Chip Chop
Chip Chop
A tournament deal where remaining players agree to divide the remaining prize pool or chips in proportion to their current chip counts, often using ICM calculations to ensure fairness.
Overview
A Chip Chop is a type of tournament deal in poker where the remaining players agree to end the tournament early by dividing the remaining prize money (or chips) based on their current chip stacks. The term is often used interchangeably with "chop" but specifically emphasizes that the division is directly proportional to chip counts, as opposed to an "equal chop" where players split evenly regardless of stack sizes.
How Chip Chops Work
In live or online tournaments, when the final table or a small group of players remains, they may negotiate a chip chop to reduce variance and guarantee a payout. The most common method is to use Independent Chip Modeling (ICM), which calculates each player's equity in the remaining prize pool based on their chip stack and the payout structure. ICM accounts for the fact that chips are not linear in value (doubling your stack does not double your expected payout).
However, a simple chip chop—sometimes called a "chip-count chop"—allocates prizes strictly by chip percentage. For example, if three players have 50%, 30%, and 20% of chips, they would take those percentages of the remaining prize pool (after already being guaranteed min-cash amounts). This method is less fair than ICM for top-heavy payouts, but is quicker and easier to calculate.
When It Is Used
Chip chops are most common in:
- Home games or small tournaments where players prefer to end early and avoid lengthy heads-up play.
- Satellites where multiple seats are awarded, and chip chops ensure each player gets an equal share of the seat value (or proportional to chips).
- High-stakes tournaments where players may agree to chop to reduce risk.
Example
Consider a final table of four players with chips: Player A (500k), B (300k), C (200k), D (100k). The total chips are 1,100k. If they agree to a chip chop with the remaining prize pool of $10,000 (after min-cashes), each player's share would be proportional to their chips: A gets $5,000 (50%), B $3,000 (30%), C $2,000 (20%), D $1,000 (10%). This contrasts with an ICM chop, which would give more to smaller stacks due to the payout structure.
Related Concepts
- Deal: A broader term for any agreement to end a tournament early, including chip chops, ICM chops, and equal chops.
- ICM: A more accurate method for calculating fair deals, especially when the payout structure is steep.
- Save: A type of deal where players protect a certain amount of money for the eventual winner.