Playing mid-day 1k guaranteed at ballys Atlantic city- three handed, itm, $482 up top, $275 to second, $167 to third.

One dude at the table covers both myself and the other remaining player and then some: he suggests the remaining player and I chop up second and third place and he takes first place money.

Would it be collusion for the other remaining player and myself to agree to chop 2nd and 3rd place money and still try to take down the big stack? As in we will chop the money regardless and continue to play?

I did not suggest it, but it crossed my mind to suggest it openly with the other player there as leverage for him to give away some of what was up top so it seemed like we were freerolling on him

Any thoughts on what would have happened if I suggested it?

Yes, it's collusion. (More accurately, it's openly cheating.)

The TD would have hopefully disqualified you on the spot.

So what happens when you win a big pot from the chip leader, become the new chip leader youself, and then the other two agree to chop and come after you?

Absolutely collusion and I would be arguing for a DQ.

Ok, seems fair, glad I did not suggest it. I suppose this is why the casino does not allow you to talk chop at the table (amongst other reasonable arguments)

Is this for real? Why would anyone EVER aggree to this? I can see an equity chop 3-way, or something close, but this is absurd.

I've seen this happen more than once. Mind=blown the first time, but since then I've just learned that its a sea full of idiots and we just swim in it.

I've received that deal. Never expected them to say yes. No harm in asking generally.

Side deals that don't involve everyone at the table are a bad idea. Deciding to go after another player and stay away from the third player is collusion.

After stubbornly refusing to accept a deal, the other remaining players offered me first place prize money and they chopped up the rest. I couldn't believe it. It was a $365 WSOP circuit event too.

Suppose their is significant difference between 2nd and 3rd place payouts. Suppose the chip leader is a huge chip leader and the other two players have roughly equal chip stacks that are relatively small in relation to the blinds.

The small stacks may want to chop to protect themselves from getting the smaller 3rd place payout.

While some people may not want to chop this way because they feel the chip leader should give up equity .... some players may just care enough about not getting the smallest payout that they would take the deal.

I'm not saying its a good idea ... just that there are circumstances where I understand the thinking of people who would make this deal.

You actually see this a lot in the $100 or less faster tourneys, where there could be one big stack at the final table and the rest have about the same size stack. The payouts don't really get decent (on a 10 payout table) until 5-6th and most people would rather take more than 7-10th place money when the majority of the table is ~10bbs.

This exact scenario happened to me once in a limit Omaha/8 tourney. The big stack won some huge hand and KO'd two people, he then had 90% of the chips in play. Me and one other player had essentially identical stacks, but more importantly our stack sizes were each about 1 BB. So it was just a coin toss, who could beat 4 random cards first? We agreed to chop second and third, big stack was super cool and threw in $20 cause he was a nice guy.

I made a similar deal over a year ago. There were 6 of us left and i was chip leader and had 30% of the chips in play and I demanded 1st place payout and that I would play out to first and bust them all out , I told them I'm going to the bathroom and they can decide what they want to do... table negotiated I came back and they offered that I could split the difference between 1st place and 2nd place,

I accepted

During a break, I had a player try to talk me into making a final table deal where we don't play against each other...

I told him no, can't do it, it's collusion

Never make deals like this, you can get disqualified for it. I've seen it happen once. We were in the bathroom during a break, final table, two players were talking about not playing against each other and saying, "Okay if you raise I will fold..."

Tournament director was in the crapper and heard them, once break was over we sit down at the table he immediately picks them up and says, "I heard you two colluding in the bathroom, you are both DQ'd." They started to protest and he said, "If you don't leave right now I will permiban both of you"

coolest thing I ever saw, unfortunately, he no longer works at my casino wish more TDs were like him...

This exact thing just happened here.

4 players left. Top 4 get paid.

1st- ~$600
2nd- ~400
3rd- ~$200
4th- ~140

Blinds are 3k-6k

player 1, 2, and 3 all have ~20-25k and player 4 has ~200k.

1,2, and 3 agree to give 4 first place money and chop the rest. This was a good chop for them IMO.

I have however seen it happen when it made zero sense.

That's a terrible chop for them. There's no reason ever to give up first place money. Someone is getting screwed.

not to mention its a terrible chop for whichever shorty is on the button. the guy about to be in the BB got a steal

These guys were going to give a walk to the BB or the Big Stack every hand until they were either allin in a blind or dealt AA.

It's pretty sad that any live tournament has to -guarantee- a prize pool of $1000.

My second ever tournament cash was a $100 tourney at Borgata about 7 years ago. We get three handed, and one guy has 80% of the chips, and me and the third guy both have about 10%. Prizes are like $4000/$2000/$1100 (really severe jumps at the top back then).

Without any suggestion from the big stack, the third guy proposes that we give the big stack the full $4000, and split 2nd and 3rd. I obviously refuse and he gets really angry. I end up knocking him out about 15 minutes later (and get knocked out in 2nd shortly thereafter) and he's still furiously muttering at me for not taking the deal. The big stack never said a word one way or the other.

using very simple math you can easily figure out who is going to end up all-in first using this strategy. that guy is at a huge disasvantage

If 2nd and 3rd know each other taking a piece of each other would not be collusion.

Just keeping telling yourself that....

Kind of makes me wonder if he regularly hid in the stall during breaks to catch colluders.

Yes it is. In many of these fast tourneys, this can happen but I would rarely do so unless I have 10 bb or less. How many BB did you each have?

Myself and the other stack each had ~150k @ 2k/10/20 about to move to 3/15/30 with the larger stack playing ~450k