Shakedown
Some of you are probably aware of this controversy already, but in the Full Tilt Poker lobby, heads up tables are currently displayed in alphabetical order. What this means is that whoever is lucky enough to get Table Acre or other names that occur early in the alphabet have by far the best chance of getting a fish to come and sit at his table.
I don’t know how much big of a deal this is at the small stakes, but in high stakes games it is really freaking annoying. There are usually 25-40 tables with just one player sitting and waiting for action, with just a handful of games actually running. Most of these nits sit out against any remotely decent player who tries to play them and just wait for fish. That’s all fine and good and totally their choice, but I don’t think they ought to be able to squat the most valuable real estate.
The problem is that right now not only is there no way to kick them off the tables (they can keep sitting in and back out again to reset their “sitting out” timer), but apparently they can complain to FTP support and get me a warning for trying to run them off the table.
I’d heard about all this but never tried it out for myself. Last night, I was frustrated by my inability to get any heads up action, and I decided I was going to go give the guy at the top 10/20 table a hard time. It was some clown sitting with $700, and sure enough he instantly sat out against me and said “no ty”.
I ignored his chat and stayed at the table as he repeatedly asked me to leave. Occasionally he sat in, both to get my attention and to avoid getting booted. I always posted my blind but never acknowledged his chat. Eventually he started telling me he was going to report me, I would get a 3-day ban, etc. Still I ignored him.
Finally he sat in and posted his big blind. I raised my button, he folded, and then he sat out again. Now I’ve seen people play their button and sit out, but there’s not much sense in playing your big blind and then sitting out. The only thing I can think is that he was trying to bribe me to go away. Whether that was his intention or not, I took the $20 as sufficient payment to leave him alone, especially since he clearly wasn’t giving up anyway.
This morning, I did indeed get an e-mail from Full Tilt:
Hello Andrew,
This is a message from Full Tilt Poker Support about our heads up table policy.
Full Tilt Poker understands that game selection is paramount in heads up play. If the player first seated at the table does not wish to play the second player, they have the right to refuse the game, and ask the second player to leave the table and it is our expectation that they will do so. If you ask a player to leave and they do not do so, you may send a report to HU-Tables@fulltiltpoker.com, and we will review the issue.
On a little side note, please be aware that the Full Tilt Poker software is designed without any table volume restrictions. This means that there will always be at least one empty table of every type at every stake. You will always be able to find an empty heads up table at any limit at or above $.25/$.50.
We hope that this clarifies our heads up table policies. Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.
Regards,
Chris
Poker Specialist
Full Tilt Poker Support
It’s pretty ridiculous that they’ve got a little unit or something dedicated to protecting table-squatting nits when their customer support is so notoriously slow and bad. If they would just either randomize the order in which tables appear in the lobby or, more fun in my opinion, allow “king of the hill” style competition for the most desirable tables, it would be a lot more fair and quite possibly encourage more action as well, which means more rake for them.