Poker Tournaments in Vegas - Splitting Up the Prize Money

Hello,

I am going to be in Las Vegas soon and will be playing in a few low buy-in tournaments. (Places like Caesars Palace, Flamingo, MGM Grand, etc.).

I am curious as to the point in most tournaments where players decide to split the prize pool between remaining players? I know it is up to the players in the tournament and what they decide, but just looking for a general consensus. Do they usually decide to split between the top 3? Top 4? Or do they play it out according to the payout structure of the specific tournament.

Again, just looking for general guidelines of how most tournaments play out. I figured if I can at least be in the top 3 of most tournaments, I will get paid.

Thanks!

markphillips91 said:

Hello,

I am going to be in Las Vegas soon and will be playing in a few low buy-in tournaments. (Places like Caesars Palace, Flamingo, MGM Grand, etc.).

I am curious as to the point in most tournaments where players decide to split the prize pool between remaining players? I know it is up to the players in the tournament and what they decide, but just looking for a general consensus. Do they usually decide to split between the top 3? Top 4? Or do they play it out according to the payout structure of the specific tournament.

Again, just looking for general guidelines of how most tournaments play out. I figured if I can at least be in the top 3 of most tournaments, I will get paid.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I've played in tournaments in the wsop where I have been part of a two table ICM chops and I have played many tables where they won't chop at all and I have been that person a few times.... I would say on average, barring an outlier with an extreme chip lead 5 way chops would be the most common. It's all gonna come down to how the chips sit. That being said I personally prefer playing it out.

markphillips91 said:

Hello,

I am going to be in Las Vegas soon and will be playing in a few low buy-in tournaments. (Places like Caesars Palace, Flamingo, MGM Grand, etc.).

I am curious as to the point in most tournaments where players decide to split the prize pool between remaining players? I know it is up to the players in the tournament and what they decide, but just looking for a general consensus. Do they usually decide to split between the top 3? Top 4? Or do they play it out according to the payout structure of the specific tournament.

Again, just looking for general guidelines of how most tournaments play out. I figured if I can at least be in the top 3 of most tournaments, I will get paid.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

The discussion usually begins when you are in the money at the final table. It actually begins with the motion to pay the bubble. Often tourist tournament players see being ITM as the goal and they are "done" mentally. Really they want to chop because they are not confident in their short-handed play.

For me it is when the remaining players all have <10BB. It is easy to see that it will just be a shovefest and now we're all flipping for hundreds and maybe thousands of dollars. One unlucky outcome and even the bigstack, with less than 10BB can be knocked out and take home as an example....$200 instead of a $800 chop. Sometimes this needs to be explained to the bigstack in simple terms.

I would also be prepared for someone saying, "No."

And you should be aware that some of the places you listed will not facilitate the chop. In other words they will pay out 1st, 2nd, etc. but you will have to return to the table and make everyone whole according to the deal you made and the poker room has nothing to do with the deal.

Don't worry about it....get ITM first !

Good luck !

This is just an example, I made up the payouts for this example.

I don't want to put a link in here from another site so do a search for an ICM calculator.

Anything below top 3 will rarely happen. Perhaps if they are very friendly and feel like sharing I could imagine the last 3 players to split.

However most of the time a split occurs during the heads up because it could take longer than the final table has previously. If they have close to equal stack sizes they can split the prize money accordingly.

I would also like to play live in a poker tournament in the near future, but so far I have a low level of play and there is not a decent bankroll to travel abroad to participate in the tournament. In local tournaments I have no desire to play, since I doubt the honesty in local casinos.
I wish you to take part in all the tournaments in which you will take part, take first place. Do not think about the division, think about how to enter the prize zone.
Good luck.

Depending on chip sizes it usually happens with the top 3 or 4. Almost every tournament I play in chops at some point. I will do it most of the time if I feel what I am getting is beneficial.

On my last trip in a small PH tournament we chopped 6 ways - normally I would not have done that because I am sure I was the best player left and was one of the top 2 stacks. But they offered us top 2 a bit more and I had family issues during the entire tournament - was emotionally spent and went for it.

It wasn't even a tournament I had planned on playing - just hopped in last minute and turned $80 into $390 I think.

I would guess that 50-60% of my tournament cashes have been chops.

In general, I find the following psychology prevalent:
The point at which the tourney is chopped has less to do with people remaining then it has to do with stack size. In a typical tourney with 50 people, the fact that you’ve made it to the money means you’ve outlasted roughly 45/50 players. It also means that the pay-outs will go from roughly $170- $900 in a $70-$80 mid buy-in tournament. Let’s suppose chopping gives everyone close to $500. This will be more than 5/4 place and close to 3rd. This means that to substantially beat the chop you need to finish 1st or 2nd. Everyone knows how poker can turn on a dime and most people would rather take 100% guaranteed $500 then a 40% chance of say $700-$900. Thus the chop.

Now, there are three scenarios blocking the chop:
A) A short stack(s) with few BB. Nobody chops until that persons gone. I’ve been in that situation and been knocked out and the remaining players have chopped even before I’ve had my jacket on. Lol
B) A monster stack. I don’t mean just a big stack but one which has 50% or more of all the chips. I find most people won’t even suggest a chop unless they include special considerations like “we chop and each give you $50.” Even then, why would the monster stack chop? Eventually either he/she becomes so big, everyone just shops the remainder of the places or the monster stack takes a hits and guess what....... chop. Lol
C) A single player refuses to chop. People seem to think this is super common but in my experience it’s actually rare. At most, sometimes a bigger stack will suggest playing for an additional few outs or another x amount of time.

Good luck in Vegas. I suggest trying to increase your buy-in roll to the better blind structures and payouts at the daily Wynn, Venetian, Bellagio and Aria tournaments. Moving from a $60/$80 range to a $125/$150 really improves the experience. (Higher end settings/drinks/payouts etc)