PokerWorks

It's Not All About The Cards

An aspect of poker that goes largely undiscussed by everyone but math geeks is making deals once you're in the money, or in some cases, close to the money. Making a deal can be confusing for amateurs and professionals alike and understanding when and when not to make a deal can have a significant impact on your bottom line.

Often times, your opponents will try and pressure you into making a deal and you'll feel like an ass if you don't go along. Don't let them do that to you. If the deal makes sense, it's fine to work something out. If it doesn't, you need to do what is in your best interests, not theirs. You've spent the whole tournament trying to take their money, why are you going to start giving it away now? I'm going to go over the different types of deals you will typically encounter and what YOU should be looking for when deciding whether to make a deal or not. Most deals occur in the live tournament arena, but there are some online sites that do allow for deals at the final table so you can use this to help you out there as well.

The Bubble Deal

I know I just said that it doesn't pay to be nice when making deals, but this deal might be the one time I disagree. It is a matter of perspective, but think of it this way. If you had made it through a large field and were riding a short stack, wouldn't you like it if you knew you could get at least your buy in back for your excellent play? A bubble deal does exactly that. For example, if there are 19 or 20 players left and the tournament pays 18, the players might come to an agreement to take money off of the top one or two spots to pay 19th and 20th at least their buy in back. The only way this deal can take place though is if all 19-20 players agree on it. I've been a part of these types of deals many times... usually it's a pretty easy one to reach but every once in a while, someone will object. I guess they want to irritate everyone and have them go after them. If that's your goal, then by all means I suggest shooting the deal down, otherwise think to all the times you've bubbled in a tournament and be nice. Good karma goes a long way sometimes.

Chops

A “chop” usually takes place in low to medium buy in tournaments with fast blind structures. Often in these tournaments, the blinds will usually be very high in relation to player's chip stacks. An example might look something like this:

Player 1: 100,000
Player 2: 80,000
Player 3: 70,000
Player 4: 50,000
Player 5: 20,000

The blinds are 2,500/5,000 meaning the biggest stack has 20 big blinds. Anything can and will happen so often a “chop” is suggested. There are several types of chops. Most often the players will just agree to a dollar amount to be given to each player. Using the above example let's say these are the payouts for the top 5 spots:

1st place: $20,000
2nd place: $10,000
3rd place: $7,000
4th place: $5,000
5th place: $3,000

This means there is a total of $45,000 available to split up between the five players. In a scenario like this, the players might agree to give Player #5 4th place money, or $5,000, and agree to give Player #4 3rd place money, or $7,000. This leaves $33,000 to be split between the remaining three. They agree that Player #1 should get a little extra so they give him $11,500 and split $21,500 between Player #2 and Player #3 ($10,750 each).

That is a very typical scenario. The numbers will vary from tournament to tournament but the key thing for you to remember is that the deal needs to make sense for you. If for example, you were Player #5 and they were only offering you an extra $500, then the deal would not make much sense. You could gamble or possibly wait out Player #4 and move up to 4th place money. However, if the deal is offering you 4th place money, it's probably a good deal because you only have four big blinds and are going to have to get lucky. The same thing would apply for Player #3. In this deal he received more than 2nd place would receive, a pretty nice guarantee. If, however, the deal only offered him something along the lines of $8,000 he might want to pass on it.

Another example of when it might not be a good time to agree to a chop is if you are an overwhelming chip leader. If you are player #1 and you have 250,000 in chips as opposed to 100,000, $11,500 might not be a good deal for you even though it is more than 2nd place money. Ask for a little more.

Another variant of a chop is a chip count chop. This will reward payouts in an exact ratio of the chip counts. I'm going to use the numbers I had above to explain:

Player 1: 31.25% of chips in play
Player 2: 25% of chips in play
Player 3: 21.875% of chips in play
Player 4: 15.625% of chips in play
Player 5: 6.25% of chips in play

Now using the $45,000 in the prize pool we would figure out the payouts (by multiplying the % of chips in play times $45,000):

1st place: $14,062.50
2nd place: $11,250
3rd place: $9,843.75
4th place: $7,031.25
5th place: $2,812.50

As you can see, using the chip count method, 5th place would actually receive less than if the tournament were to be played out. What might often happen in this case is the four other players would agree to give a certain amount out of their payout, say $250, to make the deal worthwhile.

When deciding whether or not to chop you should consider the following factors:

1) The structure of the tournament – the faster it is, the more likely you should be willing to accept a deal. If it's a slower structure, you need to look at the 2nd factor closely.
2) The skill level of your opponents – if you feel you have such a huge advantage in skill over your opponents, then you should either ask for a more advantageous chop or continue playing.
3) Whether the chop makes sense – I've given examples above. In order to accept a chop, there needs to be a reason to do so. It needs to be fair. What is fair in the long run is up to you, but don't let other players take advantage of you. If it doesn't seem fair, say no and move on.

The Play It Out Deal

This type of deal will typically take place when there are two or three players left in the tournament. What will usually happen is the remaining players will agree to split the prize money two or three ways with a remainder plus the trophy/bracelet left over for 1st place. Usually these deals will only take place when the chip stacks are relatively even and there isn't a significant amount of play remaining. Here's an example of what I am talking about:

Player 1 – 200,000
Player 2 – 175,000
Player 3 – 150,000

1st place – $50,000
2nd place - $30,000
3rd place - $20,000

The blinds are 5,000/10,000 meaning the average stack only has 17.5 big blinds. In this scenario, the play it out deal would probably be along the lines of each player receiving $30,000 (2nd place money) with the winner getting the additional $10,000. This ensures 3rd place an additional $10,000, and doesn't change anything for 2nd place. Unless the factors I listed in the chop section don't add up, it's a deal each of the players should probably make.

Show Me The Money

There are other types of deals that can take place other than the ones I listed above. The factors I listed in the chop section should come into play whenever you are deciding whether to make a deal. The bottom line is you need to make sure that the deal is one that makes sense for you and brings you additional value than if you were going to play the tournament out.