Chop or Play For The Win?

Sunz of Beaches said:

Wow that place must be softer than butter.

This is imo a snap deal if you understand basic math. Those medium to big stack who agreed on that must be very new to the game of poker and i also never heard of people chipping in for the bubble to get paid.

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Gutshot Gus said:

I was recently in the Monday $90 Turbo No Limit Hold'em tournament at Rivers Casino in Portsmouth Va.
You buy in for $90 and pay an "optional" dealer add-on for $10 to receive 10,000 more in tournament chips. So you have $100 in the game.
The game is 12 minute blinds with big blind antes.
After all is said and done $70 per player goes to the prize pool.
This game ended up with 50 players and a $3,500 prize pool.
1st-32%=$1,120
2nd-21%=$735
3rd-14%=$490
4th-11%=$385
5th-9%=$315
6th-7.5%=$263
7th-5.5%=$193

We we got to the bubble with 8 players left, there was a suggestion for everyone to contribute $20 for the bubble to put the bubble ITM.
This was pocket cash and not prize pool money and everyone agreed and off we go.
After the bubble went out we were upon the second break and the possibility of a chop was suggested.
With $3,500 prize pool and 7 players that made the chop $500 each.

I was way below the curve and down to around 4 BB. Blinds were 8,000-16,000 with 16,000 ante.
I thought about the deal and I would have to finish in the top two to do better than $500 and realistically did not see that happening so I took the chop and everyone else agreed, so game over.

I have always heard to never take the chop and just say "I'm here to play, no thank you".
I thought that in my situation that taking the $500 was a better deal. Should I have taken the chop or played on and hoped for a run to a top two finish?

Also is the deal with everyone chipping in $20 for the bubble normal?

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WladiYoga said:

All right, so everyone put in 20$ of their own money into the bubble? Did I understand that right? If so, that's the first thing that's totally not normal. The bubble should be provided by the casino and before the tournament starts, I think. I understand, that everybody wanted to be kind and 20$ is not the world. Same thing with the chop, I mean, I don't know how equal the distribution in Blinds was between the other players, if most of them had approximately the same chip count, all right, I can understand, but if there was like one or two chip leader(s), I wouldn't agree for the chop, except again, everyone wanted to be kind to each other, because you're face to face, and it's not like a main event. But if for example I would have had 80 BB or more, I would counter propose a deal at most, or even disagree. You write, the Ante was 16K, same big as BB? you mean maybe 1,6K, right?
In the end of the day, you made the right choice, and actually, it would be crazy of you not to agrre to such a chop with your chip count.
If you had maybe, like 10-12-ish BB at least, you could try to win the tournament; if you had like 20 or more, then, yes, you should always disagree for the chop or even deal. Because it's not only about the money, but about who is the better player, it's a tournament, a competition, adrenaline, pride, intelligence and emotions.
But with 4 Blinds, again, I take that deal every day of the year.

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Gutshot Gus said:

I was recently in the Monday $90 Turbo No Limit Hold'em tournament at Rivers Casino in Portsmouth Va.
You buy in for $90 and pay an "optional" dealer add-on for $10 to receive 10,000 more in tournament chips. So you have $100 in the game.
The game is 12 minute blinds with big blind antes.
After all is said and done $70 per player goes to the prize pool.
This game ended up with 50 players and a $3,500 prize pool.
1st-32%=$1,120
2nd-21%=$735
3rd-14%=$490
4th-11%=$385
5th-9%=$315
6th-7.5%=$263
7th-5.5%=$193

We we got to the bubble with 8 players left, there was a suggestion for everyone to contribute $20 for the bubble to put the bubble ITM.
This was pocket cash and not prize pool money and everyone agreed and off we go.
After the bubble went out we were upon the second break and the possibility of a chop was suggested.
With $3,500 prize pool and 7 players that made the chop $500 each.

I was way below the curve and down to around 4 BB. Blinds were 8,000-16,000 with 16,000 ante.
I thought about the deal and I would have to finish in the top two to do better than $500 and realistically did not see that happening so I took the chop and everyone else agreed, so game over.

I have always heard to never take the chop and just say "I'm here to play, no thank you".
I thought that in my situation that taking the $500 was a better deal. Should I have taken the chop or played on and hoped for a run to a top two finish?

Also is the deal with everyone chipping in $20 for the bubble normal?

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steve01991 said:

would of done the chop in your instance. Now if i was top 3, probably not

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dannystanks said:

I’ve played a lot of low stakes tournaments with like around 30-50 players like you played, in Vegas and in local casinos, and it seems like in most of them there is always some kind of chop deal. Paying the bubble is common in most of them. I only take a deal if it benefits me somehow, like in your case you would have to take like 2nd to get a better than 500.00 payout. So yeah with 4 BBs left and only 12 min rounds, that’s a good deal. Good job, you got lucky because normally the big stack is the one that normally says no to a chop lol

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The $20 bubble deal was normal​

The $500 chop was a very good deal for you​

You made the correct decision​

“Never chop” is bad advice — “chop when it’s +EV” is the real rule​