I've been playing at my local for 3 weeks now. I'm up a bit but am finding myself in a lot of marginal spots lately so I'm chalking my lack of progress to a bad run for now.
Regardless, there is a couple in this poker room that always sit together sb vs bb, husband, and wife. I've only played with them on two occasions. The first time I was somewhat suspicious of their play as they would often just check down when in a heads-up pot, but I never saw either of them with a great hand, so it wasn't impossible they could have just been cautious rather than in cahoots.
Well, that is out the window now. They are 100% colluding. The first trigger came when it folded to them. Hubby bets from the sb and wifey looks aghast as it is usually a chop in those situations. No problem so far. Then they say they will check it down as KK vs suited connectors could trigger the bad beat jackpot. I mean...ok. I was willing to roll with it. But even after t became obvious that no bad beat jackpot could happen they still checked it all the way down. The wife was appalled when I said that was weird. But fine, it was a unique circumstance I suppose, so I didn't make too much of it.
Then I started to notice what they were doing. Hubby would raise and she would call. If it only ended up with them heads up, it would be checked down. If it was multi-way, two of them could go against the other player. You would be forced to play against 4 cards instead of just 2 each time.
What finally cemented it was when Hubby checked down a nut flush against her. Like, ok. They aren't even trying to be subtle at this point.
It is a small card room and they are regs. They are friendly with others at the table and with some dealers.
How do I handle this situation? I want to keep playing here as the games are pretty soft and it is the only card room in my area. I don't want to make enemies of the regs as that won't help me win money. They will call me down and celebrate my losses. I want to be liked. It is so much easier to play poker when people like you. But I don't want to be forced to play against 4 cards instead of 2 every time I'm at a table with them.
Any advice?
