I'm at a final table during a tournament. Is it legal for me to target a particular player for elimination?

What do you mean by "target"?

Can you "target" him by play alone? Of course.

Can you "target" him by telling the rest of the table "hey guys, let's get him!" No, of course not, that is collusion.

In between there is quite a spectrum. Muttering about what an ******* he is, cheering for his opponents before/during/after the hand, etc. In general much of it should be warned, then penalized if it continues.

I mean target him/her by playing a wider array of hands / or betting in larger amounts in an effort to get the player felted / in a way which is outside of your normal range of play / in a way that is different from your approach to the other players at the table.

That is what I mean by target.

In case it is unclear I do not mean / trying to get other players to collude with in the effort.

Of course it's within your 'rights' to apply different strategy when facing different opponents. That's what poker is all about. Not sure why you would think this way and hopefully it hasn't affected your results in the past.

Basic poker strategy suggests identifying the 'fish' and 'attacking' as the game flow allows you to do so.

It's no different than avoiding confrontations with the #1 stack if you are the #2 stack and all the others are sitting at 20bb or less. GL

I'm not getting a 'fish' vibe. More of a 'the bully who used to take my lunch money in 5th grade' vibe.

Could be ... but I wouldn't be playing 'him' wider. I would want to make sure my 'punches' had some wallop to them .. GL

So what you are asking is basically: 'I play everybody the same, am I allowed to use a different strategy against one player?'

Imagine Steve Kerr asking if he's allowed to use a different starting five against the Spurs than he did against Portland.

No it's not legal.

You must play all players in the same manner or risk being banned from the poker room.

Interesting question. I wonder why the OP would think a basic poker move would be somehow not legal? Maybe he means unethical or something like that. Which it ain't BTW.

Think of the flip side.

How could it ever be investigated or enforced?

Sorry, man, I am slow today. What do you mean by the "flip side" ?

Is it legal to

Again, not as part of a 'deal' or 'agreement'.

Maybe you know she really needs to book a win or whatever.

Actually a better question than the OP! Without colluding , I think a tad unethical, but also likely unenforceable and a fairly common occurance with some players

Wow 2017 and people are still posting on 2p2 that they're self-colluding, and not even realizing how bad it is.

We must put a stop to self-collusion, and bring back ethics to poker.

Scumbag move, OP. I assume you have been playing next to him all night? And then you try to target him on the final table? This is on par with angle shooting and only a scumbag would stoop to that level. Play fair.

Illegal, but effectively unenforcable, especially if many players are left.

By targeting one particular player, you are effectively softplaying all the other players left in the game, which is clearly against the rules. If you don't see the connection, picture a tournament in which there are only 3 players remaining, and 2 of the players decide to "target" the 3rd. This results in the same effect as if those two were colluding against the 3rd, which is against the rules.

If I ever sat at a table with Hellmuth I would def be targeting him and raising 72o

Of course you don't have to play the same way against all players.

But you are ethically bound to always play in your OWN best interest, and not in the interest of some other player(s) at the table.

So if playing differently against one particular player will maximize your own expectation, that is perfectly fine.

But if you are only playing differently because you want to HURT another player and not help yourself (because of a personal grudge, or a cross-book, etc), that is unethical.

It's the same as softplaying a particular opponent because you like them. There's no explicit collusion here, but it is still clearly unethical in a tournament. Targeting one player because you don't like them is essentially softplaying everyone else at the table. It is equally unethical.

What you describe sounds like targeting a fish at the table. Self colluding lol, like thats a thing. Pretty sure you're getting trolled OP.

Theres lots of players i try to play pots against and ignore other players completely. Cash games more specifically, of course i have history with certain people I select because I KNOW they will tilt if i put a bad beat on them along with some light hearted needles, thus making them rebuy/play worse = more money for the table.

But this applies to MTT's as well. Especially local ones where its basically like a cash game lol. Unlike cash games though rarely would i ever target on a personal level.

If you arnt trying to target certain fishy players at the table then you are hilariously bad.

lol "you are deciding, with yourself," just makes me laugh so hard A+ sir.

This is an amazing analogy. I've seen this self-collusion issue come up so many times, but I've never seen it summed up so succinctly.

If you want to make the TD chuckle ask if it's allowed.

This is actually a violation of OPTAH. By considering multiple strategies, you are effectively considering countervaling point of views, which is functionally equivalent to being given advice against your current mode of thought from an outside source.

Ive been accused of violating OPTAH for letting my multiple personalities voice their opinions in my head.