I'm steaming right now... therapeutic rant follows...
There are 4 players left in a 9 player SnG.
Player 1: 5000
Hero: 3000
Player 3: 4500
Player 4: 1000
The thing is that Player 4 had checked the "Sit Out" box just a couple of hands into the tourney, and it seemed to me that Player 1 & 3 didn't notice because they kept checking to him whenever it was his BB all the way to the showdown, where Player 4 won more than his fair share, keeping him around much longer than he should have been.
By this point we're at about the 70th hand and on the money bubble, and I'm thinking to myself, "There's no way I'm going to let somebody who's not even here, finish ITM". So I point out to the other 2 players that all they have to do is make a min. raise whenever it's this guys BB and - voila - easy money.
Instead they just keep checking it to him, for the next 30-40 hands. If I was involved in the hand though, it was pretty rare that they'd let me have any chance at it. I felt like it killed my game because I didn't want to risk losing and finishing 4th to a guy who never played a single hand.
The worst part is I'm pretty sure that Player 3 was protecting Player 4 to purposefully keep him in the game. On one hand when Player 4 was BB (putting him all in) , Player 1 folded, I raised (4xBB) with A9, then Player 3 Re-Raises All-in... after reasoning it out, I had to fold. I mean why would he risk the majority of his stack just to steal my 4xBB's instead of calling and trying to eliminate Player 4, unless he had a decent hand and didn't want me catching against him?
I fold and Player 3 shows 9-2 offsuit, Player 4 ends up winning the hand with something like 4-6 offsuit. WHY WOULD HE DO THIS???
Eventually because they refused to raise him and attacked me whenever I did, I ended up getting short-stacked. Finally I push with A9 (7xBB) and Player 3 calls with J8off and catches a Jack...so I ended up finishing in 4th anyways...
Why would other players want to reward a player who just sits out the whole tourney? It drives me nuts!
Any thoughts???