How much is it worth to keep a poor player at the table?

[Ghazban]

I played a tournament this afternoon and, as people busted out, some side games started. I sat in a 1/2 limit dealer's choice game and quickly saw that I could easily profit here. One gentleman in particular was playing almost every hand all the way to the end and frequently showed down mediocre holdings.

As can be expected, he burned through money pretty quickly. Eventually, he was out of cash and was trying to get someone to take a company check (he runs a landscaping company and can write checks on that company's account). Nobody at the table knew him and his buddy was still in the tournament and didn't want to do it.

Now, is it worth it to take a possibly bad check from a poor player? My thinking was that, even if the check bounces, he'll leave the money on the table anyway. If, by some miracle, he makes money, I can get my cash back before he leaves. I was up about $120 so I took the check for $100 as well as his name and phone number and gave him $100 in chips.

Later, one of the other players talked to me away from the table and was stunned that I would take the risk. He felt that, as the guy was such a terrible player, he was probably broke and the check would be no good. My position was (and still is) that the risk of the check bouncing is acceptable as keeping him at the table increases my expectation significantly.

Would anyone else take a check (company, not personal if that matters) from an unknown player or am I sucker?

[Sponger15SB]

I don't know if you're a sucker or not.......but I would never ever ever do this for an unknown person

[Michael Davis]

Well if the player is poor it must not be worth that much.

-Michael

[reubenf]

Say there are N players at the table (excluding this guy), and say your share of the $100 is $100/N. This fails to account for the fact that you're better than the other players at the table, but it also fails to give him -any- share of his money or any share of your money. Right now I think we are overestimating your winnings a tad.

If the check is good P percent of the time, you gain P*100/N - 100(1-P). This again fails to give him credit for possibly not losing the money and you giving him the check back for chips. Hopefully this cancels out the overestimation of your winnings.

So if your expectation is P*100/N - 100(1-P), you break even when at an N player table when P = N/(N+1). With 8 people at the table (including you but not him), he needs to be honest 8 out of 9 times.

[dogmeat]

I've taken a few checks, and a few diamond rings etc. on loan. My line is always the same:

I'll take the check, but the table has to agree that as soon as the check-writer doubles their money I get my cash back for the check plus 10%. As for jewelry, I give 10-20% of what I think the item is worth. If they make money, they can have it back for the "loan" price plus 10%. If they don't buy it back by the time I want to quit, it's mine.

Dogmeat [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]