Chops?

I was looking through the SnG's on Stars just now, and something caught my eye. In the description of a sat to the $1M Turbo takedown, it said "No chops permitted - Play to win"

Can anyone explain this to me? I've never heard of a "chop" in poker.

so say they have 2 ppl left in a tourny,

first is 100$ and second is 50$

the players are even stacked and decide that they dont want to risk only getting second place money so they decide to split the money. this means that they add up the remaining money to be given out and divide it among themselves, so in this case they will each get 75$

chops can take place only at a final table

the most common kinda chop is done by chip counts. they remove the amount of money the players will receive if they were eliminated now and divide the remaining funds based on % of chips each person has

Isn't that cheating? Obviously it's not costing the "house" anything, but it's still collusion.

actually no, its allowed by pokerstars in tournaments

its not like they will play each other differently, they are just reducing variance

I guess the difference with this is that there's no losing party, nobody's being discriminated against - everyone at the table has to agree to the chop or it doesn't go ahead. If everyone's agreed then nobody's really being colluded against.

It sounds like Poker Stars does not want to waste time chopping up FPP points. It would be time consuming for PS staff to respond to all the chop requests.

Maybe they need to invest in one of these:

YouTube - DJ Steve Porter featuring Vince Offer - "Slap Chop Rap"

you're gonna love my nuts...

I have chopped at final tables during live play many times. I prefer a 3 or a 5 way chop but that's just me. The reason we have done this is most of us know that the game can get over quickly once you are down to just a few people but more often than not that is not the case. The final few players know the there is a big difference between 3rd, 4th or 5th place money compared to 1st place money and the play can last a very long time at a final table when everyone is focused and has their eyes on the 1st place prize. This shortens the game, makes everyone happy and makes 2nd-5th place finishers end up with more money than they normally would have gotten. And unless there is a HUGE chip difference between the chip leader and others the chip leader is not guaranteed to get the first place money anyways. Bad beats, cold cards, etc; all happen. So I do not see this as collusion but being smart.

I remember one time in particular during a smaller tourney where they only paid out to 4 spots due to only have 43 entrants. I was in last place with the chip count and everyone paused the tourney to discuss a possible chop and possible payout to the bubble (which should have been me). We were down to 5 players and the chip leader had more than double the chips of the 2nd chip lead and refused to speak about a chop or a donation to the bubble. He was a tourist and the other players and I were all regulars who knew each other. I was irriatated but the other players (all men) were downright pissed at this guys attitude (he was pretty rude about the whole thing). So the 3 of them became quite aggressive against the chip leader (he really was being an a@@) and instead of me going out in the bubble the chip leader went out in the bubble! We all laughed so frigging hard! Served him right too! And if he had just agreed to pay the bubble he would have made his entry fee of $140 back plus a small profit (enough to cover gas and a drink). They even offered to just pay the bubble and wait to get to 3 people to discuss a chop again he was such a jerk about it! Ahhhh, I love the irony of what happened to that guy!

*Anyways, just a little story explaining how a chop would have worked in the favor of the chip leader.

SLAP CHOP ftw!!!

Most of the live tourneys that I've made the final table of have always agreed to chop, but only insofar as the whole final table gets a payout instead of the top 5 or 6. 1st place still gets significantly more than the others but at least everyone who made it to the ft gets something for their effort.

I remember one time the chip leader didn't agree to the chop, then busted out on the bubble... and me, short stacked, made it to the money