Now, I don't believe that play is weighted in any single particular player (or type of player's style), but I am convinced that it is totally weighed in the favour of big stack players when all the chips are in against shorter stacks.
Check out these two hands that I've just played, and you'll see exactly what I mean.
Hand 1: Heads-Up Pot Limit Omaha
The guy has been running all over me, and I haven't seen a decent hand, in like, forever.
We both limp into this pot, and I've got about $500 behind (against his $2,500).
I flop a set of Deuces and a flush draw, so bet the pot. He raises, I go all in, he calls.
The Ah hits the turn, improving me from a set to a flush. He only has two outs in the whole deck, making him over a 20/1 shot to beat me - only one of the two remaining Queens can give him the hand, and the game.
The software pauses for, like, 5 seconds (seriously, no exaggeration) and out pops the Qs on the river.
Hand 2: 3-seat winner takes all Triple Up
We're down to two players, and my opponent has doubled up by knocking out the other player in the tournament.
I've got about $900, against his $2,700 and I pick up Qs-Th in the BB. He flat calls from the button and I push all-in. I figure his limp is quite weak and he won't call for 1/3 of his stack.
But, he does, in fact, make the call and turns up Ts-9d. I am in as dominating a position as you can be heads-up. He's only got 3 cards in the deck he can hit.
The flop is safe (I was expecting something like J-Q or 7-8). The turn pairs the board, so only the river to dodge and I'll have doubled up to about $1,800, and we'll be level in chips.
Again, the software pauses for about 5 seconds before peeling off the 9s on the river. It was about a 16/1 shot for him to hit one of the three remaining 9's - but amazingly the poker software managed to find one of them in the right place in the deck.
These two hands happened to me in two consecutive games. On both occasions we were down to the river and my opponent was behind, needing a miracle card.
By my calculations, the odds of me losing those two hands on the river is over 350/1, but time after time after time, when I get all my chips in ahead and am called by a player who has me covered, this continually happens.
It seems, the only way to play internet poker is to get your money in bad against a player with less chips and suck out on them.
Of course, if I were running one of these poker sites, I would want each and every game over in the first hand, so all the players can buy into another tournament as soon as possible. It's all about turnover. Poker rooms don't want games like this going on for any longer than is needed. Why, we could have played each of these games for another 10 minutes - 10 minutes that we could have spent buying into another game.
I only hope that one of these days I can post a hand in this blog where was all-in with less chips than my opponent and won - but don't hold your breath.
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