For the third time in just over a week I had found myself at a final table with a good stack of chips facing opponents that were crying for a deal. They wanted, what’s known in poker parlance, as a chop. Each time I was the only holdout to reject the deal and twice I was the next unlucky bloke out. That’s what happened at the Peppermill in their last poker series and it happened again at the Commerce in LA for the Los Angeles Poker Open. I only faired slightly better in the Venetian Deep Stack event, moving up one spot before imploding. So the question of whether or when to chop is a question I’ve been asking myself for a lot recently. Normally I have a very simple policy when it comes to chopping – I don’t.

Over the years my “no chopping policy” has made me a significant amount of money. And, like recently, it has also cost me money at times. But over the long haul, I can safely say that not chopping has earned me more than one-hundred fold than it has cost me. Still . . . the recent disappointments have me wondering if there isn’t a better solution.

So first, let me tell ya why I don’t like to chop. If you’ve played tournaments, you know that the greatest bulk of the prize pool usually goes to the top three spots. So if you want to be successful as a tournament player you have to win tournaments. That means playing short-handed and ultimately heads up. If you always chop, you will lose out on the valuable experience of this short-handed scenario. And sooner or later, your opponent won’t be willing to chop. If you’re lacking that experience, you’ll be at a big disadvantage. So I relish these opportunities not only for the competition, but also for the learning experience.

Second, I typically feel like I have the advantage playing short-handed. This comes from a number of factors: The bulk of my online experience is playing single table sit n go’s. So I play short-handed quite a bit. Also, the money usually means less to me than it does to my opponents. That means they are playing scared – advantage me. And lastly, someone once told me that poker is like sex; everyone thinks they are great at it! So maybe that’s why when we get down to the final table, I typically look around and conclude that I’m the best player left.

Daniel Negreanu offered another reason not to chop. He says that chopping always comes down to a negotiation, and it does. But he doesn’t like to negotiate for a living. He plays poker. And the few times he has tried to negotiate a deal people got bent out of shape because they felt like he was trying to take advantage of them. The reason for that is simple. Daniel estimates his skill level as high (maybe even higher than he should) and his opponents do the same when estimating their skill (see the sex joke above). So Daniel always asks for more equity than his chips alone dictate. So rather than have people get mad at Daniel, he’d rather just have a “play it out” policy. I guess I’ve always agreed with that too.

And I do have one exception to my no-chop policy. I’ve almost always been willing to chop when the blinds get so big that there is almost no skill involved and a slightly larger chip stack means very little. For instance, if we are three-handed and I have 200k and the other two players have 180k and 120k but the blinds are 20k/40k, I might chop if it is my big blind next. Because if I don’t defend my big blind I will have less than 160k and one or both my opponents will have more chips than me. But if I do defend my blind, I will very often be crippled. Plus I know that at this level it is mathematically correct to defend almost any two cards out of my big blind. So I typically will. And if I refuse a chop when I have 200k, it seems hypocritical of me to ask for a chop if I lose after defending my blind and only have 80k left.

I was contemplating all of this as I headed into day five of an event at the LAPO. First place was getting $100,000 and second was only getting $45,000 or so and ninth place was getting about $4,000. I had already outlasted over 3600 players. We were down to six tables and I had a very workable stack. I was anticipating making the final table and dreading the inevitable chop request. So after careful consideration, I came up with a new policy on chopping:

1. I generally won’t, but . . .
2. I will listen to the table and entertain a possible deal;
3. I will be more inclined to make a deal if the blinds are outrageous relative to my stack and the chip leader’s stack;
4. I will be more inclined to make a deal if the payout structure grossly favors winning versus coming in say seventh place;
5. I won’t make a deal unless I’m given more money than my chip stack dictates.

Unfortunately, I got a little unlucky in this event and somehow came up well short of the final table in 27^th place. Funny thing is, I heard that they started talking about a chop as soon as they were down to twenty players. Maybe it’s better I didn’t make it that far as I’m not sure I would have known how to deal with it . . .

Anyhow, I’m back in Reno now. I enjoyed some time at home with my kids and had a great Thanksgiving. I hope you did too. The snow is falling here and that means two things: snowboarding at Mount Rose and the Winter Pot of Gold at the Grand Sierra starting on December 2^nd. I’m looking forward to both. Hopefully I’ll make a few final tables and get to try out my new chopping policy. I’ll let you know how it goes. And if you happen to make the table with me, please don’t be upset when I ask for a little extra in the chop, it is my policy after all!

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