Over the last few months you may have noticed certain regs who will sit out at a tournament table while still playing normally on their other tables. I heard an explanation as to why they were doing this around the same time but wrote it off as nonsense. Around the same time I got confirmation from a friend who inquired directly with PokerStars about it. They said it wasn't a real thing.

I got private off the record confirmation in Isle of Man that somewhere in the recent past that PokerStars discovered that this 'sit out trick' IS a real thing. There are regs out there exploiting this and gaining a big edge on the rest of us. I was also told that for some unknown reason this is not currently the top priority MTT issue at PokerStars but that if I made it public it could quickly become the #1 priority and the loophole would hopefully be closed ASAP.

I'm not going to go into details as to how the trick works or what it does because no one deserves to have this kind of edge of everyone else. IMO, the people who have been exploiting it are behaving extremely unethically. I promise you that if I had been the one to discover it, I would have emailed PokerStars non-stop until the exploit was closed. These people took a different route and have profited at the expense of everyone else who was ignorant of the trick.

PokerStars: please fix this immediately. This has to stop.

Ok, so, you're going to tell us people are using a 'sit out' trick? but then won't inform us of what it is or how it affects us. Thanks a lot Steve, you're an incredible asset to the poker MTT community and we thank you immensely for saving us.

/sarcasm
/shaveyourbeard

Keep the beard!

Interesting OP. Please keep us updated.

edit: Just thought about it for 10 seconds and I believe I figured out the angle. Yes it is most certainly unethical and I believe Pokerstars should be reviewing it.

I tested this once and can confirm that (sample size 1) it appears to work.

I tried it and it didnt work, must not work

Yeah, you dont need to be Einstein to figure it out. I haven't ran into someone doing this though.

i didnt try and it worked !

i just tried it and shipped a tourney! all i had to do was click on sit out next hand. cool trick bro.

but seriously, is sitting out teleporting us to a table where others are sitting out too? tried it in a 180, maybe there is not enough players, but i was placed at a table with two other guys sitting out.

so they sit out ,

wait for a raise then sit back in and reraise ?

Does it really count as outing it if you don't say what it is? Might not make it to #1 priority.

i wouldn't treat such a reraise any different than a reraise from a player that didn't sit out. but maybe it is as simple as that.

what MTTs is OP talking about? you are not talking about satties, right?

Interesting. I'll watch for it and see if it actually exists.

As per Pokerstars sitting out rules:

We cannot make changes to the system to discourage this activity. Once a player has paid their entry, they are entitled to play their chips however they wish within the rules of the game.

A player who sits out of a tournament actually puts their opponents at a significant advantage, as that player is still forced to pay their blinds and antes, and is never able to build a big stack. On occasion, a player in a one-table Sit & Go might ‘blind off’ into 3rd place, or maybe even 2nd, but players who employ this strategy are usually far worse off than those who play their best game. And if players are actually reaching the payouts and winning chips by sitting out for long periods of time, this is a sign that the play in these events is far too loose, and you should adjust your play accordingly.
We hope this clearly explains why sitting out is neither against the rules nor something we can possibly police.

yea but the original raiser is getting caught raising with junk thinking hes getting a walk . original raiser has to fold . if hes raising with junk obviously .

though it works both ways , if thats what the trick is

Your more likely to be moved tables right?

Read this in an old thread somewhere where a stars rep confirmed this in a player email, unless you say the trick your not really making it public

had the same impression, but sample size=1 and it was a 180MTT. maybe that's why OP mentioned, that they do this while continuing to play on other tables. that would also indicate how stars could fix it, if it exists, unless the player is only playing a single table/mtt.

anyone wants to try in the sunday million?

funny if you get moved to a table, anyone is sitting out and BOOM they all come back. LOL.

.

why did you delete your last post and replaced it with a misterious '.'? scary. we can only speculate about it....

Please note, when it comes to table balancing in tournament - the system tries to choose a player who has been moved less than others, or to choose a sitting out player.

There are two different times a player may be moved in a tournament. A single player may be moved by himself to correct a table imbalance, or an entire table may be "broken up" and distributed to the empty seats at other tables.

When a player is chosen to be moved individually (such as one table has only 7 players, while others have nine), we try to minimize the number of moves. If possible, the system tries to choose a player who has been moved less than others, or to choose a sitting out player.

A table break happens as soon as enough empty seats are available to eliminate one table from play. If your table is chosen to be broken, the re-seating algorithm is as it would be in a brick and mortar room. It is completely random, as if seat cards were thrown face down in the middle of the table.

While this does mean that it may be possible to move right back into the blinds having just paid them, it also means you can move from "under the gun" to a late position. All players are subject to the same random chance in such a move.

Once the player to be moved is chosen, we try to find a seat available for that player that has a relative position to the button close to the one that the player was at previously.

In summary, there are two fundamental goals that the table balancing system achieves, and they are:

a) to maintain blind position
b) to distribute movement evenly between players.

Please also be aware of our tournament rule #16 which states:

"As players are eliminated from the tournament, the software will “break” tables to fill available empty seats. The re-seating of players at broken tables is performed randomly and, although rare, may result in a player having to post multiple big blinds in a row."

Sometimes players may need to pay more blinds than usual, but at other times they will also avoid the blinds more often than they might otherwise expect. Overall however, we have received very positive feedback since implementing this system.

For full details of our tournament rules, please visit the PokerStars website:

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/rules/

We trust this clarifies how players are moved in our tournaments, and we wish you the best of luck at the tables.

I like your sense of humour

bingo

if they were made aware of this problem in the past, but they chose to ignore it, we can discuss it freely imo.

thx

in all seriousness - now with knowing that I'm tempted to try to be moved from tougher tables and I'm not sure if I'd feel unethical about it if stars allows it