Should absent players be removed from a tournament?

[Everest Poker]

Hi Everyone,

We wanted to get your opinion on an MTT policy of ours. Currently at Everest Poker, if a player does not show up for an MTT (ie he is not logged in when the tournament starts), he is removed after 5 minutes (in a freeroll) or after 15 minutes (any real money tournament).

Our question is, should we be removing absent players at all? The key question seems to be if 'present' players seated at a table with absent players are at an advantage or disadvantage compared to those playing w/o absent players.

We would be interested in getting your opinion.


PS: if the mods feel this is inappropriate, please move or delete, apologies in advance.

[TheBlueMonster]

what happens to their chips? If you leave the chip stack but remove the player it's technically OK, but the moment you take the chips away it's a big no-no.
Also, there have been times where I've registered for a tourny knowing that I would have to be blinded off for 10-15 mins.

[Fiksdal]

[ QUOTE ]

Also, there have been times where I've registered for a tourny knowing that I would have to be blinded off for 10-15 mins.


[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, this is an important point. You should allow your customers to show up as late as they feel like.

Also, no one is ever given an advantage/disadvantage in the long run. It's completely random who gets placed at a table with someone sitting out, just like it's random who ends up at a table with bigstacks or experienced players.

[ItalianFX]

If someone buys in (wins in) or freerolls in, they have a right to those chips that are in front of them. There have been some players who have 250 chips left and come back and win - although it's very unlikely. But it's not fair to take them out of the tournament because they could be doing something or on their way knowing that they are going to be late and don't mind losing a few chips at the small blind levels.

[BigAlK]

If they did this on the pro circuit Hellmuth's stack would get removed before he showed up. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I paid (or presumably earned my entry if a freeroll). There are lots of reasons why I might show up late. Lots of these (traffic getting home from work, internet connection problems, etc) aren't planned. No reason for the site to add one bad beat onto another. Give me my money's worth, even if it's just to let me get blinded out.

[BlueEcho]

I often will register for tournaments at work and then drive home to play. By the time I get home the tourney has already started but hey at least I'm in.

[Ontario_Tory]

Does the player get a refund of the buy-in? If yes, fill your boots (Even though I disagree with it).

If not, you're stealing their money, imho. If I pay for a tourney, I can play it any way I want, which may include sitting out until I have 1 chip left, then trying to comeback.

My $0.02

[RichC.]

No. For many of the same reasons stated above.

[TheBlueMonster]

[ QUOTE ]
Does the player get a refund of the buy-in? If yes, fill your boots (Even though I disagree with it).

If not, you're stealing their money, imho. If I pay for a tourney, I can play it any way I want, which may include sitting out until I have 1 chip left, then trying to comeback.


[/ QUOTE ]
it really has nothing to do with money refunding.
Any card room (online or live) depends on players. Making the players happy is the number 1 priority. By removing a player from a tournament for being late, you're gonna piss off a lot of people thereby hurting your business.
There are many other online poker sites. If you start removing players, they're going to go somewhere else.

[runout_mick]

It seems pretty unanimous.

Leave them sitting out until their last chip. Anything else will definitely drive people away.