Brick and Mortar Etiquette Question

[AbeFroman17]

I truly don't know the answer to this, so I am hoping you guys can help me out. I play almost exlusively online, but was in Vegas over the weekend playing in the $2-5 NL game at Bellagio with a buddy of mine. Here is the situation:

Table is full with a mixture of half out of towners and half locals that all knew each other. My buddy raises in the CO to $20, button (local decent player) calls, SB folds, BB (local aggressive decent player) raises to $80. My buddy folds, button calls while BB is talking the whole time that he has a big hand. After my buddy folds but before the button decides, he is saying that he doesn't want to have to check this down. WTF? So, button finally decides to call and they see a flop of AQT rainbow. They check the hand down the entire way. BB shows AA and button shows QQ at showdown. Obviously, they had agreed at some point to not play big pots against each other.

So, my question is:

1. Is this unethical?
2. Is it standard in B&M games with "friends"?
3. If yes to #2, is this right?
4. What, if anything, should my buddy and I have done?

I would never think of softplaying against a buddy as that money is usually the sweetest of all. But, I didn't know what the standard is.

Thanks

Mac

[mrkilla]

[ QUOTE ]
I truly don't know the answer to this, so I am hoping you guys can help me out. I play almost exlusively online, but was in Vegas over the weekend playing in the $2-5 NL game at Bellagio with a buddy of mine. Here is the situation:

Table is full with a mixture of half out of towners and half locals that all knew each other. My buddy raises in the CO to $20, button (local decent player) calls, SB folds, BB (local aggressive decent player) raises to $80. My buddy folds, button calls while BB is talking the whole time that he has a big hand. After my buddy folds but before the button decides, he is saying that he doesn't want to have to check this down. WTF? So, button finally decides to call and they see a flop of AQT rainbow. They check the hand down the entire way. BB shows AA and button shows QQ at showdown. Obviously, they had agreed at some point to not play big pots against each other.

So, my question is:

1. Is this unethical?
2. Is it standard in B&M games with "friends"?
3. If yes to #2, is this right?
4. What, if anything, should my buddy and I have done?

I would never think of softplaying against a buddy as that money is usually the sweetest of all. But, I didn't know what the standard is.

Thanks

Mac

[/ QUOTE ]
1 yes
2 yes
3 no
4 tell the dealer/floor you would apprecaite if people did not soft play each other even as friends, if the person with the "big hand" wants to bet 1 dollar to drive theother guy out so be it

But good luck stopping it softplaying happens a lot between locals and regulars just about everywhere.

[steamboatin]

Standard, but it sucks and I hate it.

[4_2_it]

Sounds like someone needs to request a table change.

[LasVegasMichael]

Standard, but it sucks, and I do it.

[jeffnc]

It depends on how it is done. In this case, possibly no harm was done. BB made a legit reraise, and button didn't say anything until your buddy had already folded. So in this hand there was no problem.

However the problem arises because the button knows he can check down squirrely hand IF it gets heads up with his friend. He doesn't know if your buddy will get out when he makes his first call, but it does give him some value to be in hands where he knows he can't lose his stack. In this case he had QQ, but he might have done it with a weaker hand.

I think the best way to handle this situation is to play the hand out to your best ability, and if you want to chop it later with your friend you can do so. But if you're not careful this can lead to problems too, because now you might be more willing to get aggressive, knocking out a third party in the process that might not have been knocked out otherwise.

It's hard to go to a casino with a couple buddies, want to sit at the same table for the shared experience, but not want to rape each other for much higher stakes than you play for in your home game.

[The Red Pill]

Just stick to the UG and you'll be should be ok!

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
1. Is this unethical?
2. Is it standard in B&M games with "friends"?
3. If yes to #2, is this right?
4. What, if anything, should my buddy and I have done?



[/ QUOTE ]

1. Kind of.

2. Yes and some strangers who don't like to play pots HU do it also. There are many of these types usually in LL live games. They're just there for the casual play and to pass time.

3. As long as they're willing to show hands at the end to show they aren't colluding. The greater majority aren't colluding.

4. These players usually suck. They're missing out on alot of chips. I tend to enjoy it when they're near busting and kinda pissed when they'd have been in much better shape had they hard played their buds. No sympathy from me at that point.

It used to bother me a bit. Then I found that these types of players are usually pretty profitable to have in the game.

You can't really force anyone to hardplay.

b

[yanxchick]

It happens all the time. However, when my and my boyfriend are heads up in a pot, we never check it down. But because we know how each other plays so well, we usually know who has the better hand.

He's folded kings to my aces pre-flop more than once. It's annoying.

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
It happens all the time. However, when my and my boyfriend are heads up in a pot, we never check it down. But because we know how each other plays so well, we usually know who has the better hand.

He's folded kings to my aces pre-flop more than once. It's annoying.

[/ QUOTE ]

You might be playing too tight if he's folding KK that easily.

b