Making a deal

A friend of mine and I decided to join a $300.00 local tournament with 165 participants. 2 hours before the tournament I asked my friend if he wanted to go 50/50 if anyone makes it in the money. He verbally said yes. He ended up chopping 1st and 2nd place money for a total of $10000.00 each. Do you feel that I deserve half without guilt?

In the end, he regrets that we made the deal and doesn't feel that I should take half because in his eyes, if I won, he wouldn't take half the money since its a big amount. In my eyes, I would give him half because that is what we verbally arranged.

Please share your view.

He/she owes you half and knows it.

A real friend would just pay you off with no hassle or guilt. Do not trust people like this with a bet of such size.

irivas said:

A guy I know and I decided to join a $300.00 local tournament with 165 participants.

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^^ Fixed your post...

A few points points.

This guy is not your friend. And his word is worth less than $5k.

But I also sort of abhor these sorts of deals as they seem to me to be a bit collusion-ish. They encourage softplay. If I made such a deal with a friend I would be more likely to do something way uneven like 70/30. Still. I'd not likely take this deal.

Oh and here is a call for his "we wouldn't split it if it was big" argument (bluff). How would he feel splitting it if he just bubbled and 1/2 would leave him with less than the buyin??? huh?

Not your friend.

You deserve the five thousand. Everyone is right.

Just ask yourself if it was the other way around would he be asking you for the money? Pretty sure he would.

im confused you helped him buyin? if he bought in by himself why would u split the winnings? it would be a nice thing to do but i don't see why any1 would give away half of their winnings just because they are buddies. well if he won 10k i don't think he should give u half its unfair maybe 1k or something but he was the winner.

Aurelio H said:

im confused you helped him buyin? if he bought in by himself why would u split the winnings? it would be a nice thing to do but i don't see why any1 would give away half of their winnings just because they are buddies. well if he won 10k i don't think he should give u half its unfair maybe 1k or something but he was the winner.

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Thats not really the point though. The thing is, they agreed to split the money, whicever they won. It's basically making a safer investment in the tournament. 2 people have better odds of one of them cashing than just 1.

He should not have agreed it to it unless he was willing to split whatever money. As for you, you may feel guilty taking the money, but a deal is a deal. You may both regret it now, but if it was the other way around???

ya i see how that would work out now just needed to look at it again. Thats too risky for me though Maybe because everytime i step onto a table i know im going to cash ya but i would probably feel guilty taking the money, but u did make the deal. its just a deal i would never make.

Unfortunatly for me, I`m the kind of person who sticks by what he says. It has cost me ove rthe years.

For example "I bet you £50 my team ends up higher in the league than yours" I always pay up if tis happens. A lot of the time when it goes the other way I won`t see the £50.

Because of this I don`t make deals of any sort, other than final table deals when it can be monitored.

The best one I have had was on partypoker. Heads up. Chip leader had about 120k, I had about 50k. He offered me a split 50/ 50 - I could not believe it, but I took it

a deal is a deal. in my opinion he owes you half. if you cashed and he didnt i think he would expect payment.

in the future i would not make this deal with him again but rather play him in the tourney and try to be the one who eliminates him because he is pulling a dick move. either way enjoy the 5k

I wouldnt make the deal myself cause i always intent to win something but deals a deal. What would you have done if he had not cashed and you had?

I have done many of these deals. If there are say three or four of us that go and play well just do if some one wins, the others get their buy in and a nice meal type thing.

When just two, we have won once and split and in the other one we both were left in the final three so split the remaining prize money three ways since we knew the other guy from playing ring games with him. There was no hard feelings at all.

Things to remember though:

It has to be a large enough field for there to be enough money to split.

Hopefully you are both decent or pretty close in poker skill lol.

I really cannot see why there would be any hard feelings involved he should be happy to give you your half.

An agreement is an agreement. Your so called friend indeed owes you the money. He took your money to get into the tourney so he should split the proceeds.

In my opinon your friend never expected to win, now that he has GREED has gotten to him. I bet and am 100% sure if you won and did the same thing to him that he is doing to you he would be furious! My suggestions are 1. Tell him he made a deal, not to break it. 2. Never get into an agreement with this tool again. Best friend or not, I'd be very cautious around this person.

If you were to do an agreement with this person in the future, make them sign a promissory note... Then you can just sue them if they fail to deliver! lol

In germany there's a saying: "Bei Geld hört die Freundschaft auf." that basically means: "When it's about money there is no friendship!"

And I guess in your case it's sadly true. This guy isn't a real friend unfortunatly I guess. If I would be you I wouldn't talk to him anymore if I know him in real life...maybe one day he will realize that real friendship is a lot bigger than a bit of money which is gone after a while when he spends it all.

Here's the thing

A) You state, you made a verbal agreement. Are you sure your "Friend" Comprehended this verbal statement?


5K is alot of money, and ppl do tend to be, more defensve towards the money in a sense, there-fore, I really think if it were only like 1k a piece he would'nt be so up-tight about this. None-the-less, a deal is still a deal.
With that being said and done, I think, you should take the money, and tell your friend, if you want some money back then lets have a HU, cash game, 2-4blinds, 1 on 1, and 1k buyin, there-fore, if he loses that 1k, then you can just make him buy-in again, and again, untill the whole 10k is yours, then tell him...................................


Well friend, how does it feel !

But then again that's just me

Yep, not a friend.

Just to take it a step further...
I think a possible reason he doesn't want to do it is because he is not confident in your ability to cash that large and reciprocate in the future. If you both were Vegas poker buddies who played tourneys and cashed all the time, he probably would feel better about things.

An agreement like this usually doesn't work unless both parties are proven poker players. Just ask Jamie Gold.

MrSticker said:

Yep, not a friend.

Just to take it a step further...
I think a possible reason he doesn't want to do it is because he is not confident in your ability to cash that large and reciprocate in the future. If you both were Vegas poker buddies who played tourneys and cashed all the time, he probably would feel better about things.

An agreement like this usually doesn't work unless both parties are proven poker players. Just ask Jamie Gold.

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lol, ain't that the trueth

^^^ I agree with the previous two post!

lol so let me get this straight. He makes an agreement, then says "well you didn't really expect me to follow it right? I wouldn't expect you to follow it". Don't make a deal if you don't want to do it. Similarly if you don't trust the guy (which it sounds like you shouldn't), you shouldn't enter a verbal agreement with him.

That said if you want to try verbal agreements are binding so if you could get him to say that you made the agreement you could legally sue him in court. Probably the end of the friendship though...

Yes you deserve half. I would not continue to be friends with someone who goes back on their word against me. If I had won, even without the agreement, I prolly would have spent a few hundred getting me and my friend hammered.

I have heard of this and I can see how it could be lucrative to those involved.
No matter how you look at it, why, how much, etc....A deal is a deal. They owe you 50%. Feel guilty, take the money, get over your guilt.
It's about integrity and honoring your word.

irivas said:

I asked my friend if he wanted to go 50/50 if anyone makes it in the money. He verbally said yes.

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irivas said:

He ended up chopping 1st and 2nd place money for a total of $10000.00 each.

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It looks to me as though your "Friend" made two agreements that night. One he kept, and one he reneged on.

He reneged on his "Friend" but honoured "Strangers". He owes you 5k, if you don't get it, 5k is a cheap price to pay to find out he is %&*$.

You do deserve your half because a deal is a deal. But this is the exact reason i would never make a deal like this. Cause he feels the way he does and if it were me that won i would be torn but i would still pay you half