La Kukaracha: Every Hand Revealed

On the PilipinasPoker forums, where I co-run an annual poker league (The PilipinasPoker APA Tour), one of the most-debated issues was the question of whether or not players should be allowed to sit out the entire tourney.

Predictably, the chief complainants were loose players who often busted out well before the sitouts blinded out. The sitouts would never make it to the money, but in a tourney league where leaderboard points have more long-term value than money they would end up higher in the rankings than some of these "playing players."

My personal stand on this issue is the simplest: A paying player has the right to play the tournament that he paid to play in however the hell he wants. If he wants to be the annoying jackass who open-shoves every hand, that's fine. If he wants to sit there and fold everything till his wrist hurts, that's fine too.

If a player's strategy is to play like a cockroach, he would not be the first of his kind.


So one day I decided to do it.

I paid for the entry at one of the PLO leaderboard events at The Midas Touch and then left the building. My last chip blinded out...12th place.

The next day I registered for the NLHE leaderboard event, immediately paid for the addon, and again left the building. Finished 11th place.

When I came in two days later, the murmuring had begun. I had to hear stories of how players could not make a move nearing the bubble because they were in mortal fear of the idea that they could bust out before an empty seat armed with naught but ante chips. Players were open-folding hands like pocket sixes and Ace-Jack!

They were not just "stories" by the way, they sounded more like informal complaints.

So on this day, to prove a point and silence the murmurs, I decided to do it again - but this time I would employ the "sitout strategy" while sitting at my seat.

"Ah, so you finally decided to play," teased a regular, "you actually do better when you don't play."

"Don't worry," I reassured him and the rest of the table, "I'm only playing Aces today."


Okay, not exactly a sit out, but it should amount to the same thing. Here's how it turned out:

Level 2, I get dealt AKs in the BB. Several players limp it to me... I check. Flop is ten-high with none of my suit, and I check-fold.

Level 3, AQs in the BB. I check, I check-fold the K-Q-7 flop. My initial stack of 5k is down to about 4k, so I decide to pay for the addon.

Level 4, nearing the end of the addon period and approaching the first break. I still have over 10k in chips. I get my Aces. Not wanting to complicate my strategy, I chose to stay true to the spirit of the Ipis. I open-shove. No callers, I don't show my hand. There is speculation that I am using my image. Whatever, I'm getting too sleepy from this strategy to get involved in the conversation.

About twenty players left, I open-fold a couple of AKo hands, pocket tens, and pocket twos. My stack is just about 8.2k...

Thirteen players left, nearing my previous high finish of eleventh, I decide to revise my strategy a bit. Since I already know that players are just going to wait me out to make the final table, I saw no sense in continuing the sit out. Change of gear, I would open-shove any Ace once my M (Magriel's number, as explained by Harrington as the cost of each round of poker) was less than five.

A loose player raises from UTG, I shove over the top with AKo and get called by J3o. My first double-up, stack is just under 20k.

A couple more open shoves - A7s and A5s - and I am in the final table with 28k.

At the final table, I keep folding as players drop off. I finally see ATo and shove over an EP limper. No callers, and my stack is back near 30k.

7 players left, and I have not played a single hand post-flop. This strategy has given me absolutely no headache, but I have completely neutralized any edge I might have had over some of the more casual players.

Two more players drop out. My stack is now at around M3, so I decide KQo is good enough to open-shove over a limper. He calls me with Q5s, spikes the five, and I am out at fifth.


Long live the Ipis!


Afterthought: in a field of mostly casual players, where small-balling might not work and there is not likely going to be any metagaming, I highly recommend employing a bastard-child of the pure sitout if you want a relaxing tourney experience. Just hang in there, and change your gears when the bubble approaches, and you might find yourself with a decent final table stack without ever playing a hand post-flop. Word of warning, it's not much fun.