Timebanking SNG reg

[Caladrias]

Hey guys, I've been playing some 5-max SNGs this afternoon and in this one game, I got headsup very soon with another regular (Alias: CrazyFusz) at blind level 50/100. Apparently he believes I have an edge on him headsup, as he then started time banking on every decision in order to get to the higher blind levels so he could just play push/fold. He stopped time banking at blind level 120/240, so he was doing it for 10-15 minutes straight. Ironically, he was playing two other SNGs that were still 5-handed with me in it as well, at the same time. Zero f*cks given apparently. 

This is extremely annoying behaviour of course, and I was just wondering if it is illegal on Unibet to do this? If so, maybe this player should be given a warning about it. 😉 I wouldn't usually mind too much about this (there are some other players that do it as well), but as this is a reg who plays everyday and I'll probably get headsup again multiple times with him, I wanted to post it. Screenshot from the game below.

Oh and by the way, I still won the headsup match. Sweet justice :happy:

[XY]

Can't believe how people complain about every "ilegal" move,when they do the same, then it is OK.

I don't attacking you @Caladrias ,just wanted to express frustration from all threads opened about similar "problem/s"

It is not OK when someone timebank close to the bubble,when have a more chips,when doing something other and playing poker (using time) etc.
Frustrated when someone (biggest stakeholder) calls any two over my AK,when people throw away 80% of cards and suddenly "turn on" and play 50%+ etc.

Thats how it is, and at some point we all play/played "ilegal" move.

[Caladrias]

I just asked if it is allowed on Unibet to do this. I've heard before that players on some other poker sites have received warnings for the exact same reason. 

I know there's something written in the rules along the lines of 'unethical play is forbidden', but this is of course a very vague and subjective statement. I do believe there's a fundamental difference between timebanking on an MTT bubble, or timebanking through multiple blind levels in a headsup match. I deem this not ethical :). I'm also not posting this solely out of self-intrest - he might be doing it in headsup matches with other players as well. I won't know. All I know is that it's possibly also bad for the playing experience of his opponents. 

[Messwithme]

Nothing worse than a staller at your table.

I do hope that unibet disincourage this kind of behaviour.

[XY]

We can push this forth and back all day,but will stay at the same point.

I understand what you are saying, but there is no solution/s that will satisfy all.

[FreedoM]

@CaladriasI dont believe its illegal or that you can do something to stop him, but if it's any consolation he did the same thing vs me when i was playing the 10's, so i always did try and bust him in the early levels which worked fine. But once in awhile you get with him hu and then u need to also timebank till he gives up and u can play push/fold.

[FeelsBadMan]

I think usually the ones that get a warning are the people that timebank at tons of tables all the time, like someone that can't play too many tables but is doing so for a rakerace or something. If he is doing it because regs are too good, meh, whatevs I guess, but if he's doing it with everybody HU just cause he doesn't like HU than that's messed up, ruins the experience for everyone else, and he should find a new game if he doesn't like playing a game that 1/4'th of the time gets to the HU phase.

[FreedoM]

@FeelsBadMan I assume he does it versus everybody HU as long as the stacks are 25bb+, my guess is he's more confortable in the push/fold phase than actually playing hu.

[fornicator99]

Hey, I had exactly the same problem. I've sent an email to support but obviously this is a thing they allow unfortunately. I know for a fact that this is forbidden on Stars. It's really shitty.

[Caladrias]

@fornicator99, I also thought it was forbidden on stars, wasn't a 100% on it though. 

Thanks for your response guys. So this guy is annoying at least 3 other regs (and probably many more people) in the €10 games for several months already now. @JeppeL, is there really nothing that can be done about this? 

[FreedoM]

@Caladrias Don't get annoyed or try to stop him doing that, just change your approach vs him, play more pots vs him in the early levels and show with a better push/fold game vs him at the end. I think its more fun when you adapt at his game and win than trying to change his game. At least it was to me. 😉

[fornicator99]

It's not just the push/fold thing that's annoying.   It's really ruining the experience. Games last longer with way less hands played. I think it's fixable by the unibet side. After the player time banks once or twice, just decrease the time bank time progressively.

[WuDu]

I can confirm @Caladrias as well. I was playing heads-up vs CrazyFusz a few days ago and he used his time bank all the time while playing the other SNGs at regular speed. This has to end and I think the Unibet guys should take a look at that behaviour and let him know. Otherwise we should just use this topic and crowd-source our (mental) notes on him here. I'm sure that'll take care of the problem as well...

[Caladrias]

@FreedoM Yeah it's not really about that I want to play deeper stacked against him, I'm very comfortable playing both shorter and deeper stacks. Won't change my game plan because of this, I think I can beat him in both cases ;) It's more about the thought that he is doing something that's clearly against the spirit of the game, and pisses a lot of people off. That is - in my humble opinion - just something we shouldn't allow anyone to do. :)

[FreedoM]

@Caladrias It didn't affect me when i played him so id say i'm neutral to this. 😉

[Caladrias]

@JeppeL @Leo-Unibet, didn't get an answer last week but you guys probably didn't see the topic here.

I ended headsup again with the same player today, and again he started timebanking as soon as headsup started. Screenshot below. It is so toxic to the SNG game play, as several regs have reported in this thread now that it also happens to them with this particular player. And obviously, there will be even more players that are severely annoyed by this kind of behaviour at the tables. So once again the question: is this allowed at Unibet? And secondly, if it's not (and I really hope it isn't), can something be done about this?

I mean, you can certainly timebank some decisions headsup with these stacks, there's no harm at all with that. But he's doing it every single hand, every single headsup match. You guys know as well as we do, that that's not a thing in short-stacekd HU poker. Eventually I just started threebetting and raising him every hand out of frustration before we got to headsup, to minimize the chance that ge hot to the headsup stage. But this isn't the way the game should be played at all. I really hope that you look into this. 

[Inhuman]

Maybe it's a bot configured this way to get into the push/fold zone of the charts.

[xdiediex1]

the timebank is there for a reason ,some people just cant keep up the speed with 4 or 5 open tables, its frustrating yes but those are the seconds they get to make descisions and nothing ya can do im afraid , but you got justice, you won so well done anyway

[fornicator99]

@xdiediex1He does it only hu when deep and it's on purpose. If I have him on multiple tables he plays normally on the tables in which there are more than two players and timebanks every single hand when hu deep.

[ChapInAChair]

I kind of agree in principle that the timebank is there for a reason and people can use it how they see fit. Under normal circumstances I'd say timebanking is fine if you're using it to stall games. I do it all the time for various tactical reasons in some games.

I think the problem isn't so much with the player (although I agree that it must be very annoying) as with the software's time bank. Every other site I've played on offers a timebank in addition to the standard decision time but once it's used once it's gone and you just have the standard time to act in future. It may be advantageous to players like me to have a timebank that refreshes on every single hand but it shouldn't do that and, as has been pointed out, it can really kill the entertainment factor of games.

[theMachine]

WHAT_IS_ALL_THE_CRAZYFUSZ_ABOUT?

01101000 01100001 01101000 01100001 01101000 01100001 01101000 01100001 

[Caladrias]

That's a very good point @ChapInAChair.

[xdiediex1]

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@fornicator99wrote:

@xdiediex1He does it only hu when deep and it's on purpose. If I have him on multiple tables he plays normally on the tables in which there are more than two players and timebanks every single hand when hu deep.

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i dont like that at all , and i really think your advice  (After the player time banks once or twice, just decrease the time bank time progressively. ) would help ,there are pokersites that work this way and it helps at the end ,but then again  some people will auto fold a lot when they are playing like 4 or 5 tables

[PaziHalinka]

I play 6 tables, but hardly ever have to use timebank, so reducing it would only affect 8+ tabling regs, but so be it...this site is mainly for recreationals, isn't it?  😉

 

[JeppeL]

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@ChapInAChair wrote:

I kind of agree in principle that the timebank is there for a reason and people can use it how they see fit. Under normal circumstances I'd say timebanking is fine if you're using it to stall games. I do it all the time for various tactical reasons in some games.

I think the problem isn't so much with the player (although I agree that it must be very annoying) as with the software's time bank. Every other site I've played on offers a timebank in addition to the standard decision time but once it's used once it's gone and you just have the standard time to act in future. It may be advantageous to players like me to have a timebank that refreshes on every single hand but it shouldn't do that and, as has been pointed out, it can really kill the entertainment factor of games.

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@Caladrias Sorry for the missing response the first time around - though I love the discussion and different view points it has made for. 

I agree very much with the post I've quoted. The time bank length I'm sure has been chosen through overall consideration of all players playing poker on Unibet, and what's described in this thread is the very extreme of how it can be used, which is also why I'm happy we're not hearing more of this and it isn't a general issue on Unibet.

We can certainly provide the feedback for the Poker Team at the highest levels, but I'm not sure we can go in and "punish" the specific player in question. To me a least, it would mean telling a player that they're not allowed to spend the time within the tournament parameters as they please - and I'm not sure that itself is ethical given the nature of online poker.

So while I understand the frustration this brings, I'm glad that 1) Out of thousands of Unibet players to play against, you can only mention one as an example, and 2) That you seemingly have derived a strategy to use this to your advantage :)

Thank you all for letting the different opinions known,

/Jeppe