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June 20, 2004
Party Tournaments
I have been saying for a long time that Party tournaments have much better structure than Stars, and they do. But something is ruining it now to the point where I think I may switch back to playing mainly on Stars for tournaments. Stalling. This is when player take the maximum allotted time every single hand in an attempt to make the money. Their idea is to slow the blinds down and sit until they are in the money, at which point they promptly go all in and usually get busted. I have written before about why this is almost universally bad for every player at the table.
The most annoying part about people stalling is that you have no recourse. Players are costing you money and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. At one table this week, table 6 in a tournament with almost 1400 players (and they break in order, so people were stuck with him the whole way) a fellow was stalling from the very beginning of the tournament. This idiot, his name was sdalipagic, wanted to stall his way in to 60th place. Unfortunately everyone at his table could do nothing about it, and anyone who managed to make it to the point where the table broke was going to be at a very big disadvantage from having seen half as many hands as anyone else. Everyone at the table with this asshole was cheated out of a chance to win, and there was absolutely no way for them to prevent it. Nothing in the world will make you want to play elsewhere more than this.
If this were an isolated incident it would not be as much of a problem. Sadly though any time you get 50 spots out of the money you get at least one staller at your table. There are too many people who satellited in for $20 and think that the bottom payout of $275 is a huge payday. They have no concern about first place, they just want to hit money. And this would be fine with me except their stalling is greatly hurting my chance of winning first. They are costing me money. When you go to PokerStars they ban stallers from playing in tournaments and they have software to minimize its’ effects in the first place, which I will talk about in a second here.
Sadly Party Poker refuses to do anything about this horrible problem. They responded to my email yesterday saying that players have 30 seconds to dispose of as they please, and they would not interfere. Now this is fine, and I even understand the policy, but it makes people not want to play in the tournaments. It effectively makes the 20 minute rounds into 10 minute rounds, maybe even worse when people do that. When I buy in to a tournament for $215 I should not have to deal with this.
The only solution seems to be one that the people on Party (judging from our discussions on the cruise) are loathe to use. The time bank. It really is the only way to cut the stalling down. Give people 10 seconds to act, but let them have an optional time bank they can use for when they have a serious decision. Maybe give them one minute or 90 seconds, and refresh that minute every hour. At least then they will have 20 seconds less per hand to stall, allowing you to see dozens more hands per blind level. Also there are times during a tournament where you actually need more than 30 seconds to make a decision (which could be worth tens or sometimes even hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bigger tournaments) and you should have the time available.
To be honest I see no reason why any site would not adopt the time bank. It is the only reasonable answer. I guess maybe it would be considered too much of a nod to PokerStars (who invented it) but there is no shame at all in taking your oppositions’ best ideas. It is the way of capitalism. Party Poker has taken most of their other good ideas (stats, player notes, Sunday $215 tournaments) and put them to excellent use, why not this one? To not do so is a bad business decision.
So I am considering not playing in Party Poker tournaments anymore. This Sunday, and every one from now on, I am going to play in the Stars $215. I think they have a limit one on Saturday as well. When Party does something to seriously address this ever growing problem I will consider playing in their tournaments again. Until then it is not worth the agitation when they have perfectly good tournaments elsewhere. Party Poker really has too much of a “we are the biggest and if you don’t play here 40,000 other people will) attitude for my taste. I am going to email them this message, I will share any responses with you that I get.
Posted by themaroon at June 20, 2004 6:14 AM
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Comments
The apathy that Party shows to it's players has always kept me away from their site. Party has been about the money, from day one. Dollars have been pretty much all they've concerned themselves with. The player is the last thing in the mind of this "corporation."
They do everything they can to hurt the individual player; the highest rake, the worst structures, the biggest antes, etc. Only when they are absolutely forced to change for the better, is anything done at Party.
Fish or no fish, I refuse to give them my business.
Posted by: Felicia at June 20, 2004 9:44 AM