Thou Shalt Not Soft-Play a Friend

This is the first in a series of columns in which I will be discussing the "Commandments of Conduct for Tournament Players" that Shane Smith and I wrote and included in my recent revision of Tournament Poker. They appear at the end of this column. Tournament player Dean's E-mail illustrates how soft-playing in tournaments negatively affects people. He wrote, "I'm a guy you want in a tournament. I just go to have fun and I am an average player at best. But I stopped playing in tournaments because I thought there was too much soft-playing. A lot of times it involves players who have put other players into the tournament. Tom, I know that I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know, but what troubles me the most is that there are some players who are getting away with this stuff. Why will no one reprimand them? I want my lack of poker skills to be the only disadvantage that I have."

You certainly have a valid point – no matter what the game, your lack of skills should be the only disadvantage that you have. Before I go any further, I should note that while occasional abuses may occur, tournaments are basically "on the square."

Certain players do have an acquired reputation for trying to pull shots here and there, but knowing who they are and catching them in the act are two different things. If I am playing a tournament and am affected by the unethical actions of another player, I usually will chastise the player out loud in front of his peers or ask for the floorman so that I can explain to him why I think the player's conduct is out of line. If I am running the tournament and someone complains about an unethical procedure that's going on, I judge the situation on its merits and determine whether the impropriety can be proven to my satisfaction. If it can be proven, I will at least penalize the player in the form of time away from the table, or possibly disqualify him.

Let me give you a personal example in which it was obvious that two friends were soft-playing each other. I was playing a tournament at one of the huge casinos in Southern California with two players (who shall remain nameless) who obviously were friendly with each other. One of them had raised the pot and was heads-up with his friend. The raiser held an A-10 and his opponent had something like A-J. The flop came 10 high with no draws of any kind. Two blanks came on the turn and river. The two players checked the hand to each other all the way to the river. It was absurd that the player with top pair-top kicker would check all the way to the river in heads-up play. I jumped all over these guys and said that if I ever saw them do anything like that again, particularly in a tournament that I was running, they would be disqualified immediately and would have to forfeit all monies.

From past experience, I know that it isn't always easy to catch someone in the act of soft-playing, although sometimes players have been caught and punished (but perhaps not as harshly as they should have been). However, casinos are aware that both cash games and tournaments need to be cleaned up more thoroughly, especially if they want to get corporate sponsorship, and several venues are taking steps in the right direction by imposing timeout penalties or expelling the conspirators from the tournament. The backers who sponsor individual players often are fairly well-known, so for the most part, I believe that players who are being sponsored usually conduct themselves in a reasonable and aboveboard fashion.

Players who have made secret deals that are not readily revealed are the ones who are tougher to catch in the act of doing something unethical. You can't always tell when something that is unacceptable has gone down, particularly partnership play. It is hard to detect because you don't always get to see the cards of the players who are involved in the action (raising and reraising to trap a third player, for example). A strong stance should be taken in these situations so that if these people are caught, they are barred from the tournament that day and from all future tournaments at that particular cardroom. Unfortunately, we have no organization that universally bars players for unethical conduct. Each individual casino makes its own decisions. Sometimes a casino's decision will carry forward from one tournament to the next, and even from one casino to another, but more often than not, a player may be barred from one tournament or casino and permitted to play in the next tournament in the same or another venue.

With just a bit more housecleaning in the tournament arena, I believe that players like Dean will rejoin those of us who love tournament poker. In order to help you and many others improve your tournament skills, express your concerns, and ask questions about tournaments, I am proud to announce that I have just opened my new website, www.tournamenttalk.com. You'll find a lot of valuable information on tournaments, including a chat room where you can post messages and receive responses, and an archive of past "Tournament Talk" columns. As the World Series of Poker progresses, I'll be posting my adventures and opinions on the "big one." And believe me, that's one tournament where I'd really like to meet you in the winner's circle!

Tom McEvoy is the author of Tournament Poker and the co-author (with T.J. Cloutier) of the Championship series of poker books, including Championship No-Limit and Pot-Limit Hold'em, Championship Omaha, and Championship Hold'em. The authors may be reached at [email protected] or through Card Player.