Chopping prize pool. Question

JDVegas5 · #1 05-30-2007, 03:51 PM

Played in Showboat 7:00pm last night. Great time/Great structure. Have a question about the issue of chopping $$.
Is generally frowned upon? We got down to six guys all willing to chop and the house said it was against the rules. Is this standard or does it vary by casino/location? Sorry if I am asking dumb question. I know some of the televised mega-tournies have a no chop policy but this was relatively small $$.

Thanks for any clarification.

mingorama · #2 05-30-2007, 03:55 PM

Surprised they don't allow it. You'd think they'd prefer it, so they could free up the table and the dealer for cash games. Of the live tournaments I've played (nothing with big entry fees), I've never heard of any casino not allowing a chop.

Wongboy · #3 05-30-2007, 04:03 PM

It varies by location. When I chopped the Bally's Vegas daily last year, they stated that someone had to get W-2G's for the scheduled payouts for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, despite the fact that the people signing were each getting much less than 3rd place money (it was a 6 way chop and I got 30% of the prize pool). Tax hassles like this might lead some places to ban chopping.

JDVegas5 · #4 05-30-2007, 04:24 PM

Thanks for the responses so far. You are both right on the money.
Showboat made us step outside the poker room to make any deal. We agreed to go all in and allow that one hand decide who came in first,second,...sixth regardless of current chipstack.
We did that and they wrote up slips according to the payout schedule however, the the 1st and 2nd place guys were subject to w-2's alhtough we agreed to split evenly 6 ways ($600). I drew 4th place so did not get a w-2. We then met outside and broke it up $600 each and eevryone decided to tip on their own.
I asked one of the room guys why the policy? He claimed that someone agreed to chop but ran off with the 1st place take.
The whole thing seemed bizarre to me.

NickMPK · #5 05-30-2007, 04:32 PM

In Atlantic City, the have run the tournament to conclusion and award the previously stated prizes by law (or regulation more likely). So any chopping has to be done completely privately by the players after the casino has handed out the prize money.

If this is a big tournament and you are worried about the tax consequences, I would get the conditions of the chop in writing signed by the other players. You are only liable for taxes on money you actually win, no matter what is on the forms the casino gives you, but it would be very helpful to have some evidence of what you actually won in the case of an audit.

LArick · #6 06-05-2007, 09:06 PM

Most cardrooms chop. I think it is odd if they don't. The only downside is when the table wants to chop 9 handed. That actually happened to me at Hollywood Park (9 handed chop....are you kidding me)?

Wongboy · #7 06-05-2007, 09:35 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Most cardrooms chop. I think it is odd if they don't. The only downside is when the table wants to chop 9 handed. That actually happened to me at Hollywood Park (9 handed chop....are you kidding me)?

[/ QUOTE ]

You can take advantage of this situation if you are good at bubble play. They all want to chop, you don't. "Create" a bubble by saying that you will only talk chop after one more player busts. Effectively, you are now on the money bubble. Play accordingly. Profit.

Note that I am assuming people will agree to a % split based on relative stacks versus a straight chop. If a straight chop is more likely, then play it like the bubble of a satellite. Either way, you manufacture a situation where you (hopefully) have a bigger edge.