Re: Is this collusion?
[ QUOTE ]
Story:
$10 buy in tourney results in Hero and Friend splitting 50-50 when getting to heads-up. The chips counts were close and we didnt want to play heads up for an hour while the other 3 sat around watching.
[/ QUOTE ]
Did you announce this verbally? "Joe, let's just split the money so everyone doesn't have to wait around watching"
"We then played SH limit, .25-.50 for an hour or so."
Is this short-handed limit holdem? Where the two of you pretty aggressive in most hands (as you should be) but dropping out against each other? To the uninformed, that could look bad.
"and Friend invites all to play in our home game when it starts back up, if they are interested."
Translated to their ears- "And Friend invites all of us suckers to play at his game"
"Is it cheating or colluding if Hero expected that he and Friend would finish in the top 2?"
Well, if you WERE cheating, you'd expect to end up in the top 2 as well, right? Was it supposed to be winner-take-all, or were two spots being paid?
"Is it cheating or colluding if Hero and Friend did not play many hands against each other? "
No to all of these
"And is this mitigated by the fact that, if heads up, Hero and Friend contract a case of FPS? "
No, it isn't- FPS can make it look worse- "he raises against me, but checks [missed check-raise attempt] against his partner and look what he turned over!"
"Boss walks into work the next morning and opens with "Did you enjoy taking our money last night?" Hero laughs. Boss states that "It was just like in Rounders. We were talking about it after you left." Hero thinks WTF? and asks Boss if he really believes that Hero and Friend cheated/colluded in a $10 home game. Boss shrugs and gives a look along the lines of "I don't know; you tell me."
Is Hero wrong to be pissed at the Boss' implication of cheating and/or colluding, especially because the two work together in a job where integrity is valued very highly?
Big, BIG problem. Whether this is a "know-win" situation or not, I know it's a "can LOSE" one big-time. Getting angry, while justified, isn't going to help:
You get angry, refuse to play cards with them anymore = big cheater got caught.
IMHO, you CANNOT let this just slide- this can easily poison your work reputation. When you can, sit down with your boss and calmly explain that your integrity and reputation are very important, as your boss surely realizes, and explain some of the things that went on, and WHY.
If you can give your boss some strategy training, without offending his ego, that would be even better. He can start beating up on his crappy-playing friends and your play will make more sense.
"
Should Boss be invited back to regular home game if he truly believes he was swindled? What about Boss'Bro or Boss'Friend?"
That's a tough one. If your boss doesn't become a better player, future games will just reinforce the tag-team image you'll have- plus they'll be pissed off at getting slaughtered.
Good luck
|