In most sports you cannot avoid meeting the strongest opposition. After all, if you or your team are playing in a knockout then, as you progress to the final, the opposition becomes stronger and stronger.
In poker, when playing with a table of other players, then it is perfectly natural to avoid marginal hands against strong players and embrace them against weak ones. What is more, the other strong players will be seeking to avoid you. Thus there becomes a sort of tacit agreement which may look like collusion to the outsider.
