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Chopping the Prize Pool
This has probably been asked about a thousand times, and honestly, this isn't even a question, just a rant about how I F-ING HATE CHOPPING TOURNAMENT PRIZE POOLS
I was in a tournament the other night in a small, local card room. It's a $60 buy-in with one optional re-buy for another $60. The room rakes 25% from both buy-ins.
I am in the game for $120, there were about 27-30 players, and we're down to the final five. Payouts are 1) $880 2) $550 3) $350 and 4) $185
Once the 6th place players busts, one player suggests that we take $30 bucks off of 1st - 3rd, plus $10 off of fourth place so we can pay $100 to fifth place.
All four players agree, and I dissent. A move that is met with MUCH unpopularity. I was berated for the next half hour.
"Come on man, are you REALLY that greedy?"
"You really won't just take $30 bucks off?"
"Just do it so we don't have to play with a bubble anymore"
"I think everyone here has grinded for five hours and DESERVES SOMETHING"
"I had a big stack at the Final table the other night and chopped six ways cause everyone else wanted to!"
For me, it's not really about the $30. It's more about the principle. 1) The house only puts $90 of my $120 buy-in into the prize pool. 2) Four places is ALREADY alot for a 25-30 player tournament.
When teh guy to my right started mouthing off about being "greedy" and how "He had to do it the night before", I spoke up. I politely, but firmly addressed teh table and said "Guys, seriously, this is not cool, and I'm not chopping!"
After that it quieted down. A young kid two places to my left, folded to a big pre-flop bet with AJs and said "If we were paying fifth place, I might play this hand". Later, the uber-loudmouth car salesman across the table folded JJ on the button pre-flop (five-handed), because "he didn't want to flip for his whole stack on the bubble"
After I saw those two plays I was SURE that my decision not to chop was a good one. Drunk asshole busted in fifth and loudmouth carsalesman busted fourth. I ended up in third when I pushed pre-flop with AJs and the middle stack next to me called with K8o. His wife was bugging him to leave and he said something about having a two hour drive home and it was already after midnight. He took me out and then chopped the top two places with the kid.
Generally, my policy is to never chop. I've been in 6-max SNG's that pay 500 and 300, and will often chop for 400 each in those. I once agreed to a 6-way chop in a tournament that paid the top 3. The chop offered me double my buy-in and I only had 3 BB's left.
Other than that, my general rule is to leave the prize pool as-is.
Is there EVER a reason to manipulate the prize pool in tournaments like these?
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