<span lang="EN-US">I think I read this in an interview with Shaun Deeb, that one time he had to miss his flight to London to finish an MTT. I believe that’s how he got his first six-figure score. Well, at least he was well compensated for the trouble.</span>

<span lang="EN-US">Now here’s my story. I had to take a flight early Sunday morning, and figured I would just do the poker thing until I had to leave for the airport. So I registered for a Rush MTT on FTP for the first time ever, figuring that if those SnG’s with 135-runner fields take less than 90 minutes to win, four hours would surely be enough for a 1000-runner MTT.</span>

<span lang="EN-US">Yeah, right. Should’ve looked at the damn blind structure. In those MTT’s blinds go up every 5 minutes instead of every 3, and they increment slower than in SnG’s. To make a long story short, four hours later there are 18 runners left, I am the big stack, and I absolutely have to run out the door.</span>

<span lang="EN-US">Well, sort of. I was supposed to meet a coworker and take a train to the airport together. I figured that if I ditched him and took a cab instead, that would buy me another hour. But that would still not give me enough time to ship the thing.</span>

<span lang="EN-US">I knew that if I just sat out, my stack would probably last to drag me to the final table. Possibly even the top seven. But certainly not any higher.</span>

<span lang="EN-US">Unfortunately I don’t have any poker-playing friends that I could call at some ridiculous time of the day and ask them to take over. So I woke up my poor wife at 7AM on Sunday and told her: “Darling, you’re gonna play some poker now”. </span>

<span lang="EN-US">She knows nothing about poker. Not a damn thing. Not even the hand combinations. But I figured that if I gave her the right instructions, it would be +EV compared to just blinding out.</span>

<span lang="EN-US">Please keep in mind that I only had three minutes to instruct her, but here’s what I asked her to do. Obviously, any instructions would have to completely exclude any post-flop play. So I told her to shove any TT+ pairs and AQ+. Everything else she was supposed to fold. I also told her that if at any point there were 6 or less players at our table, she should shove all 55+ pairs and all AT+. I can only imagine what the other players were thinking when seeing a 100+BB stack being open-shoved pre-flop every couple of orbits so deep in a tourney.</span>

<span>If you’ve ever been in this situation, what did you do? Do you think I gave my wife optimal instructions, given her total inability to play on her own? I hope to never come across this mess again in my life, but I’m still curious to know if I did the right thing there.</span>

well first of all i wouldn't break the rules. you obviously don't know but you are NEVER allowed to have another person actually click the buttons on your computer. so basically you are admiitting to cheating although I understand it wasnt the worst here. but just imagine if this was allowed. whats to stop a top pro from jumping in and finishing tournies for people with less skill. ghosting is whack too but its not against the rules as seen with the WCOOP scandel last year.

eihter way, in your situation if oyu gotta make a flgiht the MTT isn't worth finishing. sit out adn move up or just donkeyshove until you get knocked out. make a choice, is the money i could win worth missing and possibly negativly affecting some other aspect of my life whether it be personal or business.

Slingtownorbust,

Thanks for pointing this out. It didn't even cross my mind that by allowing my completely clueless wife to bust out, I'd actually be breaking any rules. Knowing that, I would certainly choose to blind out.

had this happen before, actually had my girlfriend tell me the cards over the phone. wasnt the best thing but was better then blinding out for sure. thats y we all have cell phones duhh

Does anyone else remember the terms of service at pokerstars saying that someone can continue playing if something happens to you while playing a tournament, like internet outages, etc.?

I could swear it used to be there, but I just checked and can't find it...

Yeah if you have an internet outage/some situation like that I know someone can log in from another computer...not click buttons on yours I don't think. And if it happened I'd email stars to let them know just to be honest. Does this qualify as one of those accepted instances?

I don't know the exact wording in the TOS's but I think the spirit of the rule defines "Play for" as "make decisions for" or "aid in the decisions". Like at the wsop, that guy that was physically handicapped such that he could not perform the physical functions of checking his hole cards or moving chips, was allowed to have his assistant aid him. They were not violating the "one player to a hand" rule because the player made all the decisions without discussion... the assistant was merely acting like robotic arms carrying out the players commands.

In the case of the OP, I would say he did not violate the spirit of the rule, as his wife did not make any decisions for him, but rather carried out a specific set of instructions that he gave in robotic arm fashion. Same thing if the wife clicked the buttons for him while talking over a cell phone, she tells him the cards and action, he tells her what to do, and she robotic arms his instructions. If she starts offering hand advice input, that's where the spirit of the rule is broken, but that wasn't the case in the OP if I'm understanding it correctly.

 

Originally Posted by Pafnutka

Slingtownorbust,

Thanks for pointing this out. It didn't even cross my mind that by allowing my completely clueless wife to bust out, I'd actually be breaking any rules. Knowing that, I would certainly choose to blind out.

I think what OP did is okey according to the TOS.

If you do not think that top pros of friends or just better players of friends do not take over sometimes late/FT then you are just kidding yourself! But this is completely different circumstances and by HH you would have to conclude even if shipping the tourney that the other player did not have an edge compared to OP.

I'm sure OP wouldn't have made this thread admitting his wife shipped a tourney for him anyways lol

mdshack14,

It was a $5.50 MTT with just over 900 runners. 1st place was good for about $1100.