I've been playing in just a local weekly $10 buy-in hold 'em game, nothing big and no rebuys, but I've run across a couple table etiquette issues that struck me as bad form so I thought I'd see what you guys thought.
Top 3 finish in the money (top 4 if over 10 playing) at our game, and both etiquette issues stem from a player getting up from the table after we're already down to (or on the bubble of) the money stage.
1. Last week one of the players decided she had to leave when we were on the bubble. She really hadn't been playing all night...she had been on the phone away from the table most of the time, playing only a few hands, and we had just been blinding/folding her out. We were down to 5 (4 were finishing in the money that night) when she said she was gonna leave, and since she was short stacked she probably would have just blinded out eventually. At that point the host's wife (who hadn't been playing at all, she had just been reading on a nearby couch) asked if we minded if she played out her stack, and none of us really objected. I got kind of a squirrely feeling about it when she asked, but since it was the host's wife I really didn't wanna make an issue of it....but then she hit two monster hands and ended up knocking two of us out, eventually finishing 2nd.
Fortunately I still finished in the money, but one guy kinda got screwed by her playing it out imo...if it had been for higher stakes, I think I would have objected. I know it was pretty much moot since nobody objected and granted, the player who left may have accomplished the same result with the two monster hands she was dealt, but was that bad etiquette in you guys' opinion?
2. This week a similar issue arose when one of the players (a different player than last week) decided just before midnight that she was too tired to continue when we were already down to the money positions. We told her we would just blind her out and let her know where she finished. This time I probably got stung by it (I had popped her several times on her blindstealing attempts, one time big, shortstacking her), finishing 3rd instead of 2nd. After she left I was going head-to-head with the host whose poker skills are clearly superior to mine, so even though my stack was slightly larger starting off h2h I felt my best chance was to take a few calculated risks I probably wouldn't otherwise take. I got popped in a showdown and my stack was then smaller than the player's stack who had left, so at that point I no longer had the option just to blind her out and take 2nd (if I had wanted to play the pussy).
The thing is, the player leaving didn't seem tired at all until I popped her just before a break, but after the 5 minute break she came back saying and playing like she was literally about to fall asleep at the table. Now again, I know that I had the option of just passing on anything but lockdown hands until she blinded out, but imo it's bad form to leave at the money stage and just expect that the others blind you out at that point, since those remaining shouldn't be expected to even have to consider the "do I play for pussy 2nd" issue brought about by the player leaving.
Imo, at the money stage in a friendly game, the shortstacked player should knuckle up and play it out unless a bona fide emergency arises...if it's not an emergency or absolute deadline and the shortstacker still wants to leave, imo he or she should graciously accept the lowest remaining money position so as not to affect the overall tenor of play with the remaining players.
Granted, I was gonna play for the win no matter what, but I still think that's bad form at that stage of the game.
I'm really fairly inexperienced playing offline though, so I don't know if those are commonly occurring situations.
What do you guys think?
