Deal-making at Pokerstars

Ok, I've just created a decent roll on Stars after years of playing almost exclusively on Party.

Now while Party has it's faults it has a wonderful interface for deal-making at final tables that makes the whole process very easy.

Now I'm probably jinxing myself by asking but it pays to be prepared and effective deal-making can add a lot to your ROI% in MTTs. I know that on Stars you have to email support to get someone to come and sort out the deal. How exactly does this work when they arrive? and also what are the protocols/standard practices while waiting for them to get there. I've heard of people sitting out, is this accepted practice?

Any info people have gratefully received.

Generally when the players agree to a deal they sit out and email support. They generally arrive pretty quickly and pause the tournament. Support then runs the numbers and no deal is finalised until all the players agree. If agreement is not reached then the tournament is unpaused and continues.

Certain tourneys like the sunday million have some rules for deals, like leaving 30K for the winner.

Sit out, e-mail pokerstars with the subject 'URGENT URGENT'

Someone will show up, pause the game. He will ask if you want numbers, say yes(doesnt hurt to look), if all players agree, the deal is done.

There is more than 1 way to deal although 'numbers' is the norm.

Thanks TB so they go by whatever the consensus is as a method, work out what that would mean and then look for agreement? Makes sense and is essentially what the Party interface does.

Where does the chat take place out of interest? in the normal chat box?


(I've always liked the idea of leaving money for the winner, but most of the deals I've been in have split the entire pot)

yes, chat box.

Thanks Misch, so "numbers" is chipcount? I agree it usually makes sense as a starting point (I like to be aggressive in my dealmaking )

no, numbers isNT the chip count.

say 5 people are left:
5th- $5
4th- $10
3rd- $15
2nd- $20
1st- $25

They would 'issue' each person $5, every player is GTD this since if they were to bust they would get it. They then would divide the rest of the prizepool by percents.

Ah, excellent, that's certainly a smarter way to do it. Still worth pushing for every $ though , very useful, forewarned is forearmed.

Your welcome, i try my best to help out anyone that has the power to ban me for a 4th time.

Aww and there was me thinking it was my dashing good looks and minty freshness

Anything for you, sir.

Straight percentage deals favor the larger stacks.
A fairer way to chop is by ICM percentages.
There was an excellent article on chopping in one of the magazines a while back (cp?) that gave a mathematical formula.

Here is a good ICM calculator you can use.

in joose's tourny pokerstars admin said if you want a quick response, head your e-mail to support:

'URGENT, CHOP REQUIRED'

they said they pulled those straight away

first time chopping last night. They got there very quick, just send URGENT email. PS support is TOP NOTCH.