I was playing in a sit and go yesterday and there were two Russian players at the table.  

When I play sit and goes or cash games I'm always on the look out for strange plays which may be made by players in collusion.  I'm not saying that there WAS collusion here but here are a couple of hands that I felt were very strange and am putting them here for your input.

For some reason my spider 'tingly' sense was on full alert at this table from about 5 players left until the end.

Maybe there both hands were completely fine as they were played.   You decide.




First hand.


Full Tilt Poker $10 + $1 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t200/t400 Blinds - 4 players - View hand 889712
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): t4370       10.93 BBs
BTN: t2675       6.69 BBs
SB: t2510       6.28 BBs
BB: t3945       9.86 BBs

Pre Flop: (t600) Hero is CO with 6 5
1 fold, BTN calls t400, SB raises to t2510 all in, BB calls t2110, BTN calls t2110

Flop: (t7530) 9 5 3 (3 players - 1 is all in)
BB checks, BTN checks

Turn: (t7530) 6 (3 players - 1 is all in)
BB checks, BTN checks

River: (t7530) K (3 players - 1 is all in)
BB checks, BTN checks

Final Pot: t7530
BTN shows Q K (a pair of Kings)
SB shows 8 8 (a pair of Eights)
BB shows 9 A (a pair of Nines)
BTN wins t7530

Russians are BB and button.


2nd hand


Full Tilt Poker $10 + $1 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t250/t500 Blinds - 3 players - View hand 889739
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): t2235       4.47 BBs
BB: t9145       18.29 BBs
BTN: t2120       4.24 BBs

Pre Flop: (t750) Hero is SB with 8 A
BTN raises to t2120 all in, Hero raises to t2235 all in, BB calls t1735

Flop: (t6590) T 3 J

Turn: (t6590) 5

River: (t6590) 6

Final Pot: t6590
Hero shows 8 A (Ace Jack high)
BB shows 2 7 (Jack Ten high)
BTN shows 9 A (Ace Jack high)
Hero wins t230
BTN wins t6360

Russians are button and BB.

Hand 1 shows obvious fishiness, but isn't out of the realm of normal play.  I'm not generally calling a shove for most of my stack with A9, and certainly not a shove and a call for 95% of it PF with KQo.  But that doesn't mean someone won't, and obviously with the chips all in PF, the most they could do in terms of collusion is check down and leave him the 165 chips (which they did.)  Also, BTN checked the perfect river, but given an all in, that's not impossible for someone confused with "all-in etiquette".  But it does look like, given the terminator call in the second hand with 27, there was some sort of consensus to play the numbers advantage by getting into all-in pots with ATC.  Can't really make a conviction without a smoking gun, though, as the 27 call was to win the game outright, and in any case wouldn't have gained the other player a spot by winning.

So what else got your "spidey sense" tingling?

Basically these two hands and the fact that I felt I was being squeezed by both players. I was raised just about every time (I know not unusual in 3 handed) in my blinds by either player and not once did they oppose each other.  When they played each other (after 1 limped) there was never a show down and this happened often enough in 3,4 and 5 player hands. 


The problem with the 27s call is that if they were colluding and the shorter stack tripled up (other than me of course) it's still great for them.  Plus it's allin 2-1.  I think that even if I triple up it was still a good move for colluders to make as they get 3rd place and still have the chip advantage heads up. 

Just didn't like how this game went with these two guys.  Once I got my feeling there wasn't anything that happened to make me think that I was just over reacting.
 

On the other hand the 56o was pretty stupid to call the two allins but that's a story for another day.



Kash

Update.

I decided to search the two players about 10 minutes ago and low and behold I find them both at the same table in the same sit and go format.  Co-incidence?  

They were down to 5 players and 1 of them was the large stack and the other the short stack.  The short stack was shoving a lot especially on the button (his partner, yes I believe it now!) folded every time and eventually the short stack got enough chips to not be the short stack and then it was the two russians vs a german.  Once again it was a tag team affair.  One or the other went allin from the button or SB just about every hand until the short stack went allin for 3400 w 56s and blinds at 240 (very unusual to risk stack unless he knows the small blind isn't calling) and got snapped off by the German's 8s.

So the tournament ended while I was typing this and now both jokers are playing RUSH poker .05/10 cash game. Co-incidence?  Yeah right.

I am contacting FT and see what they have to say.



Kash

Yes, it would.  But the fact that they keep ending up at the same place, particularly without a word being spoken, pretty well smacks that they're in communication through other means.  However, that in itself isn't against the rules.

Good idea! Very obvious and soon to be banned I hope.

  Has a very dubious aroma , lets see what FT does about this. Always say if it smells like shoot and looks like shoot , odds are it is shoot !! Keep us posted .