ADZ124/Empire2000 softplaying????

[mrjetguy]

This hand definitely seems like softplaying, but I don't understand why they would softplay HU in a cash game? It seems kind of dumb... I'm sure there are reasons to do so, but I doubt they would be worth the risk. So, instead of arguing about whether this is softplay, lets argue about why they would do it.

[gobboboy]

Maybe this is a long term play by ADZ to get Roman kicked off for collusion? So all I have to do is flat against regulars on the river and they'll get banned from playing again?

[fnord_too]

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So softplay HU is allowed. Are there any implications to this for the other players at the table?

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There are a few discussions about this from about a year ago. iirc, at stars, they say that if a hand is HU, softplay is fine. There are a lot of counter arguments for why this is not fine. The soft play that was being discussed at the time was just checking it down when it got heads up, only between certain players of course. (So out of the pool of players, several agreed that if they were ever HU in a hand they would just check it down). Some of the problems with that are that it looks really bad dissuading any trust in the game and that it IS really bad in that it changes strategy and is tantamount to collusion because players know they can see the river for free if it gets HU with someone else in their clique, and it is more likely to get HU if they call a bet (or raise a bet) by someone in their clique.

In this case, I don't know what to make of the hand. Not raising the river here looks like a clear mistake, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is a softplay.

Before the river, I can certainly see why adz would have this line in his arsenal. If this isn't part of a bigger pattern of play, you can't make anything of this hand. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone sees monsters under the bed from time to time. About the only thing we know is it was not likely a misclick since roman talked to him about the hand.

[cowpig]

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fwiw, when watching a couple of deepstacked games at TS involving roman and ADZ, ADZ used a very similar really passive line with a set OOP. I guess either ADZ is softplaying (unlikely) or ADZ's entire metagame with Roman the last month has been playing ridiculously passive.

ADZ did stuff at TS like check bottom set three times OOP on a non threatening board (ie he improved to a boat when a flush came) in a multiway pot, and in a hand against Roman he just called from the BB with QQ, checkcalled on a AQx flop (roman having something like 87), and checking the turn and river both being blanks.

I mean, it's whatever, ADZ just appears to be a huge nit who incoporates that with a lot of trickyness.

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This sounds like a very strong argument that they do softplay

[Melchiades]

Ridiculous hand. Blatant softplay.