Team play questions

The USA v Canada and Battle of the Sexes are great fun - so kudos to all of you for organizing it. But I am wondering about how you folks think we are supposed to approach it - is it just team play in name only and we are not expected to play any different then in any other tourny ? That is basically all I have been doing since I really do not know any better. If the cards fell right and I did knock out someone from the other team I bragged on the table about it but i did not really play any different to go after them. But should we be going easy on our team members and go after the other team members more aggressively ? Even to the point of laying down big hands to a team member ? Has anyone else been doing that ? I noticed in the Batle of the Sexes final table the first two women knocked out were by other women and I commented at the time they were like cannibals eating their own so it does not seem like many (if any) are playing truely as a "team" either. Is their a reccomended "team strategy" like play it like a regular tourney in the early and middle stages going after everyone equally and then switch to true team play (help other team members to survive) only in the late stages ? Or vice versa ? Or don't worry about it and just play ? Any ideas ?

[Grindelvald]

My idea is that you shouldnt lay down a monster hand or even a half decent one. But maybe think about laying down a questionable hand to a team member who has raised or in trouble chip wise. And perhaps just calling with a big hand and see what happens after the flop. The point is to target the oppossing team and co- operation with your own. I have layed down good calling hands several times to teammates because i know my turn will come. Just my thoughts.

I wonder if there are any rules online somewhere for poker "team play". It would be good to have at least some basic ground rules. Can you intentially lose chips to someone to stock them and vice versa - very easy if you happen to be sb and bb and everyone else folded or if there just happens to be no one from the other team involved. If it is legal then I suppose we could actually chat about it during play. How much communication of things like that is legal ? In regular poker you are not supposed to dicuss the hand especially truthfully (although Jamie Gold got away with it over and over and captured on tv at wsop) but what about our team play ? Can we chat to teammates what we have? or even just say dont call or check it down, or fold, etc especially when no opponents are involved in the hand ?

[JenniferNL]

Grindel said exactly what I would have said. It's really not that complicated to play team play. I guess my question is are you playing for the money?

Its not that complicated if either there are no rules or if there are no expectations. In that case the whole team play thing is just in name only and its no different then any other tourny. With no rules or expectations then everyone may as well just play for the money like any other tourny. I was just courious if a group of players did truly try to play it like a team - even chatting to each other what to do and what they have - would the moderators complain and ask for it to stop ?

[Nadi]

Well this is how I've always played team games.. if you're in a hand with a teammate and no one else is in then just check it down. I wouldn't rob a teammate of chips if its just us in the hand.

However if you're pretty low in chips and your teamie has a bunch more than you, I would try and take the pot no matter what you have and your team member should understand that.. because this is a team game and the goal is to get as many points as possible

So on one level of play just dont agressively go after team mates as you might players on the other team ie. the idea beign to keep as many of your own players in the tourny as possible and the winning "team" has incentive to play more as a team because of the bigger freeroll offer. Of course thats pretty hard to do if you end up on a table of 6 for example and 4 or 5 are your temamates with only 1 or 2 of the other teams. I saw a few situations like that in the last tourny's with one of them being I was on the underrepresented side. That was really where I was wondering is it illegal to start chatting to each other the best way to go after the 1 or 2 on the table since for team play you would to do that - right? I don't even know if I am smart enough to come up with the right play to communicate - lol - but In regualr poker that would be collusion - can we do that here or is that not right or not allowed to chat about the hand during play - even in team poker - I think that is my main question. Would anyone complain about chatting details about the actual hand durring this team play ?

[JenniferNL]

You are making this much harder ISLAND than it really is.

Ok - let the record show I tried to get some groundrules set. Sounds like it is pretty much anything goes - lol - fine by me. I do not know if myself or anyone else will even get in one of these situations but there should not be any complaining about it later if there is. BTW - thanks for organizing these - they are alot of fun.

GL to everyone. Bring it!

[Grindelvald]

Looks to me like you only see what you wanna see. There is no table talk or chatting going on behind the scenes that would be breaking the basic rules of poker. However there are ways to say bend them. Its Unspoken. Not being rude but there were several replies to this thread that were pretty clear on how to "Team play."