[Dov]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think a lot of this is sound reasoning. Yes, you need more hand on average to beat two people than you do to beat one person. But that's true whether they're colluding or not. Similarly, yes, they will hit the board twice as often as you will, but when you hit there are twice as many people to potentially pay you off. It's a wash. Similarly, yes, it's more difficult to bluff two people than one, but when you do they contributed more of the pot on average via blinds, so again it's a wash.

[/ QUOTE ]

It is true that you need a better hand to beat 2 opponents who are not colluding, but that is partly because they can both be expected to be holding a reasonable hand. In the case of collusion, you can never be sure which is the real hand, but you still will require a hand good enough to beat both of them. (assuming you don't know they are cheating you)

In addition, the colluding partner's weak hand can sometimes fluke into a monster unintentionally. This is a hand that you would have won had the colluder not been playing his partner's hand.

Not to put too fine a point on it, there are no situations where collusion isn't an advantage to the cheaters except when you happen to hold the nuts. If they are donks, then they become slightly less disadvantaged depending on the opponent.

It's not a wash at all. Normally, in this 3 handed game, everyone will have 2 opponents. Here you will have 2 opponents, both of whom are better informed than you are about the current conditions of the game. Not only that, but they know how the hand should play out on future betting rounds as well. They will only have 1 opponent.

Poker is an information game. Whoever has the most quality information will get the money in the end, provided that they use it properly. Given enough information, even a donk will beat you eventually.

Your point doesn't speak to collusion as much as skill gap. I think you may have been lucky to find exactly the right donks to play with so far.

If you want, I will play your 3 handed game anytime you want for whatever stakes you want up to 5K per freezeout. Just PM me if you want to set it up.

Dov

PS

I'm not trying to be childish and throw down a gauntlet. I honestly believe that you really don't understand how much edge can be gained from just knowing a couple of extra cards, not to mention the ability to act twice per round in position.

You will need to be extremely lucky cardwise to overcome this disadvantage.