Chopping, do you? Would you?

[Penguinfan]

I know people who say they never chop under any circumstance, other say it's a good idea and still more say it depends. Well here is the spot I was in today and you tell me what you would have done and if there are any guidelines.

1500 FPP Single table SNG to the $215 and at three handed one guy suggests a chop, before I even thought about it the other player said no, so my vote was not needed. I got to heads up againts the player who did not want to chop earlier and after thinking about it I thought it might not be a bad idea so I asked him as well and he again said no, but if we got to even stack that he would want too.

I replied OK, GL and figured we would play it out.

Stacks were roughly 7600 for him and 5900 for me and he was super aggressive which meant I had to get a hand or luck would decide this thing and since it was a satellite I would have got nothing for second.

After both stealing the blinds twice in the next four hands he asked if I wanted T$ or cash as he wanted the T$ (this doesn't make sense to me as cash is AT LEAST as valuable at T$) but he offered me a split of 125/90 and he would send me the 90 in cash while we were at the table.

I took that offer and he sent me the money right away.

Good move, bad move, or other?

[badblood44]

I like the move. I believe the going rate for T$ is 0.85*par value. So cash is actually worth a bit more.

Based on stack size, I think it was a fair deal. Chopping at the end is a good way to reduce variation. After all, you could have just as easily walked away with nothing for your efforts. It's not like there's a bracelet involved here.

[Talking Poker]

I like the deal. It's a matter of personal preference, but mathematically speaking, this was not a bad deal for you...

And better yet, you've now turned some of your FPPs into actual cash, which is a nice accomplishment in itself.

[Penguinfan]

Just got heads up in another with almost identical chip counts so we split it 50/50.

I have used up all but 100 of those FPP's I won, so it went like this

100 FPP buy won 10,000 FPP's

With those FPP's I ended up with $90 in cash and T$332.

Couple rough beats along the way or it could have been better, also a couple hands I got carried away with or it could have been better. All in all I'll take that.

[humpty99]

When I first started playing on Stars, I thought that FPP were just a gimmick. Since then, I have turned 60 FPP into 500 cash, and about 3000 FPP on top of that. Its a nice little system they have.

[helmuths henchman]

how do u change FPP for cash??

[Talking Poker]

You buy in to a tournament with them and finish in the money.

[eddo31]

you can also effectively do it by exchanging points for merchandise that you would otherwise have an interest in, like the books or chip sets that they offer.

not exactly getting cash, but you do definitely get something of value.

[iwinurmoney]

i definitly wouldnt mind chopping if i was lower on chips than anyone else and they wanted to chop and it would bring my money count up.

[chrisash]

I Think Chopping Is A Good Idea

If You Make It To The Money And Yall Chop Then All Come Out Ahead

I Would Do It

[BDMK]

i used to be one of the 'no-chop' crowd, but have since modified my stance...

as part of my poker education process, i've been regularly observing the $100/$150/$300 buyin tourneys on stars (as well as the big weekly/monthly one), and i've seen the regular number of chops there.

most of the time, if the final, say, 3-4, are not outside of the 10-20% stack diff ratio among themselves, more or less, they will chop based on stack size and leave X to the winner. mostly, if the remaining prize pool is in 5 digits, they will leave 1K to the winner, and if it is in 6 digits (like the weekly/monthly big one), they will leave 10K.

this formula makes the best sense to me, chop-wise. simple and easy for everyone to understand, not to mention fair.

[Ando05]

i actually dont like when people offer chopping, i mean what happend to the good old tourneys when you just play and 1st place took the money that they deserved. i think people should just play it like a regular tourney and win whatever price they are supposed to. i always say no to chopping when someone offers it.

[lightfungus]

If you dont stop capitalizing everything Im gonna shoot your through the internet.

[chrisash]

definantly would because you all seem to walk away with something.

[Favre[4]]

I would chop if im below or around the same chip stack. But if i have a lead i wouldnt chop. Choping isnt a bad idea but you never know what could have happened if you didnt chop.

[Talking Poker]

This is actually the exact opposite of how you "should" chop, IMO. PEople don't give the short stacks enough credit or realize how quickly they can turn into big stacks.

I'm more likely to chop as the chip leader than I am as the short stack. I usually would prefer to play it out, but if there is huge money on the line, I'm quite happy chopping. Most 5 way chops (for example) net 3rd, 4th, and 5th place a lot more than they would havve had, 2nd seems to break about even, and only 1st takes a pay cut. But even if you are the big stack at the time of the chop, that doesn't mean you won't finish in 5th place. That's poker.........