Hit & Run Accusations in Poker: Why They're Often Overblown & Completely Silly

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For those that don't know, a hit and run in poker is when you leave after playing for a very short period of time, simply because you are winning.  I've been playing HU SNGs lately and have been accused of this by some regs.  I'm going to talk mostly about why accusing me of a hit and run is stupid, and I think my situation will also apply to many regs. 

First off, I usually sit 1st.  There are plenty of regs who sit 1st that I will gladly always sit or will sit sometimes depending on how the action is, but for the most part I sit 1st.  When I sit 1st I'm taking the risk of being sat by a good reg I'd rather not play.  However, by sitting 1st I am agreeing to play anyone for 1 game.  I'm not entering some contract where I agree to sit and play you for 40 games.  Accusing someone of a hit and run when you sat them is so lol in my mind.  There's really only 3 regs I can think of so far on Lock that sit me and I regularely decline a rematch against.  I either feel they have an edge or that the edge is too small for it to be worth it regardless of who has it.  These aren't necessarily the best 3 players who sit me, but they're the players I feel play the best against me.  Regardless, my goal in poker isn't to show everybody how big my balls are.  I don't get into big dick swinging ego contests.  I'm trying to enjoy myself and maximize my hourly rate.  There's certain players I'm just not going to sit and rematch because it doesn't make any sense.  It usually doesn't make sense for them to rematch me either but poker players tend to have large egos & think they're much better than they are.

There's other regs where I will gladly 4 table them at certain times, but when I get better action, particularly at high stakes, I'm not going to keep playing them just so they don't whine.  Again, I'm here to make money.  If I can 4 table some reg fish at $254s I'm not gonna sit and play a reasonable player at $91.80s.  Often better opportunities arise.  Hell, the other day I was getting some good action & happily 5 tabling and getting rematches against what I felt was weaker competition.  Then all of a sudden 4 games popup almost simulataneously against a reg who I absolutely love playing.  Beyond the fact that I don't want to 9 table HU (lol) I declined all rematches except for 1, because I don't like to play more than 4-6 tables of HU and would rather play the new reg than the other games.  This happens all the time except it's usually not 4 tables at a time.  I'll decide what the best games are to rematch & decline the rest.  Again, I'm not playing poker to satisfy the ignorant wishes of other players.  I'm here to make money & enjoy myself.

There's also occasional times where I'll have 10-15 minutes to kill and just decide to fire up a few HU SNGs.  I'm not going to cancel my other plans just because you want to rematch me.  Likewise, I'm not going to choose not to play for only 10-15 minutes just so some reg doesn't throw a hissy fit and accuse me of a hit and run.  For the record, I always try to give regs who I rematch a HU of when I'm quitting so they know when my last games are.  If that's not enough then you might have some issues.

Lastly, if I decline your rematch it's not going to be my last game on Lock.  I regularely open sit the highest stakes HU STs so if you really want to play me that bad then you shouldn't have any problem finding me in the future, especially once the summer is over and I'm back to a more normal playing schedule.  If that's not good enough for you and you really have to keep playing me until you're unstuck against me for the day then you may have some psychological tilt issues that should be dealt with.  Profits and losses are the same whether they come today, tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year. 

As far as sitting 2nd & not playing long I'll just say that almost everything above applies as well.  Unless I'm only playing for 10-15 minutes I NEVER sit somebody with the intention of only playing them once & declining a rematch.  However, if games start filling better and more lucrative opportunities arise I'm not going to rematch you just because I sat you.  I'll play as low as $40.80s to get some games going but I'm not going to sit and rematch somebody at that level if I start getting better action.

In regards to accusing of recreational players of a hit and run, come on man.  For one, most of them probably aren't even aware of the so called unwritten ethical rule of the hit and run in poker.  Secondly, they're just out to have fun.  Don't take it serious.  If you play only 1 game then you're still more likely to win than they are if you're a good player.  They're here to have fun.  When you sit and whine and berate them that takes the fun away from the game for them and may cause them to leave.  Would you rather play a losing player for 1 game & a winning reg for 3 or a winning reg for 4 games?  If you want the former then you should make their experience as fun as possible.  Obviously I'm not saying all "recreational" players are losing players, but it's clearly more likely than a reg being a losing player.

A lot of regs also seem to take it personal if I sit them.  Don't.  I don't have anything against you.  I just feel you are the most profitable opponent for me to play at the time.  That doesn't mean I think you're some fish.  I most likely respect your game but just feel I've found some leaks that I can exploit and profit from.  I know it can be frustrating getting sat by a reg you would rather not play but the best thing to do is just wish them luck and play your A game.  Hopefully you can convince them you aren't worth playing.  When games are slow I'll sometimes sit regs to feel them out and see how they play.  I might play one reg only a few times before deciding they aren't worth playing while I might play another reg 150 times before deciding that.  When the latter occurs it's usually because that player ended up making some good adjustments but it just took them a while to make all the adjustments.  The same thing happens to me.  Sometimes I find leaks in regs that I can exploit immediately.  Other times I have to play somebody over and over and over before seeing some tendencies I can exploit.  Some tendencies are a lot more obvious and easier to exploit than others.  Sitting regs can certainly backfire on me as well.  Sometimes I'll sit a player that avoids me to feel them out.  Then they'll get all pissed & start spite sitting me, letting ego get in the way of profit.  Other times I might sit a reg who avoids me and they end up being a super tough opponent & believe they can profit against me enough to make it worth it.  Then all of a sudden they're auto sitting me.  It can work both ways so I deal with it too.

I will end this with an amusing story.  On Black Friday I was sitting a $1K lobby when  a reg who normally didn't sit me sat me & typed in the chat that he knows I'm good but he's just looking for action.  I won't disclose his name out of respect but I'll tell you he's played over 50,000 HU games on Full Tilt & is up almost $500K in them, so he's no n00b.  I played regs quite a bit on FTP, especially at those stakes so I just said gl & figured I'd see how he is.  I then sat a couple more $1Ks & he sat behind me.  After playing him for a little bit I found some leaks that I thought I could exploit and I believed I had an edge.  It doesn't take much of an edge for a $1K to be highly profitable so I proceeded to 3-4 table him at $1Ks for 79 games because I wasn't getting any other good action.  It was approaching lunch time & I was starving so when some rematches started I told him "last 4, I have to eat lunch, GGs, gl."  Instead of replying with GGs, gl he decided to go off on me in the chat.  "Play me for a little bit, run like a God and leave."  He then repeated with similar comments.  All I could do was lol.  He sat me 1st.  I then 3-4 tabled him for over 2 hours at the highest stakes STs that are available.  People don't do that very often, especially at such high stakes.  While I ran above expectation, it was barely at all.  My bb/100 was 1.98 while my EV bb/100 was 1.41.  That's not a very significant difference.  I also gave him fair warning when I was quitting & was very nice to him.  Moreover, nobody knew what would happen later that day, so the assumption was that he would be able to play me plenty more on FTP in the future.  It just amazes me that pros who have played that long can still have a mindset like that.  I'd say his chat was pretty close to accusing me of a hit and run.

Hopefully this opened up the mind of some players who complain about hit and runs or was at least interesting.

GL,
Hub