Am I wrong in thinking that if the hand went down like this it is pretty damning evidence of collusion? I can't think of any reason to cap while 2 ppl are pat and you're drawing. I don't know much about badugi though so it could be reasonable or at least not as absurd as it appears to be at first glance.

This is not an absurd hand to anyone who plays Badugi regularly, remember that the two pat players were beaten by the drawing player - who legitimately made a good hand that is very rare to make.

TT according to the details tran was pat with #1 and his friend was capping and drawing 1. Pretty tough for it to be normal.

You are right, I misread the hand as Tran was drawing - not pat. Thanks for catching that homie.

With that said, you do see bizarre play happen in draw games, and you cannot automatically assume it's collusion without seeing the other hand. For example my favorite all time hand that I ever played was a 1/2 mix game vs Can Kim Hua. CK capped all streets and continued to draw. First 4 cards, then 2 cards, then 1 card - capping all streets even though I was pat at all times. He was so proud that he made a #2 on the end, but I won. CK doesn't mess with me anymore ;-) Its not quite the same situation, but CK actually thought my hand was rough and he was trying to get me to break. Pat #1 Badugi's are very rare, most pat Badugi's pre-draw are Qx or higher therefore Tran's friend could have been trying to induce a break while he held 123x himself.

My point is, unless we know the hole cards its not fair to assume collusion.

Dunno what ethnicity tran's partner was but if it happened to match his then its pretty hard believe there wasn't collusion going on. Some stereotypes about certain ethnic groups do have a basis in reality.

I just ran into Black Gary in the Bellagio bathroom. He told me he had just "busted out". I thought he meant he busted out of the colossus, but he clarified and told me that he busted his roll 4 or 5 days ago. He told me he messed up big time and his wife is very angry. He said he doesn't play table games, only poker. He also told me he is quitting poker and will not be going back to LA either. He then told me he needed $100 for a place to sleep tonight.

Crazy.

So you shipped him two Black chips??

I remember ReShipping K9 off 20 bigs on him at a Commerce tourney. He tank called with 99. He literally Slammed the table when the K hit the river. GTFO.. showers.

In these games everyone knows one another, generally speaking ethnic background is not a factor when the players all know one another (some exceptions allowed of course). If Tran was colluding, chances are high there would have been accusations long before this GG hand. Also assuming that Tran would be more likely to collude with someone of his own ethic background is ridiculous. These are high stakes games with a very small pool of players, not 2/4 limit filled with busto locals looking to find an edge to make ends meet.

Could Tran have been colliding? Yes, it's possible. But it's also more likely that GG was just a sore loser and started flying accusations without enough evidence - cause that's what GG usually does. He had a long history of blaming others for his poor play when he loses.

It's not that unusual. If he was drawing 2 or 3, sure, but drawing 1 with 2 players pat usually means something like A23x and you suspect that the pat hands could be sitting on a 7 or 6. Capping with this is a bit a aggro, but then I don't think there is any shortage of aggressiveness at the Commerce based on posts here.

Commerce management needs to make some changes though:

1) Bruce Buffer is new assistant floor man.
2) Players need to leave bathroom with an entourage and wear a robe. Justin Bieber is tough to get ahold of nowadays - carrying a big picture of him is acceptable.
3) All players must be announced upon sitting in a game with a minimum of 4 nicknames and their win rate for the month.
4) Floor must wear striped referee jersey and latex gloves.

How does the Kenny/GG thing not get prop bets going? I mean, GG is apparently gonna try to knock someone the f*** out anyway. Might as well legalize it and tax it.

No. I told him living on the streets will teach him a valuable life lesson.

Hes Eritrean, which is basically the same thing I guess? But if you say hes Ethiopian he quickly corrects you.

raymond davis?

The collective intelligence of groups?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_intelligence

People normally only cap one street trying to get the pat hand to fold or break... not saying it doesn't happen.

It is obviously worse if the guy kept raising if he didn't even have position on Tran. If that was the case.. well played GG.

He is at the Orleans now playing limit Omaha hi lo.

Busted in three hands. Played less than 15 minutes.

Same ****. The two countries had been one for hundreds of years and split 20 years ago. My fam is technically Eritrean as well but they'd fight you if you told them they weren't Ethiopians.

Impossible. He told me he quit poker. (/sarcasm).

I wonder how he got staking.

A couple days ago I ran into a 2/5 player at Venetian that had just loaned Gary $100. Now I understand why he is the "Michael Jordan of railbirds". Saw him sitting in the high stakes area in Bellagio railing 10/20. Gary moves like the wind though. Every time I try to point him out he just disappears into the shadows.

I asked another player about him and he said Gary told him he was arrested over the Kenny incident. FWIW, Gary had told me he never punched Kenny but he also told me lots of things like he would never play poker again lol.

TBF im not sure what gary does at the poker table can be classified as "playing poker".