[UATrewqaz]

Everyone is over-reacting a little.

WEre you colluding? Not int he traditional sense. You were not acting together ina way to take someone ELSE's money. Basically you were heads up in this particular hand and did not play it as you normally would it a random a opponent. This still makes alot of people nervous because you very well could start trying ot actively work together to trap someone in between you or pass information when others are in the pot. At big stakes like this (I considre $500 NL big stakes personally, as most $500 means alot ot most people) I would strongly advise not playing with friends.

Plus, if everyone knows you are friends they'll be quick to accuse you of colluding even if you were not.

Besides, it's +EV to play 9 donks instead of 8 donks + 1 skilled friend, correct?