Spanish and Hebrew are kind of categorically different though. I know language pedagogy in this country sucks beyond belief but as a very white guy who learned enough Spanish to understand most conversations I don't think I'm that rare. There are plenty of Spaniards, Argentines, Cubans, or Mexicans with light skin anyway. Why would anyone assume no one else at the table speaks Spanish? In Florida?!

Was it Stalin who pretended not to speak English until someone (FDR?) told him a joke and he laughed before the interpretation?

It’s cheating bc now those other players who are softplaying don’t have to worry about their stack when up against their friend or whom ever it is they’re softplaying.

So your stack is always at risk but they have little safe havens which makes the game easier to navigate for them..

It just makes the game unfair and puts into question the integrity of the game.

Everyone should have the same fear of being stacked to level the playing field... when some players are softplaying the playing field now becomes uneven.

It’s not the worst form of cheating but it should be frowned upon

While this post is mostly true in that you’re going to make enemies by snitching on players... and most likely collusion will never end..

I would like to see the poker culture change and have dealers report players who verbally agree to check it down. If more players spoke up and other players at the table agreed with them so it was a poker culture shift then some of the soft play could get eliminated. Once most players are anti soft play and everyone feels comfortable enough to call it out on the spot then maybe punishment could be given to the players doing it. One day casino ban for first infraction month band for 2nd. You will see how fast these soft players would stop bc they would lose their meal comps or player points or whatever reason they are at casino.

The players soft playing are usually bad for the game anyway. It’s usually two mawgs who don’t intend to be putting chips in the pot anyways.

I would also like to see moderators and poker minds addamently against collusion. And taking a stance of preserving the integrity of the game or something.

But to say there’s nothing you can do almost feels like being complicit in cheating. If you’re not going to take a hard line stand against cheating then basically you’re saying you’re part of the problem of the culture of poker.

How often does that happen between 'friends'? Players verbally agreeing to checking it down are usually just inexperienced guys who have no idea they are not allowed to do that and every single time I've seen that happen, either the dealer or other players immediately told them they are violating the rules.

99% of the time, the issue is players soft playing each other without verbalizing it. They are just not willing to play big pots heads-up with their friends and there's absolutely no way to make them. In a cash game, there's not even a rule against checking back the nuts on the river because you can't force a player to wager money if they don't want to. The only thing the card room can do is to tell players that they are not welcome to play there if they are not willing to bet significant amounts of money in heads-up pots. Now you can ask yourself what's more likely to happen, players changing the way they've been playing for the last 10+ years or players finding something better to do with their money.

Honestly, i think some guys do it without being aware of it. I was in a WPT event ($240 buy in, big guarantee) that attracted a lot of newish, fun players. Last hand before bagging, as it is getting folded to the blinds, the big blind starts chattering to the small blind about ow they can just check it down, which they did. After the hand, I cautioned them to be careful, as a floor would penalize them if they had heard that. The BB was honestly confused and didn't seem to understand what he did.