Yesterday I played my first online tournament on PokerStars. What strikes me is the amount of players sitting out the entire first level. It's so annoying and it completely kills the game. Only one other player was actually playing at my table.

I know why they do it; they think it increases their chances to win, but if you suck at poker and you're so bad that you need to sit out the first level in order to survive it: you still lose, just a bit later than you otherwise would have. So it's just a waste of time if you ask me.

Why doesn't PokerStars disable sitting out for atleast the first level? (Not a real question, I know you can't answer it, just wondering)

I assume it was a freeroll?

People don't sit out for the first level, they just register for the tournament and then never show up. They simply aren't there to play.

People sit out the first levels of a tournament as the blinds are so low and not worth stealing, and there is generally little action. Some top pros. sit out the early levels of tournaments, most notably Phil Hellmuth.
That said, sitting out is -EV

Yes it was a freeroll. I want to get some experience first. I thought if they don't show up they don't get a seat at all. So that's what it is then, they just don't show up. How long can they keep sitting out then before they get thrown out?

That's lame. Either put the blinds higher to begin with or create some action yourself.

some people just register (especially 4 freerolls) and sit out the entire tourney. most of the freerolls have a cutoff for # of entries and people end up forgetting or doing something else.

I play super tight the first levels of tournaments. I could pretty much sit out, but the odd time I do wake up with a monster.

There's too many bad plays early and it's hard to gauge where you are. If you want to go deep in these thing, you should try to do the same.

They don't get thrown out on stars, they are just blinded off until they run out of chips. It is annoying, I've played on a few sites where they kick out anyone sitting out after 5 or 10 minutes in freerolls.

I'll try that tonight then, see how that works for me.

Wow. That way a tournament can take a long time

I hope PokerStars will someday kick them out after 10 minutes too, because this sucks.

Not always, there's strategy on being awake enough to pick up the dead blinds. Most freeroll players aren't awake enough to notice sitouts.

i think it works in your benefit to sit out the first 10-15 minutes of an online tournament....
It is going to weed out majority of the players that just want to double up...
You'll find in the Free Rolls and the Micro Tournaments half the players would rather double up or be eliminated then grind it out.
Therefor, it's going to eliminate some of the donk beats you are gonna get... and honestly, even if you do wake up w/ AA, in a freeroll in the first round you prob. arent going to be facing 1 or 2 people all in before the flop... its more like 3-4...

whats your screen name Fleur?

Amstdamgirl

Yeah, freerolls are always like this. I played one a while back and it was a full table but only two of were not sitting out. We just took turns taking their blinds for a while. It sucks, it's boring, but that's what happens when people can register without putting up their own money.

That would be great. If I could get 3-4 people to go all in with me everytime I got AA, I'd quit my job.

Just start picking up blinds, since they're sitting out and not defending. Getting a table full of sit outs should mean you have a healthy stack when you get moved.

This is just rediculous. If there are people sitting out you take their blinds and give yourself the best chance to win.



Hopefully they start kicking out players who fold every hand for the first ten minutes as well.

yeah i hafta say it really does get annoying. i also see alot of people who double up once, then sit and never play another hand and just hope they finish in the money. happens at small tourneys like 9-18 players. i just tighten up and play my game. although itd be nice if they removed the sitters after say 1 blind level of sitting(thats 20 mins i believe)

I was playing a freeroll the other day and one guy showed who was the only player at the table playing.
By the time he was done taking their blinds he had a nice stack.

Let them. They usually just don't bother to play, but if they're doing it tactically, they're just leaking chips each round and giving away opportunities at best.

Which one were you playing? I've been playing the RTL7 one lately. ( I assume you're Dutch as well)

Yup, playing the Dutch poker champioenschip one. Got qualified and now gotta end top 60 tommorrow for the life final.

Cool! Good luck!

Thnx, Unfortunatly I dropped out the second hand of the tournie when my top 2 pair got cracked by a bottom set

If they are sitting out just take there blinds. When someones doing something stupid in poker there is always the upside of taking there chips.