Soft-Playing

It has often been said that to be a good poker player, you must not have friends at the tables. Of course, this isn't always the case for many recreational poker players.

For friends and even acquaintances, "soft-playing" has long been an accepted form of play in low-limit live games. Soft-playing means checking when only friends are involved in a pot together. The reason for this is often simple: Friends don't want to take other friends' money. Soft-playing happens in low-limit games, but it is less common in higher-limit games. Players in high-limit games understand that there are no friends at poker tables, and in most cases will bet the same against a friend, an enemy, or a stranger.

Although soft-playing is considered OK in live games, it must be done in a situation in which it doesn't affect the outcome of the hand. An example of soft-playing that is considered OK is when only the two friends are involved in the pot from the start and check it down. An example of soft-playing that is not considered OK is two friends putting in five bets on the flop to drive out another player and then checking it down after the other player has folded. More often than not, this would be considered potential collusion. Obviously, the issue of soft-playing is a gray area, but in most situations it is considered OK as long as it doesn't affect other players. If soft-playing is OK in live games, what about tournaments?

Soft-playing in tournaments is a hot topic that has been discussed recently in most tournament circles. The general consensus is, and most rulebooks dictate, that soft-playing in tournaments is not allowed, and any occurrences of it are subject to penalties and punishment up to disqualification. But is this really the case?

I am going to give you three situations of soft-playing in tournaments:

1. The tournament is seven-card stud eight-or-better. A hand develops with two players after a bet and a raise on third street. There is no more betting during the hand, and on seventh street, the first player to show his hand exposes a wheel (A-2-3-4-5), the mortal nuts. The other player mucks his hand and the player with the wheel wins the small pot. Should this form of soft-playing be allowed?

2. The tournament is a shootout format, in which the winner from each table advances to the next round. In round two, two players from each table advance to the final table. During round two, one of the tables is down to four players; two players have 40 percent of the chips each and the other two players have 10 percent each. The two large stacks become involved in a pot together, but check it all the way down. On the river, one of the players shows kings up and the other player shows a set. Is this soft-playing, and is it OK?

3. The tournament is a supersatellite that is giving away seats for a $10,000 buy-in main event. The tournament is down to eight players, with only seven seats being given away for the main event. Three players become involved in a pot, with Player A going all in before the flop. Players B and C both have large stacks of chips and are almost guaranteed seats if they never play a hand. Both Player B and Player C check the flop, the turn, and the river, where Player B exposes the nut straight. Player C mucks his hand and Player A is eliminated from the tournament in eighth place. Is this form of soft-playing OK?

Let's revise the above situation. Instead of the nut straight, Player B exposes A-9 on the river with a board of Q-Q-10-5-5. Would this be considered soft-playing? If you answered differently for the two different hands, at what point would you draw the line as to the strength of hands that would be considered soft-playing?

Take some time to think about the above situations, placing different scenarios and different hand strengths into each one. If one form of soft-playing is allowed in certain situations, is it right not to allow soft-playing in other situations?

E-mail me your thoughts and answers to the above scenarios and I will go over the answers and my thoughts in a future column.

Editor's note: Michael O'Malley can usually be found playing online at partypoker.com as Rzitup. To learn more about him, go to www.rzitup.com.