Sure was nice of him... but was it right?

So I'm deep in low MTT on FT a couple before the bubble, I take a stab at the blinds at the wrong time, get sucked out and next thing you know I'm on the bubble from top 10. The Guy to my left is a fairly strong player whome Ive made laugh a couple time in my commentary with a jilted rail bird. So when I see AA on the button it's almost like I'm giving up, but with only 5000 chips (about 3 BB) a raise and call to my right and almost 40k in the pot I figure I may as well try to play for better than last. The guy to my left moves all in (roughly 60k) and says "I got ur back buddie" everyone else folds he turns A6 and we both make a nice profit, then the guy says " If you win you owe me!)" obviously kidding as Im still low stack at the table with a large field to go and huge blinds, and I really didn't need his help with AA but was nice as I couldn't make any more out of the pot and there is the chance (good chance) I would be beat with 4 people in the pot, so I say "if I make final I'll give you $5" He lols. A few times I can tell he goes easy on me, min raises when I know he had it and it's only me and him in the pot and continues to block for me, and sure enough I make final table, so being a man of my word I transfer the $5, being that he was kidding and it turns out a nice guy, he transferred it back. So the question is, was it right? I sorta feel like I cheated, but I'm not sure how.

trust me there is much worse collusion than this that goes on in online poker...i dont personally consider it cheating..just hope that the both of you weren chatting in the box..telling eachs others hands to one another and such...because if another player were to read it and see what was going on...you could possibly be in trouble although im not for certain.

definately a nice guy and i cant believe he transferred the $5 back to you, thats rare...i once had a guy in a tournament suckout on me with QQ over my AA....he ended up geting in a hand with me later ....telling me his cards...being honest...we got to the river and he shoved...but he told me his cards and i had him beat if he was honest which he was...so he gave me my chips back..saying there ya go buddy...sorry for the nasty suckout ...lol...nice guy

Ha, Ive felt like doing that , sometimes u want to give a guy a rebate when u miracle him cus you know how it feels. But no, there was no obviousness to anything, very little chat really, I could just tell he didnt want to be the one to put me away and he played differently (less aggressive) against me than the rest of the table, I think he sorta wanted to see if I could make it from bubble to final just for a laugh. but no collusion. I guess I just wonder if I really earned 5th or if it's just that I had a little help.

I think if anyone reported that you could get your account locked.
Good luck and hope they didn't.
As for your original question, imo you didn't really earn 5th.
but that is neither here nor there for me.

This is cheating! You should send your prize money to me immediately, so i can sort out some things for you so your account won't be locked.

I don't personally it can be considered "cheating." But FT might think otherwise because technically it is collusion.

I don't think it's a collusion question, FT would have nothing to say about a guy not wanting to bust me cus he thinks I'm funny, no info about our hands was shared, no communication outside of chat, just the odd comment like "ouch that's gotta hurt", I have no idea who he even is. It was more of a philosophical question and I think poofy is right I didn't earn the spot, at least not 100%, so really I only cheated myself.

I don't really view this as cheating. I think you ran across a nice player who went easy on you a few hands. When near the bubble, I've folded sm blinds that i might have otherwise played, if the big blind was short stacked, when everyone else had folded around. Maybe he was a nice guy, and nobody likes to be bubble boy! MAYBE doing this bought him enough time/chips to survive till someone at another table went out -(when time for time...) and then again - MAYBE NOT!

Wow, that's awesome that he actually sent the $5 back . . . very rare behavior! I would say it wasn't quite cheating, at least not on your part. You didn't play any differently--he did. So, if anyone was cheating, it was him, and you just benefited from it.

It was very nice of him to do this for you...pretty crazy in your hand with the AA that he reraised raisers to get them out of the pot for you w/ only A6. I do not think it is cheating because you did not ask him to do all that for you, such as reraise allin, min raises etc. He/She is just a very nice person. good luck to you at the tables

how could they possibly do thaT? as long as they cannot prove any arranged collusion there is nothing they really can do...

although i may agree on the earning your place issue

well, you said you had AA, and he had A high, so it may have just looked like he was trying to bully the rest of the table if he was in that good shape. if you were just shoving any ol damn thing for all he knew, he may have thought he had a chance to dominate you too. i wouldn't have thought to report AA vs A6 all in big stack vs baby stack. i have reported a first to act on the river big stack FOLD...could have at least checked...to a shortstack, when the two had struck up a good ol buddy buddy conversation, followed by "oh i had nothin anyway, enjoy". shit tilted me. couple hands later, i'm dealt 26 of spades on my bb...everyone folds...at that point, the short stacker was the sb to me, he's just god awful. he limps in. he had 5d7s...so, i mean, if he'd shoved or something, i would have folded, but he calls...ok. the flop is 6x3s5s. he min bet whatever the blind was and with top pair, straight draw, flush draw, i just shoved, i had him covered, it was time to go right now if donkwad was gonna keep chipping him up...he calls for the rest of his chips...the turn and river don't help anybody and my top pair holds and he's gone. i still reported it...wasn't sour grapes or anything, i won...but it was fishy to me...they buddied up cause they both found out they could speak spanish...i speak spanish all right myself dammit, 62s man...hell of a hand.

but in that situation, yeah, he might have known he was shoving crap to isolate you with what he thought you were representing as power to give you a better chance, but i would have left you alone, at least you were all in. i can't report that. that move, may, in fact, have ended up keeping you from getting more chips, but we'll never know

Look to the bolded words and you'll know why you feel like you cheated.

If 2 or more of the guys at that table reported you I think they would consider it collusion. I'd be pissed if I had to play 2 guys workin together on a table. Not your fault really but telling him you'll send him money would definitely piss me off enough to report you. Be careful.

Yes I agree. And it is collusion IMHO. If I busted out while u2 guys were 'chatting' like that in the hand, I would def report it. Beware not just collusion (you are vey close here) but also the 'appearance of impropriety' which, as any lawyer will tell you, is trouble.

I would just like to state for the record that the reason of this post was not to absolve me of guilt, I hate cheating and cheaters, I think its the lowest form of life. I play for fun and a love of the game, as my FT standings: ROI bottom 25% vs Prize top 15% will attest too. Id love to make a profit but Its not the main reason I'm there, I'm usually playing way beyond my ability because I enjoy the challenge and I think I improve when I play against better players. So this isn't about the $50 I won it's about the fact the I may have had one of the best comebacks of my life and it was tainted. I mean I should have been more careful in my wording when I said I'd send $5 but it seemed improbible at the time, and really with the initial hand, he knew I was strong, it was the bubble and I was on the button, I could have easily coasted to ITM, if you look at it it was more of a squeeze play against the other 2 players, he might have done it no matter what as I only stood to gain the main pot which was only 45/50 percent of the total, he had a blind in which meant that he stood to make a nice profit by moving all in.

Any way, I will be more careful in my statements from now on, especially in regards to cash and position, but if my being a nice, funny guy prevents me from getting run over by some soft hearted individual, well that's just playing the game.

How bigger stack was he?

Its a well know tactic to keep all players in and shorter during bubble.

Means he can mop up smallish hands and put himself in far better position once bubble bursts.

he was fairly large, top 10 stacks for sure, and a really strong player, placed better than me, so it could have all been strategy, just unfortunate levity on my part.

this has happened to me but I had to decline the other players offer,I just had that feeling that I was being set up,and even had to tell him im not you re friend just play you re best,the other players were commenting,on what he was saying I just plainly said I dont know him, and dont play like a cheater..

Gotta be careful with that, he's being a nice guy, but if somebody had reported collusion, you'd have both been in the soup.