On the benefitting side of unethical play...

[pshreck]

Party 20+2 SNG. Blinds are 100/200, 4 players left. I am lowstack with 360. Other stacks are ~4900k, 900 and 1850. I am in the SB and push 109suited. The bb is the guy with 1850. It is 160 for him to call, getting well over 4 to 1 pot odds. He thinks and folds. The 3rd stack immediately starts getting up set and says something. I couldnt agree with him more but keep my mouth shut.

The big stack then says "Yeah, that was awful. Chiefhead (my name), Im gonna help you get third now." I am a little confused at what this means. Everytime I am BB (bigstack is my SB) he folds to me. Every other hand he raises. Before I know it he has eroded the other stacks, and one of them is forced all in and loses.

The big stack then says "your welcome". I say nothing, as to not have any chat evidence of collusion (plus I really did nothing, I was just benefitting from a guy who wanted to keep me in).

How would you have handled this... I assume most of you would the same way I did.... just keep my mouth shut and play.

Anything I else I could have/should have done?

[RavenJackson]

Is this technically unethical?

It takes two to collude, from what you have said it was simply the big stack unilaterally trying to bust out another player. The fact you benefitted does not make it unethical.

[WarDekar]

It was a dick move to the other players, but I don't think it's unethical and definitely not collusion. He can decide whom he wants to keep around, it's part of the strategy. Maybe he thinks he has the best chance vs. you heads up? Although the 2nd highest stack is probably his best chance because clearly you don't fold to a 160 all-in raise when there's already 560 in the pot.

[pshreck]

Yeah... but think about what you would do if you were on the other side of it... and you had that chat room evidence. Being the guy that got eliminated 4th, I would most certainly email them with that chat evidence.

It may not be collusion, but the guy clearly said he would 'help' me place higher. Thin line between that and cheating, but you guys are probably right in that its just a player who decided to play a certain way, and happened to type it out.

EDIT

Just had a realization... how is this different than say making friends with someone at a casino during a game. Then say softplaying them in some cases as to not hurt their stack... its actually closer to cheating than I originally thought, whether or not I wanted it.

[WarDekar]

If this continued it would be cheating. But, in this particular situation, he thought it was best to eliminate the other two before you. I make conscious efforts all the time to get rid of certain players and keep other ones, just because I don't say it in chat means it's no longer cheating? It's game strategy, nothing more, nothing less.

[pshreck]

Not really. As I said, making a conscious effort to make money off of one guy (someone you dont know) and not play against another guy (your friend) is not allowed in many casinos, as it is a form of cheating.

Also... there is very little chance that in the party blind structure anybody can actually make a strong effort to eliminate players based on their skill as opposed to their stack and blind sizes. I understand your point... just cant really be done when everyone had 20 bb or less.

[stupidsucker]

Isnt the big stack being a little hypocritical?

People make bad folds all the time. He may have had 32o and decided that he really wanted to keep his 160 in chips and be happy with that. Sure most of us know that he sbhould call without hesitation, but bad players dont think about pot odds very often. This is what makes them bad players.

The big stack was wrong to announce what he was doing, but it shouldnt affect you. He would have been smarter to just do it quietly.

Besides, its good strategy to keep the small stack alive anyways. He could argue that he didnt do anything wrong. Its not like he raised your BB and told you to reraise so he could fold. He simply dumped some chips to you from the SB, something I do all the time to the small stack if I am the big.

[WarDekar]

Exactly, by leaving the small stack in he can bully the other 2 around because they don't want to make the mistake of going out in 4th when they could've waited. Tournament strategy is completely different than in ring games. Sure if you're consistently taking it easy on someone in a ring game something is wrong, but in a tournament it's a legitimate strategy.

[Phill S]

id have emailed aprty straight away and make the case that whilst it benefitted you, and he stated he would 'help' you, that you had nothing to do with it.

it was a valid strategy, but he shouldnt have announced it. you should cover your back, because whilst you did nothing wrong, it can be interpreted differently.

Phill

[rivered]

Who knows. Maybe he just wanted to make you think he's so good he could take you out anytime he wants and intimidate you. Or maybe he just likes annoying people at the tables. Some people seem to find more satisfaction in that then anything.

[Benholio]

[off topic]
Ohhh,..so YOU are Chiefhead.. Think I have sat with you 12-15 times or more on my 2 names this month...

I have you noted as a TAG btw!