Soft play in tournaments is just plain wrong. I've had it happen against me in a satellite where there was a blatant fold by a huge stack who let his mate win after he'd gone all in from the sb to big stack's bb. He was getting something like 8 to 1 to call and it was about 600 of his 30000.
It was wrong but it was understandable because thinking about it afterwards I wouldn't want to bust my mate out late stages in a satellite either.
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I would much rather be up against 2 guys soft playing than 2 guys who were full on colluding. By colluding I mean playing their 2 hands as one and giving signs etc. when one of them wants the pot building ready for a big reraise. Now that's what I call cheating!!
your first example is full on colluding as well, that's just basic tournament chip dumping, it's not soft playing when one has folded to his mate, especially in the situation described - cheating full stop. Soft playing meanwhile is also cheating although at least not as ultimately damaging if they insist on not playing back at each other ever.
Sadly it's rife up and down the country in tournaments, and nothing is ever done about it afaik.
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