Should Stars take action against stallers?

[registrar]

In teh Stars Million this Sunday, with 825 paid, a short stack started stalling, every hand, full time bank, from 1200 or so left. He was never going to make it to the money and it was incredibly frustrating. I emailed support and received what I assume was a standard response that it's not against the rules but that Stars do email players and ask them to desist for the good of the game and comfort of other players.

[Colombo]

He paid the entry fee, he can play however he wants. Yes, stalling is retarded, but is part of the game.

[snakekilla88]

absolutely not...are they annoying yes?...but banned you are taking this way to far

[zoobird]

Not sure about my opinion on this, but one way to try to get them to stop is what I did a few days ago. It happens a lot less at the low limits I play it, but some idiot was stalling in a $6+.50 turbo. People were complaining to him and he was basically telling them to go !@#$% themselves. He would use up all his hand and then fold every hand, and he had a relatively large stack...maybe top 5 out of 15 that were left. I waited until he finally played a hand. Limped in behind him. He c-bet (which I'm pretty sure meant he DID hit the flop, and then I pushed my 9 high over him. Of course he folded, and I showed the 9 high and told him that I'd never have the guts to do that if he wasn't so obvious about trying to stall into the money. Only one problem...he kept stalling.

[Rocco]

Yes, if repeated, they should be punished in some way. Banning is a bit harsh, but they could have their time bank shortened/removed. In general, to cut the problem a bit, I think all players time to act should be reduced when approaching the bubble. And, at anytime during a tourney, when a player stalls multiple times deliberately, his time to act should be reduced from 20 to 10 seconds. Also, that players time bank should be taken away.

[WSOPChump]

its basically one of those things thats hard to define.
maybe a guy is a slow thinker.
but yeah shortening it near the bubble might be acceptable the only problem is its a little quick if you have not time bank to fall back on for tough decisions. but a guy started stalling too soon the other day and it was great to see him miss the money

[Rocco]

[ QUOTE ]
its basically one of those things thats hard to define.
maybe a guy is a slow thinker.


[/ QUOTE ]

You could easily write a bot that determines if the guy really is thinking or just stalling. Someone who takes forever to fold 26off is clearly stalling.

[Rusty Nails]

I would like to see them extend the Hand for Hand time. If they had it start 5-10 hands before the bubble (esp. in satelittes), it would solve a lot of the problem. It's rare that someone starts stalling before that.

[PBJaxx]

[ QUOTE ]
Yes, if repeated, they should be punished in some way. Banning is a bit harsh, but they could have their time bank shortened/removed. In general, to cut the problem a bit, I think all players time to act should be reduced when approaching the bubble. And, at anytime during a tourney, when a player stalls multiple times deliberately, his time to act should be reduced from 20 to 10 seconds. Also, that players time bank should be taken away.

[/ QUOTE ]

While I HATE stalling, I don't agree with this. First of all, how do you judge whether it is deliberate? I know it appears pretty obvious, but how do you judge in a fair manner. He could say he is slow, connection is slow, etc. Secondly, unless there is a set number of extended timebanks per player (e.g. 2 for the tourney), it is not fair to reduce one player's time based on his playing style. As already stated, he paid the buy-in and the juice, it is his choice.

All that said, QUIT STALLING.

-Jaxx

[DonT77]

IMO- if a player uses his entire time bank one hand, then he should be given 5 less seconds to act the following hand, and so on... until he only has 5 seconds left in his bank. Then if he acts within 5 seconds, add 5 seconds back to his bank each time he does this until he gets back to his standard time bank. This way you'll still have plenty of time to think if you have 2 or 3 difficult hands in a row, but it will keep people from using their entire time bank every hand solely for the purpose of stalling.