Failure to stomp

"Failure To Launch" was a movie about a man who had trouble committing to a romantic relationship. "Failure to stomp" is what I call it when three handed play is reached in a sit and go and two of the players have huge stacks, leaving the third with only a tiny one, and yet the two huge stacks don't silently collude with each other to stomp the tiny stack out of existence. Last night, in the final sit and go I played, I was the beneficiary of a failure to stomp. Three handed play was reached after 24 hands. At the start of hand 25, the chip leader had 2,790 in chips, the next biggest stack had 2,495 in chips, and I had just 715 in chips. All the two big stacks needed to do to ensure they both made the money was not to get in any big battles with each other, while betting big enough for me not to be able to call without a premium hand. All they needed was silently to agree to do this, and I would have been blinded off in short order. Instead, they let me hang around, then decided to have a battle royal with each other on hand 33. One of them hit the felt, gifting me with at least a second place finish. It was my only money finish of the night.

Perhaps I need to explain what I mean about silent collusion, and why I don't think it's unethical. When both players know it's in both of their best interests to act a certain way, they should be allowed to act in that way as long as their agreement is tacit. In other words, neither of them can make an open proposal that they play in this manner. This is entirely ethical, since there's no actual agreement, and either party can break the tacit agreement at any time.

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    83      90   18    37        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    18       6    2     4        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    26       6    2     4        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    40       6    2     3        0
SNG   NLHE    45000  5000       6    61       6    2     2    94500

delta: $-110,500
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $4,358,800
balance: $12,400,604