[I.Rowboat]

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It's a pretty truthful statement. And to be clear, this is "soft" collusion: The regulars in the 15/30 game do not collude explicitly, which would be exploitable, but when they are in the pot against one another, they will typically check it down or play soft, skipping obvious value bets and raises.

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I don't have a problem with soft-playing. If two people want to check it down when they're heads up and I'm out of the hand, I don't care. If people are explicitly colluding and chopping profits that would bother me.

I'm not an expert on counter-collusion, but I would imagine if people are trying to raise you out of a pot, the counter strategy would be akin to how you would play against a table with maniacs.

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Soft playing is not good for the game. Period.

>If two people want to check it down when they're heads up and I'm out of the hand, I don't care.

You sure about this? Think this through a bit more. Pots that begin three or four handed and grow large on the flop or turn, get heads up on the river, and are either checked down or open folded do not make the game better. This sort of play doesn't happen every single time, but it happens much more frequently in this game than it does in any other mid-limit game in the Bay Area, and the person getting forced out is invariably not a regular. At a minimum, the play in this game is suspicious. Remember, it isn't just impropriety that you need to police, it's also the appearance of impropriety, as it stifles future action. I work in San Bruno, five minutes from AJs, and I would much rather make the long drive down to SJ than play in this game. That may not be worth much, but it sums up my own opinion of this game.