$75 buy-in live SNG, is this unethical?

[winningfish]

OK I'm mainly a cash player mostly medium stakes online, and play SNGs online sometimes but rarely in casinos. Last night I was at casino and joined a 9-player SNG $75 BI. A bunch of middle-aged grinder-type guys sat to my right, I was across from dealer and 2 young guys who seemed to be friends sat to my left next to each other.

During the entire SNG they talked to each other including hands, if folded to them they will not play against each other. If you raise one of them will put a reraise and the other call or whatever to force you outta the hand unless you got the absolute nuts. Then when I was short stack(I think this was turbo, blinds rose fast), I pushed PF and they looked at each other and basically saying if you call I'll fold etc and one seemingly motioned with his eyes as if saying "you got the bigger stack so you call instead of me even though I got a good hand". In another hand the first young guy to my left is supposed to be the dealer/button, but his friend to his left seemed to take the dealer/button token instead until actual dealer corrected him. He also seemed to try to pay for his friend's blind when his friend was on small stack. They joked about it but still. The way they played, sitting 1 before them I could never even win a pot because they'll reraise me out of the hand in collaboration whether or not they had a hand and then just check down until showdown to keep the pot simple between themselves.

Is their entire table behavior unethical? If so, would you speak to the dealer during the SNG? I don't have a lot of casino SNG experience and I'd like to hear what you think.

[Yossarian147]

Of course it's unethical. I would not speak to the dealer, I would speak to the floor immediately. Everyone else at the table should be on their case too, not just you.

[Josem]

the word for this is "collusion."


traditionally, people who do this to cheat in a game of poker get shot.

[Veop]

How did the dealer not notice this? Was it not that obvious?

I'd think that any one of the actions you describe would have resulted in a stern warning from the floor and any other action afterwards should've resulted in them being booted.

[winningfish]

The dealer didn't notice because in the less than an hour I was at this SNG, the dealer changed twice, which I thought was somewhat ridiculous too. The older grinders were sitting to my right so they weren't as affected as I was by the 2 young guys to my immediate left.

[Jbrochu]

You've got to learn to protect yourself from cheats and angle shooters during live play. You would like to think the casino will take care of it, but often they do little or nothing until you speak up.

For example, I was playing a live STT SAT at Foxwoods and pushed from the CO as the shortstack on the bubble. The SB hemmed and hawed for a while until the BB said, "if you call, I'll call and we'll check it down." (This was loud enough for everybody to hear.)

They proceeded to do exactly that while I sat there stunned and the dealer did nothing. Since I was a newbie, and ended up tripling up anyway, I never said anything.

After getting angle shot several more times at Foxwoods I realized I had to protect myself.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

The first time you heard them discuss hands they were in together, or discuss softplaying each other, you should have called the floor. The primary person whose job it is to protect you in a poker game is YOU.

[winningfish]

That's true, thanks for the advice. After all it's my money I paid to play this game and I should think of it as protecting my money that they're trying to steal. But being an infrequent live player I just felt that I shouldn't accuse people without 100% sure, but of course one shouldn't give losers an inch because they'll take it and run with it.

[kleath]

[ QUOTE ]
That's true, thanks for the advice. After all it's my money I paid to play this game and I should think of it as protecting my money that they're trying to steal. But being an infrequent live player I just felt that I shouldn't accuse people without 100% sure, but of course one shouldn't give losers an inch because they'll take it and run with it.

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't even have to say " sir, SIR, THESE GUYS ARE CHEATS!" Just call the floor over and say exactly what they were doing, ask if they're allowed to do that or w/e.