Your English is very good. (Probably better than mine.)
TDA Rules 2019 - 69: Ethical Play
Poker is an individual game. Soft play will result in penalties, which may include chip forfeiture and/or disqualification. Chip dumping and other forms of collusion will result in disqualification.There is a very important distinction made in Rule #69. The rule makes a sharp distinction between
Soft play and
Chip dumping and other forms of collusion. The former
will result in penalties while the latter
will result in disqualification.. In other words, collusion ALWAYS results in DISQUALIFICATION while Soft play may or may not and is up to the TD's discretion.
The hero suspected that in this very hand, the other two players were carrying out a pre-planned strategy by min-re-raising back and forth with any hole cards in order to transfer large amount of chips from the chip leader (SB) to the other player (BTN), so that after this hand, the two could both have more chips than hero and have a higher chance to eliminate hero at 3rd place.
Where is the EVIDENCE that this was collusion or Soft play? If Hero TRULY BELIEVED that these players held
"any hole cards" Hero should have shoved or made the call! If Hero had shoved 60k (instead of folding) then SB would likely fold his Q9o, after all, his odds were much worse than when facing the eventual BTN raise. Hero was the BB and had 2k in the pot. Hero saw the BTN call 2k and he saw the SB raise up to 7k. When did Hero first suspect that a
pre-planned collusion was occurring? Apparently, not when he made the call. He knew that both opponents still had raising chips and were still in the hand. Hero should have known that he would have to fold to another raise!
I think the evidence shows that SB and BTN played the hand well and Hero only regrets that he didn't play his hand better and is falsely accusing his opponents. Again, both opponents had every right to their actions and there is no evidence at all that either broke a rule. I do not believe this was collusion to dump an extra 10k of SB's chips to the BTN. He could have made a bigger raise and still fold!
Here is a more significant example of possible collusion. SB raise to 40k and BTN calls with all his chips. SB then immediately folds his hand and buries his cards in the muck pile so that they cannot be recovered. That is at least Soft play and is possible collusion. It is clearly an illegal action by SB who is obligated to table his hand. It may warrant disqualification (especially if the BTN tables two rags) and/or there is a history of illegal actions. That example has an appearance of both players colluding. On the other hand, say SB tables his hole cards with a complete bluff of 72o. That would not be irrefutable evidence of collusion even if the BTN had a mediocre hand. That would not be the first or last all-in bluff.
Those examples bring up another point of distinction in applying Rule #69. IMO: Soft play can be a violation committed by a single player to benefit another perhaps innocent player. However, collusion requires the illegal cooperation between two or more players to commit the violation.
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