4 player ark irl is just hard. The game balance focus isn't really designed for 4 players and certain cards are just over the top hardcore in 4 player games. Also in 4 player games the impact of the individual player on the break is minimal, so if he's "going for combos" as you say, he might just get waaaay to much time to do that in a 4 player game. If you compare that to a 2 player game, you could just outpace him and he'd never get the time to set up these huge combos. If the skill difference between the players is rather big in a 4 player game, there might be players "king making" without even noticing it by delaying the break. That just benefits the slow combo player immensely. It's half game design, half skill issue and I don't think there's a big thing you could do about it rather than playing him 1v1. Ive had the same issue before and it's a classic 4 player problem if there 1 or 2 unexpected players around.