Saturday, October 6, 2012

Deal? Or No Deal?

When you get near the end of a poker tournament, players often start to talk deals to chop the purse or cut-in the would-be bubble losers by taking money off the first place prize.

I've taken lately to starting these conversations, especially if I'm short stacked.   I'd much rather go home with a win in my pocket then come all that way and have to leave empty-handed on the bubble.

So today I was short stacked and starting to sell the deal offers with six players left (when top 3 would normally be paid).  The chip leader wasn't having it.  He had about 10 times the chip count I had, and he was looking pretty good to go all the way.  All I could say was....you know "anything can happen....".  But no dice.

So we played on....

Knowing that I wasn't going to get a deal...I had to play more aggressive.  I pushed all-in with K-Q suited, and the chip leader called me with A-4.  I won when I paired my King.

A couple minutes later, he went all-in, and I called with pocket 9's.  He turned over A-6 and I won again.

So I doubled up against the chip leader twice in a row and now I had about as many chips as him.  Meanwhile a couple other players had been knocked out and we were down to 4.

NOW he was willing to talk deals!  Again the negotiator, I offered a deal for the top 3 chip holders to each take about 30% of the purse, and the lone short stack the other 10%.  Deal accepted.  Everyone happy.


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