Message Board : 3 Blind Mice

Almost all card rooms have this situation.  Rarely are they colluding, usually they're just avoiding each other.  The play against each other day after day after day and It's easier to just play against the unknowns.

Kind of like the line from Rounders when Damon's character was in Atlantic City.  "We weren't playing with each other, but we weren't playing against each other either."

I think collusion is fairly common at mid- and high-stakes live games. Mind you, "collusion" doesn't have to be full-blown systems of signals and whatever. It can be as little as staying out of each others' way just a bit too much.

"Best hand" is the simplest collusion, where the two teammates basically try to work out preflop who has the better hand, and the other player folds even if their hand would normally be "good enough." I think it's fairly common in some degree or another, and there's really not much you can do to stop it.

Having said that, I doubt the old men in your $2-$4 or $4-$8 game are adept enough cheaters, even if they are technically colluding, to make the game unbeatable. I find most people's concerns about collusion in small games tend to be, for the most part, unfounded.

But it's not impossible.