Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Disturbing Bar Poker Trend

I have noticed a trend the last few times that I played bar poker that is kind of disturbing to me. It is the chop at the end of the tournament. Now, in real cash tournaments I understand the reason for chopping and have done it on several occasions. The blinds become so high that it just comes down to who gets the cards or gets lucky at the end. In most cash tournaments, it makes sense when you get down to 3-4 players. In bar poker at most games you are playing for small prizes and points that you accumulate to try and move on to bigger tournaments to try and win bigger prizes. In many of these games there is a big difference between 1st and 2nd in point values. Most of these chops occur when you get to heads up. Now, I'm not against you chopping the prizes. I am just against including who gets first in this discussion. If two players make it to heads up and one player is playing for points and the other maybe only plays once in a while and doesn't care about the points. The discussion can go. I will give you the prize money if you give me the points for 1st. I don't see this is good for the integraty of the game. Those ill gotten points could make the difference between someone making the next level or how many chips they get at the next tournament. It just doesn't seem fair to me. When I ran games, I never let it happen. Can you imagine how it would look an TV if when they got to heads up at the WSOP and the announcer says. The two players left have decided to share in the final prizes with one player getting 35% and taking the win and the other gets 65% and is the runner up. It wouldn't make for very good television. The part that is forgotten is that most bar players rarely get to play heads up and most can't adjust their game to the different style that is required. So, if you rarely get to heads up why wouldn't you want to play it out just for the experience of doing it alone. It is very difficult to simulate heads up when the blinds are high so just do it. I know it's late, your both tired and the tournament director probably wants to go home, but for your and the games best interest just play it out!

1 comment:

  1. agreed chopping takes a lot of fun out of the game in general, and chopping leaderboard points is against the rules in most leagues.

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