The art of making the deal

By Mark Lasser

Unlike most competitive endeavors like baseball or football, poker sometimes allows participants to make agreements amongst themselves that results in a tie or settlement. We call this a chop, and it occurs in four prominent scenarios, three of which are very acceptable and one of which is basically cheating.

The one version of a chop that could be considered cheating is when several players buy into a cash game with the intention of splitting the profits and losses at the end of the night. The problem with this, when it’s part of a regular strategy, is that it’s a form of collusion and changes the way a group of players deal with someone not participating in their postgame chop. If I suspect this, I won’t play in that game.

Some players will enter into and agree to chop winnings in a tournament. I think this is fine in multi-table tournaments and it differs from the previous example by the very fact that the players likely won’t be at the same table during play and if they are, it may not be for a large part of the tournament. Their objective here isn’t collusion; it’s reducing the variability that inevitably is part of tournament play.

The most common chop situation occurs in live or cash games and it happens when players fold around to the blinds. At this point, the small blind can complete the bet and turn the decision to raise or check to the big blind. This is pretty common. The small blind can also choose to raise, which will generally result in a fold by the big blind unless they have a premium hand. In this case, the big blind may re-raise and the small blind will make another decision. Regardless, if both players decide to see the flop, the dealer will take a percentage of the pot and keep it for the casino. We call this percentage the rake.

In most of these situations only one of the two players will connect with the flop and a bet by either of them will end the hand with the winner generally pulling in a very small pot. Since these pots tend to be small, players have come up with a courteous way of avoiding the rake and speeding up the game. If both players agree, and the casino does not prohibit the action, they can “chop” and each person takes their blind back. No rake is taken and the play moves quickly onto the next hand.

Even in casinos that prohibit chopping the blinds, the rule is generally ignored and not enforced. I’d say about 90 to 95 percent of players chop pots. Of those that don’t, most are consistent and claim they never chop. There’s no rule that says you have to chop, and if you want to play the hand, you have every right to play it.

In practice, if you don’t chop blinds, expect to be frequently raised by the other blind. Personally, I’m an advocate of chopping blinds. There’s so little upside in playing for the small pot, and the rake probably makes the return on investment negative for the bet over the long run. In the end, it’s about personal preference and how comfortable you are thwarting convention.

The last example where chopping frequently occurs is in the late stages of tournaments. Chopping in tournaments is about risk mitigation. If three players are left and have close to equal stacks, they may make a deal to divide the prize pool equally. Or, if they have uneven stacks, they may agree to a proportional split of the prize pool. They give up some chance of winning a lot of money for the security of winning an average amount. It’s a tradeoff. They recognize that at this point in play, luck becomes a big factor. It’s just like in any game show in which a contestant has a choice to take the money, or risk it all to possibly make a lot more.

The other factor is time. If the players feel that playing out the game until one person is left will take many hours, and sometimes head’s-up play can take a very long time, they may also decide that the additional amount they can win isn’t worth the amount of time investment it may take to win it. They may also be tax benefits to chopping prize pools. Despite the fact that WSOP and WPT events are played to the end, the truth is deals are often struck between players while they are not being filmed.

Recently I played in a tournament, and we got to a point where we had eight players left and a prize pool of $3,200. Six of us had very similar sized stacks. One player was short and one guy, Mr. Blue had a stack about 50 percent bigger than everyone else. It was snowing out, the roads were getting bad, it was midnight and several players mentioned a chop. As we headed into a 10-minute break, I proposed $400 each and $500 for the big stack and $300 for the short stack. In truth the deal probably could have been made with $600 for the large and $200 for the small.

The big stack wanted to play it out despite having only enough chips to go around the table 11 times, otherwise known as his “M” ratio. I thought he was the only one not wanting the chop, but apparently there was one other player as well. Mr. Blue got pretty heated about not wanting the chop, which was pretty stupid. It was his right to block it and nothing was mentioned after play resumed, but he seemed to be personally steaming about it.

If you find yourself in the position, don’t get emotional. Just let the players know you don’t want to chop and play. Again, I’m an advocate of chopping prize pools when you get to a point where most people will see a 400 percent return on investment on their buy-in vs. playing short-stacked to four people with half getting nothing and half averaging 800 percent ROI.

I love playing poker as a game of skill, but once the average M ratio is 4 or 5, you might as well be playing Rock-Paper-Scissors. If I’m short-stacked, I appreciate being able to at least get my buy-in back. If I’m a marginal big stack, I like the assurance of making the most on the table without having to worry about being crippled by one hand or a single bad beat. As is the case with chopping blinds, there’s no right answers, only what’s right for you.

Mark B. Lasser is Denver writer and international poker player. He regularly plays in Colorado, Arizona, California, Missouri and Nevada. You can hear him talk about gambling and casinos every Friday at 5 PM on KEZW AM 1430. Readers can send questions and comments to him at ColoradoPokerMark@comcast.net.