Final Table Deal Making

*** Accepting US Players ***

Playing Tournaments:  Final Table Deal Making

A really important skill in tournaments once you get down to the final table is deal making.  This is where players at the final table unanimously decide to stop the play, and cash in their chips.  An obvious advantage to deal making at the final table is that you can make a really big pay day equitable to everyone at the table.  Final table deals payout cash on a much fairer egalitarian manner – rather than regular tournament payouts which are very top heavy.  The typical first place prize is usually twice that of the second, and four times the fourth and so forth…

In conclusion final table deals give you an advantage by removing the risks of playing out the rest of tournaments under very skewed payouts.

Sites that Allow Deal Making in Tournaments:

Poker Stars – Go to PokerStars + $600 Bonus

Party Poker – Go to Party Poker + $500 Bonus

Tips for Making Final Table Deals

Who Benefits?

The most common method for final table deals is the “chip count”.  The tournament prizepool is distributed to players according to their remaining chips. This method favours the big stacks, because in many ways they receive more than the real prize-equity value of their chips.  For example, having 80% of the chips and getting 80% of the prizepool is better than coming 1^st and only getting 30% of the prizepool. Short stacks on the other hand benefit from this method, because their chip value is usually worth more than where they would likely finish in the tournament.

Negotiate Effectively

In live games and sometimes online you can negotiate with players on how much you receive for your chips in the deal.  By pretending you don’t want to deal however you can usually coax more money out of your chips.  Bluff that you’d rather play on, and other players will be happy to give you a premium so you accede.

Conclusion

Deal making is not for everyone, but regardless of whether or not you want to make one you can benefit.  Playing tournaments to make money is all about increasing your expected EV.  Final table dealing is just as an important skill as playing your way to the final table in the first place.