I’ve mentioned from time to time how annoying it is when people “hit and run”, or win a big pot and quit immediately. Although it can occur at any table, it’s especially annoying when playing heads up because the game is more personal and because when they quit, there’s no one left for you to play with. Truthfully, though I give them a hard time about it in the hopes that they’ll stay, I actually don’t think that weak players who like to buy in short and quit when they double up are doing anything rude or unethical.
Most of them, like the guy who did it to me yesterday, know that they are not as good as I and just want to gamble. It’s annoying when they quit because it feels like they are taking money out of my pocket, but really there’s no reason they should be ethically obligated to play me until they lose it all. It’s different to get hit and run after playing someone for a long time or by someone I play on a regular basis, but the gamblers are welcome to keep taking shots at me and to quit whenever they’re lucky enough to have the lead.
I encountered a different violation of heads up ethics today, though, which was completely unacceptable: a guy who refused to leave my table when I told him I didn’t want to play him.
Even when I’m not actively playing, I often sit at a few heads up tables in case one of the random gamblers or a regular against whom I think I have an edge decides he wants to play me. If someone I don’t want to play sits with me, I will sit out and type “no ty”. Usually they will leave to find another table. If all the other tables are full, I’ll leave and let them have the table, but otherwise I think I have a rightful claim to keep the table and decide whom I will and will not play. There are plenty of other regulars who do this as well, and most people respect this.
But today, someone decided to give me a hard time about it. There were plenty of other tables open- in fact, I think mine may have been the only occupied one. However, when I told him “no ty”, he wanted to know why not.
I’m not in it for my ego, so I came right out and told him, “I’d rather wait for someone less good.”
“I’m not good. We’ve never played before.” This was true, but I’d seen him playing multiple tables of 25/50 heads up with some decent players, so I had a feeling he was going to be pretty good, and frankly I am not all that great heads up relative to the other regulars in the high stakes games.
“Sorry, but you could you plz find another table?”
“Come on, let’s just play for fun. Forget about the money.” Mind you, this was a $2000 table.
I tried just ignoring him for a while, but he wouldn’t leave. Finally, I got up and went to a different table. Seconds later, he was sitting across from me at the table, too. “What is your problem?” I asked. “I don’t want to play you, could you please just find another table?”
“No I want to play. There are no other games going. Come on, just for fun.” Of course, the more he begged, the more convinced I was that he was better than I and that I did not want to play him. I left for another table, and he found me again. Finally I figured out to shake him.
On FTP, whoever was at the table first gets the button in the first hand. So I sat in, and he siad “ty”. I raised, he re-raised, I folded and sat out. “LOL!” he wrote. I quit and went to a new table. He quickly found me, and we played one more hand with me in position. This time, he folded, and I sat out again.
“You keep following me, I’m going to keep playing my button and quitting,” I told him.
“That’s fine, you play your button so bad.” I’m not sure how he got that from two hands, but if he was game, so was I. I don’t think there’s a player in the world who could beat me if I got to have position on every hand. Despite his bravado, he didn’t show up at my next table.
Great story. Raises an interesting question. Have you logged enough HU hands to have an estimate of the difference in your win rate on the button versus first to act?
Intriguing question. I discovered a few interesting things:
1. I’m actually at 0 BB/100 over 23,000 heads up hands. Unfortunately, my rate was worse at 25/50 than at lower stakes, so I’m even on BB but down on $. This is largely due to a clobbering I took yesterday.
2. On the button, I’m at 6 BB/100. In the BB, of course, I’m at -6 BB/100.
3. I have about 100 more hands on the button than in the BB. If I’m the one quitting, I always do it from my button. Fish tend to quit when they get stacked, which is more often when I’m on the button as well. And I tend to play at tables I start, which means the first hand of a session usually sees me on the button.