Weird ending of this Bankroll Builder MTT

Replay Poker Poker Discussion
1

Hi everyone,

Here’s the hand I’m talking about : https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/491180739

I was just playing a BB MTT, and managed to get to the FT. We were three left, two big stacks, and me, with around 7 BB’s.
One hand after the 4th player bust, i folded a hand on the button, and SB limps. BB (second stack with like 20 BB’s), and SB (40 BB’s)calls. They show 46o and 25o. The one with 25o wins the pot, and has now a stack of 500k.

I shove my first hand almost on the BB, he calls and manages to win the tourney. Nothing against it, I’m happy with my second place !
But I’m really asking myself wether these guys were friends, and wanted to give his chips to the guy with the biggest stack, or maybe he wanted to give half of his stack to his friend. I just seemed weird to me, nobody calls there with 25o.

As they say : No friends in poker. Luckily, this tourney it didn’t make a big difference for me, as I was behind both of them, but if I had been the chip leader, it could change the outcome of the tourney. If someone has a friend who managed to finish at the FT, please avoid trying to manipulate the outcome of the tourney by helping your friend. I made this topic because I think this doesn’t happen all the time, but people should be aware of it.
Thanks for reading.

2

Given the chip stacks involved and the dynamics when you are down to 3 players at the end of a tournament, this kind of play is pretty common. The chip leader had enough chips that it made sense to call an all in from either player with most hands, hoping to eliminate that player and get heads up (maybe the bounty was an incentive too). 25o is not a bad hand here. What you want is 2 live cards. Most people assume the person shoving has a strong hand, so connectors on the lower end of the register are likely to be live cards. At this stage of the tournament, antes and blinds will eat up your chip stack if you wait for premium hands to play. In this instance, you had already folded and the chip leader had enough chips to call, while leaving him a decent amount of chips for a comeback, if he lost. I would not assume a play like this was to help the other player.

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You are right: with 20BB+ left, the BB player had no point shoving with 46o. Furthermore he had to consider his place (2nd) at this time and try instead to eliminate you. You should have finished 3rd. I can’t see a collusion here though.