My complaint – it only happened once – was a 3-person SNG in which the other two were very chummy and congratulated each other whenever they won a hand (from me). Were they colluding? I have no idea. Were they making me feel very uncomfortable? Definitely!
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Hi Gina. I went thru that exact same thing yesterday afternoon even to the point where when one of them would call or raise me the friend would fold. Collusion? I don’t know. Good thing it was a small SNG, I just let it slide and moved one and that was it for me for the day.
RALPHIE IS JUST NUTS!!
COMPLETELY AND CERTIFIABLE!!
HES NUTTY 4 SURE!!
HE SAYS WHATS ON HIS MIND-
GOOD AND BAD!!
BUT AGAIN-
WHY COLLUDE???
ITS FREE DAM CHIPS=
OR NUTS AS RALPHIE CONSIDERS THEM!!
TOLD U HES NUTS!!
TOM
RALPHIES SECRETARY
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Greetings our little Ralphie,
I think Ralphie has done it again ! ! !
I swear it’s like the reincarnation of Confucius or something… As you know Oh Exalted One, these thoughts have plagued mankind for many centuries… Let us bow our heads and pray for these lost souls…
Now I’m told, just as you Ralphie, this Poker folklore has come up shorter than a hill of beans…
Then I’ve been told it’s just… “The Nature of the Beast”
Enjoy, Rail-Bird 
I don’t get it. How can people congratulating each other through simple initials or names be considered an impolite gesture? We’re congratulating people for their wins, not saying rude things to each other. And if we do it a little too often for your taste, …how is that impolite? Growing up in my family, we were taught that we could not be overly polite, only overly rude.
And don’t be silly, we can’t prey on newcomers. We don’t deal the cards, we just play the ones we get, the same ones everyone gets. We have no control over anything.
For the most part, I find the players here on RP to be the most polite that I’ve ever played with.
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So … you’re searching Ring tables, and find one where noone has a crapload but most are above the max, there’s 3 seats of 9 open, and you"watch" for a few hands… noone seems to be play’n wierd, so you decide to sit. Now, you also notice, Every hand, 2 or 3 ppls initials pop up in chat. You pay the entry blind and sure enough someone raises 7x the bb, where at most before it was 2x… You fold, np, & next couple hands its back to limp or 2x preflop poker. You still see each hand ppls initials. Another player seats, its ur BB… guess what, you get blasted off your bb for 6-7x bet just like before…This all continues and usually, you and that 1 other new player are faced with a more “pricy” ( mo money ) decision preflop just to play a hand, and if you fold then it goes back to cheaper poker…
Over the next 30-45 minutes, you see a trend… the 3 ppl that aren’t part of thier “core group” pay more to see hands, pay more to play hands, and usually go to showdown against atleast 1 person. Its not alot more but it is more, and yes they mix in a couple cheap hands here & there. These players will “clap”, use initials, for the odd out just to make it look good but it still “feels” fishy. It doesn’t matter which of them really wins, just that a few don’t… Once you’ve seen this behaviour, you know how it “feels”…
@Lefty20, I will leave it at that… its very hard to prove collusion in some cases, and hell yeah there is such a thing as “too polite” in certain social situations. Plus if you had read the thread on “use and overuse of things like NH, GH, ect ect” you would know that my view is if its every frick’n hand, it loses its meaning quickly… @Lefty20 , not prey on newcombers, I guess you don’t have the chips to sit with some of the elite players, on the elite tables, lately… Now thats a case of those players can do it without even talking to each other EVER… its almost psychic, and 110% they are NOT cheating… Its called “chipleader running the table correctly theory”…
Now in this thread, I tried to make the question as benine and un-accusatory as possible, but still asking the question… I am trying more to accept the other side of this… but I still think if you are gonna do it, don’t do it every hand, and using ppls initials says nothing… does it mean WP, NH, GBT… my automatic responce to someone in a chat saying my name/initials is… Yes ? … I can handle winning 1/25 hands, (kinda), and there are ways of manipulating this on my end to mitigate the problem. So @Lefty20 maybe we agree to disagree but maybe now you see some of my side, and me some of yours. Trust me, table gameplay is just part of poker…that ya gotta learn.
I see it all the time now that I know what it means. 50,000 SNG yesterday, one initial all over the place every hand. Every time I win a hand now I’m typing “C” to myself lol.
These are mostly all friends at a table in ring and SNGs ?
Is this something new with the one letter thing ? I never really noticed it in MTTs .
Craig,
One letter, initials, or abreviations… always make me go hmmmm.
No, normally ya don’t see it in MTTs, even in the regionals and those ppl play dayin-dayout with each other… a few do, most don’t tho Craig. Now think of this live… a “head bob + Craig” from another player to you, instead of “Nh Craig” or just Nh … Just things that make ya go Hmmmmmm, ya know what I mean.
This thread is meant to show reasons why it might just be my imagination…
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I know what you mean " S " Hahahaha. Sorry , I just had to do it 
.
Oh no, what am I going to call Sharon ? lol
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I believe she is comfortable with “Her Royal Highness” 
Edit - sorry, correcting for form, HRH
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That works…lol
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Even SS don’t work… isn’t she Miss 
… ohh wait.
lets go with Warlock’s answer …
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HRH , that’s awesome 
Good one “W” 
Hahahaha
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…illions…
Going to throw this out there and see what happens: Is it possible that people confuse soft-playing for colluding? I think @futuresplaya is correct in that there are games where the social aspect is far more important than winning the maximum chips. So, people may not go for the kill shot every time but that is not colluding. I think most people are familiar with this type of poker if they have played with friends in a home game. Sure, you like winning and making good plays but you do it without knocking a buddy off the table. At least this is what I make of it.
Every small group of people will develop their own customs and habits. The initials thing is one that developed here. Its odd to see until you know what’s going on but once you do, its pretty innocuous. There is probably a form of recognition in every game played with friends, poker or not. Whether a fist-bump, a smack on the butt, or a big old “booyah”, its just people having fun with other people they are comfortable with.
So, I can see a new player being somewhat confused and maybe even feeling a bit left out when they see things like this but that’s just life. Maybe some tables don’t love having strangers come in to the game and maybe those strangers will not be soft-played? Who knows? We have the freedom to sit at any table we can afford and we can also get back up if we aren’t happy playing there, for whatever reason.
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Greetings Lefty,
My advise is to "Keep on Keep’in on my Friend. .
First, it usually doesn’t bother very many winners at the table… We need all the polite and positive people we can get to drown out the pleas from the wickedly negative. Way back in the day, poker always was a social game. Some folks are entertained by the carpetbagger approach, and that’s certainly fine. I kinda feel like that’s a mono, one dimensional game to me. there’s so much more poker and Replay have to offer for the taking… The rest, gratefully, enjoy the company and comradery of each other and I thank all those who feel the same… Good luck Lefty, I’ll be looking forward to some updates from you…Thanks
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Cronkite explains voting to Capt Kangaroo, lol…
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Tks Futureplaya for ruin’n this thread…
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Sarah, Im not sure what to make of your reply. The title of your thread is “Impolite, or common courtesy” Did you mean to say “collusion or common courtesy”?
I asked you how what we are doing could be impolite. You responded about collusion. I believe those are 2 entirely different subjects. Honestly, I think you are overly paranoid for some reason. I think they raise like crazy only when I’m in the BB, lol, and I’m one of the people you’re talking about. The names ( the initials are just for those of us that are typing challenged ) are just a way to congratulate, … or better yet a way to say, “Hey I got beat, but I’m not going to be a bad sport about it.” Again I ask, How could that be a bad thing?
And by the way,
I didn’t invent the practice. I’m guessing it was going on here long before I became a member many years ago. I saw it at the tables, thought it was cool, and began to join in. I was eagerly welcomed by the good folks here as they started using my initials when I won too. It’s a nice feeling to know you have friends that are rooting for you as well as trying to win themselves. And I can absolutely assure you that there is no mischief in it.
I suggest you join in too, and enjoy your time here at the tables. Life is too hard, too serious. I work 10 hours a day, and the last thing I want to do… is work when I’m relaxing playing this game I love so much. When you get here, you should have some fun, like my friends and I do. Please feel free to join us, most nights we’re on Brandenburg or Midtown Manhattan- and join in, you might even find you like it!
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