Stalling in Online Poker

Poker Stars which is famous for its insanely tight bubble play really screwed the pooch in its big buy in SCOOP events. With a six minute time clock and a bubble at 64 players the stalling starts around 90 players remaining. Kid Poker himself finally went all kinds of Phil Helmuth on a habitual staller. Going so far as to threaten to have rule changes implemented at Poker stars which he probably does have some say in as a signed big named Red pro. Regardless, the tactic of stalling is a minor inconvenience with a time clock of 90 seconds. Heck I usually save every once of mine for the bubble since everyone else is doing it, albeit way to early. BUT SIX MINUTES!!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!

Your average online player could eat five hot pockets, down a two liter of Redbull, smoke a phattie and take a dump in less time than that. Add to the fact that at a ten handed table you got 60 minutes or one hour!!! of stalling near the bubble. Most people with ADHD have forgotten they were in a tournament and turned on Battlestar Galactica reruns. They had over 30 players actively trying to stall their way into the money for heaven sake. That is 3 hours total, most normal levels in stars events run 15 minutes, meaning 12 levels of STALLING!!!!!!!!!!! I know at least a few occasions where I have entered the bubble phase in the top ten chip leaders, folded every hand and limped into or busted on the bubble because the tourney clock ate away my stack. I remember once going three whole levels and making a single orbit. Ridiculous.

Hard Boiled Poker did a good story on it so check it out here.

I am on Daniel N's side here. The Time Bank / Hand for Hand issue has got to be fixed. My idea is to flatten the payouts to 15-20% instead of the usual 10%, Kill the tournament clock, and start Hand for Hand at 5% of the field above the bubble.