In early December I ran into a pack of dogs running a textbook collusion playbook. Player A states that it's his turn to be the dead money then dumps 90% his chips to player B with 8-4 off that missed the board less than 30 minutes into the tournament. Players B and C continued to raise and re-raise to run the table over. Not totally unheard of so far.
One of the dealers then points to players B/C and moves them together with their larger stacks to a new table. No random draw - no seat cards dealt out - assigned to seats next to each other in the same order as they were. They were moved 2 more times during the tournament - each time next to each other in the same order. High-fiving the dealers after big hands at the final table while running the rest over was the final confirmation for me.
So a dog sure - a dog of a different breed than what you experienced Karl. It's unfortunate - Fido really liked their espresso.
