The friend in question is more of a poker friend that i've been playing with for a while. We shoot the **** all the time and will often times buy drinks for each other. I actually think this guy is a good dude and he is pretty much liked by everyone, but this situation made me pretty uncomfortable:

I raise 88utg and as the action makes its way around the table my buddy in the BB kicks me under the table. I instantly assume that he has AA and is trying to tell me to get the hell out of the way. Sure enough when action gets on him he makes a huge reraise. Luckily, he didn't give me odds to set mine, and i was comfortably knowing i would have folded regardless of the "warning"...I'm had already made up my mind that i was going to play out the hand as i would have if he hadn't kicked me....He did ultimately showdown AA

I'm totally not cool with collusion, but i'm also not about to rat out a friend who was sincerely trying to help me out (albeit unethically)...I guess my play is just to talk to him next time i get a chance away from the table and let him know i'm not okay with what he did. What would you do?

Happens all the time between friends, I could care less. But people will go Ape Crap on here and tell you to befriend your bud on Facebook and never speak to him again and on and on and on.

lol if his plan was to 3b big anyway no matter what happens the hand plays the exact same way.

also its i couldn't care less

Don't befriend him, but also don't participate yourself. If he is willing to save you money, let him - but be sure to value town him at every chance you get.

Agree, it would be more interesting if i had qq here as i would be in a much more ethically compromising situation...

This is the worst advice.

This is collusion. Plain and simple. I'm not going to go into a whole list of reasons why it is, as opposed to more traditional forms, but you should just tell your friend that you appreciate it but you don't participate, blah blah blah.

Better yet, you shouldn't play with friends at the table.

Also, doesn't seem like too many people know what befriend means.

tbh im kinda shocked you have a problem with this, yet see no ethical obligation to correct the awarding of a pot because a showdown hand was misread. this is clearly some form of collusion, while the other is blatant stealing

Get heads up with him pre when you hold 7-2o, nudge him under the table, raise big and then show the hand down after he folds. I think he'll the the message.

AW

Poker is an emotional game - to some more than others.

Similarly to OP posting -sometimes you sit next to someone who you become "freinds" with during a couple hour session, next thing you know you're heads up in a pot and they outright say "fold -I got this one", when you're holding a good hand. Sure enough you fold and they show you the nuts, then say something like "I was trying to "get" JimBob in the #5 seat, not you, I didn't want *you* to get hurt". Happens all the time.


The double golden rules of poker integrity:

1) You can not control what other people do, or say, or how they act, and what level of integrity they play at.

2) You can only control what *you* do, and how *you* act, what you say, ect, ect.......

Well i guess that we'll just have to agree to disagree. My own personal ethics don't oblige me to help out scumbags and i don't see how not saying anything is "blatant stealing", it's not [/thread derail].

I am not down with collusion / cheating which is why i have a problem with what my friend did.

^^^ Collusion is no big deal??? You've got to be kidding me. ^^^


OP I think you did what a vast majority of people (including myself) would have done in this situation. You aren't interested in cheating so just tell the guy to cut it out when you get a chance and be done with it.

But I don't think there is any question that the truly ethical thing to in this situation would be to call the floor and explain that your friend tried to cheat by colluding with you. I'm not saying I would do that but that would be the ethical play.

yea let me know when you will call out one of your buds infront of the whole table.

All my "friends" would never nudge me or whatever as we are all very much against anything even remotely close to collusion.

I do have a few "acquaintances" that have said things like "check it down?" if we end up HU and I've always said "No, I don't/won't do that" and told him to play his hand. I won't soft play, and just because they they are a "friend" doesn't change anything.

FWIW, you don't have to call him out in front of the whole table, nor should you (calling over the floor is just ridiculous imo). During the next hand or so when both of you have folded, just pull him to the side and let him know that while you appreciate the thought, you are not comfortable playing like that and would prefer that he doesn't do it again. If he's truly a friend, or even a decent acquaintance, he will understand.

well there are people out there who agree with you. and in my opinion, they are just as scummy as the scumbags you would knowingly screw over if they misread a tabled hand at showdown.

ohh don't forget, you also could screw over a dealer who misread the board too.

Ehh. I have a different view on things like this. Collusion ain't right, but I've actually done this myself, and I think a lot of people have. I've told people to fold because I had the nuts, I've had people kick me under the table, I've shown people the nuts and just said "gimme the little pot, you ain't calling", things like that. I don't view it as cheating, but I could see how someone could technically say it is.

Personally I don't think much of any of it, it's not a big deal. Kicking someone under the table seems a bit more in the arena of "cheating" though. Personally, when I've felt things were maybe getting a little borderline, I'd just leave the table. This is the reason I try my best to avoid playing with my actual friends at a table, as I've felt bad felting friends or being felted by friends. I've felted friends in hands then gave them their money back as we're walking out into the parking lot.

OP, since you clearly feel uneasy, just pull the guy aside and say you appreciate it but you'd rather not him do that anymore. He'll be cool with it, trust me.