Deal-Making at Pokerstars

Ever wonder what happens when a pokerstars tournament gets close to the end and the players at the final table decide to make a deal? Below is a copy of the deal making that occurred at today’s Sunday Storm. Most of the chat was not in English, but you probably get the picture.

The top 3 players agreed on a revised payout schedule. The end result seems to be a lessening of the differences between the top 3 places. They took $2,500 from 1st place and added it to the 3rd place payout, then continued playing the game.

If you get to this situation for the first time, it's handy to know how the process works in advance.

This is what the table looked like before the deal was reached:



Administrator: The Tournament has been paused by the players to discuss a deal. A Host will arrive shortly. Dealing can be resumed by unchecking the 'Make a deal' checkbox.
Administrator: The tournament has been paused to allow discussion of deal.
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: How would you like to chop the prizes? Please remember that a deal made at the final table must leave at least $5,906.60 aside for the Champion!
Pedro$ucesso: icm?
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: ICM numbers are:
HostDimitriM (Administrator): vitordinizr:$18,850.08
HostDimitriM (Administrator): MulticlickBR:$17,472.92
HostDimitriM (Administrator): Pedro$ucesso:$15,322.66
HostDimitriM (Administrator): Left To Play for place 1: $5,906.60
vitordinizr: tira 2.5k to primeiro
vitordinizr: e cola pro 3
MulticlickBR: justo
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: If you agree to this deal, please type 'I Agree'. Please note that there is no rush, feel free to take your time to think about it
Pedro$ucesso: como?
Pedro$ucesso: pelo icm todos de acordo?
vitordinizr: nao
Pedro$ucesso: n entendi oq vc sugeriu
MulticlickBR: tirar 2.5 do primeiro e joga pro terceiro?
vitordinizr: tira 2.5k to primeiro e coloca pro terceiro
Pedro$ucesso: e segue o baile
Pedro$ucesso: ?
vitordinizr: sim
MulticlickBR: beleza
Pedro$ucesso: acho q fica bom tambem
Pedro$ucesso: quem manda um english fluente ai pa falar isso pro host
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Boa noite
vitordinizr: take 2.5k out of the first place player, and put it to the third
MulticlickBR: só o google tradutor aqui hehe
Pedro$ucesso: kkkkkkkkkkkkk boa!
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Parabéns pela FT
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Em que posso ajudar?
vitordinizr: estamos fazendo um acordo
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Vou calcular os números, um momento
vitordinizr: que tira 2.5k do primeiro e vai pro terceiro
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Lembrando que %5,906.
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: $5,906.60 devem ficar a jogo para o eventual campeão
Pedro$ucesso: all agree... 1º 24.151,62 - 2º 18.309,78 - 3º 15.090,86
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Dito isso, os números são os seguintes
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Esse deal não é possível, 2% devem ficar a jogo
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Por favor proponham outro acordo
MulticlickBR: tira 2k do primeiro
MulticlickBR: e joga pro terceiro
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: O prizepool não pode tido em conta como está no lobby, uma vez que $5,906.60 têm de ficar a jogo
Pedro$ucesso: mas vai ficar os 2% sem jogo
Pedro$ucesso: vai estar em jogo os 24151,62 em jogo
Pedro$ucesso: só alteramos um pouco o resto
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Querem alterar o prizepool então, é isso?
vitordinizr: isso
Pedro$ucesso: isso
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Um momento, por favor
Pedro$ucesso: less 2,5k for champione, and more 2,5k for 3º place
Pedro$ucesso: just it
HostDimitriM (Administrator): Pedro$ucesso:$0.00
HostDimitriM (Administrator): MulticlickBR:$0.00
HostDimitriM (Administrator): vitordinizr:$0.00
HostDimitriM (Administrator): Left To Play for place 1: $24,151.62
HostDimitriM (Administrator): Left To Play for place 2: $18,309.78
HostDimitriM (Administrator): Left To Play for place 3: $15,090.86
MulticlickBR: ok
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Revejam o acordo
Pedro$ucesso: I AGREE
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Caso aceitem, por favor digitem "I Agree"
vitordinizr: agree
MulticlickBR: I agree
vitordinizr: i agree
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Perfeito
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Temos acordo
Pedro$ucesso: gl galera
MulticlickBR: tmj
vitordinizr: glhf
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: Vou ajustar os montantes e o jogo vai recomeçar dentro de segundos
Pedro$ucesso: representamos a porra do brasil com orgulho hoje
Pedro$ucesso: vamo q vamo
HostDimitriM [Commentator]: glgl
HostDimitriM (Administrator): The Tournament is now resumed.
If you are sitting out, please be seated and complete the event.
The adjusted payouts will appear in the Tourney lobby with asterisks after the event has been completed.
Dealer: The break will start when the current hand finishes
Dealer: Hand #181697300630: Pedro$ucesso wins pot (3,250,000)

The payouts that would have occurred had the players not made a deal are shown in the centre column under the words "Chip Graph". The actual payouts as agreed to by the players during the deal are shown in the right-hand column next to the players names.



BTW, next weekend the guaranteed prize pool will be raised from $225,000 to $1,000,000 for that one time only. If you were thinking of trying the Sunday Storm out, next Sunday would seem to be a good day to go for it.

It make sense to do deals in these big large feild tournaments I have even seen it done some in smaller tournies as well.Most of times players want to reduce the variance flipping or getting coolered for large sums is not a good feeling. A major factor that some may not consider is fatigue. After 10 hours brain just goes flat from exhaution and prone to make mistakes.
The negotiation above is quite short compared to others. There is always someone looking to make an extra buck in these negotiations.
They leave money aside for winner in all their major tourney to keep game competitve after deal. Cause if they don't all players would most likely just go all after deal.
The two most common types of figures they run is Chip Chop and ICM.
Chip chop divided strictly according to the present stacks, meaning the percentage of total chips each player has determines the percentage of the remaining prize money.
ICM is a complicated computation each player’s chip stack is being looked at as representing the chance that player will be finishing first, second, third, or fourth, etc then those percentages are multiplied by the payouts and the totals are added up to indicate amount the player is due.
In a nut shell Chip chop favors bigger stacks and ICM favors shorter stacks. Thats why if they run Chip Chop smaller stacks may ask for more money and if they do ICM larger stacks will ask for money.
Heads up the two modules give same figures.

Wow I might give it a go next Sunday

I would definitely make a deal, I've watched a final table before and 2/3 of the players left wanted to make a deal and the guy in first place didn't.

Took a good 10-15 minutes for them to make a deal.

joeisi said:

.... Most of times players want to reduce the variance flipping or getting coolered for large sums is not a good feeling. A major factor that some may not consider is fatigue. After 10 hours brain just goes flat from exhaution and prone to make mistakes ....

Click to expand...

The tourney that I used for this post ended very soon after play resumed. For me though, exhaustion is a big risk factor. 10 hours is a LONG time to be making tournament life decisions one to three times a minute. That's 600 to 1,800 decisions, any one of which could end the tournament for you. Sometimes the last three will play on for quite a long time, and yes it is definitely possible for the person currently in 1st place to end in 3rd.

That said, I think that it takes a real professional to make a decision to cut $2,500 off the top when the odds are really in their favour to continue on and finish in 1st.

The fact that all three of these top players were from brazil isn't lost on me either. Not sure if nationalities/culture would factor into the type of deal made.

vinokyrov oo said:

для тех кто поставил 11$ и выиграл допустим 5000 это было выгодно а вот парней на первых 6 местах мне кажется обделили как то мало

Click to expand...

It takes 10 - 11 hours, lots of concentration and your fair share of luck. The anniversary $1 million Storm will make all players who place a nice chunk of change.