to agree, or the black one to disagree, so it was all anonymous and nobody felt pressured.
Maybe there'd be a few more declines if there was a bit of anonymity to it.
I said it at the time, fair play to Alex @tonyp142 for putting his hand up first, because the floorperson drew attention towards him, and I'm sure he knew he would get a bunch of heat for it afterwards. But because of how long the bubble dragged out, he probably netted a few hundred pounds EV from it.
If it was a smaller tournament, with a group of friends who play all the time, I would be more likely to give up some money as big stack. But in a big tournament with a lot of money on the line, I don't see why you're entitled to donate your own EV to the short stack!
Well that's moot. It could well be argued that they DID pay more than 9% of the field, but it depends how we define "the field".
Yes, 35 spots were paid, & the prize pool suggests there were 378 "entries". However, that "378" included re-entries, so the field size was considerably less than 378 & the % of "the field" paid was more than 9%.
Aside from that, paying a bigger or smaller % of the field, & have more (or less) up top, is another interesting debate on similar lines. The better players tend to want more up top & less places paid.
PS - I know at LEAST 4 people that took 4 bullets each. (Well, 3 if you exclude me...)
Certainly an option cheezy, but given that it was in Brighton & the next one is in Glasgow, not a popular one I suspect.
But the big stacks don't want to speed it up at that point - they want the bubble to last as long as possible, as they can increase their stack at will when the shorties are just trying to cling on for a min cash. The longer the bubble, the better it is for the big stacks. So that's another valid reason for the big stacks to decline.
I always say yes
One day you’re the big stack and one day you’re the short stack
Swings and roundabouts