Offer to share the wealth rebuked
 

Sahara's $42+20 tournament, we're down to 7 people. Payout gives first $2100, 2nd $1000, down to 7th who gets like $160 (don't recall exactly). There are a couple big stacks including me, and about 3 small ones. Young guy in the small stack asks about a deal and suggests "everybody gets $400 and we play for the rest". Then in the next breath he makes it "$500 each--take $3500 out of the prize pool and share it equally". I quietly say I'm amenable to some sharing of the wealth, but I'm not at all ready to give the very short stacks $500 each. I suggest we take $500 out of first and add $100 to 3rd thru 7th (I've never liked that first gets more than twice as much as 2nd in these tourneys, anyway).

And the kid gets flippant... "Nobody can figure out all that math. Don't get greedy--look what happened to the last chip leader--he busted--that's gonna happen to you for being greedy." This annoys me and another player and we say "let's play a while". Sure enough, the kid busts in 6th place within about 8 hands. Ultimately we had 4 players with fairly equal stacks when we made the deal to split 1st thru 4th evenly.

So who was being greedy here? Me for not wanting to hand over most of the prize pool to the short stacks, or the kid with the shortstack for whining about me being greedy for only offering him an extra $100?

Re: Offer to share the wealth rebuked
 

no no the whiny kid, he was in no position to bitch, you were one of the big stacks, he was asking YOU to do him a favor and deal, he can't bitch when you say "no but i'll do you a slightly lessor favor".

Re: Offer to share the wealth rebuked
 

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So who was being greedy here? Me for not wanting to hand over most of the prize pool to the short stacks, or the kid with the shortstack for whining about me being greedy for only offering him an extra $100?

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I think you're letting this whiny twerp get to you. Who cares if you're being "greedy?" You're trying to maximize your EV. Is it "greedy" when you play correct poker in a cash game and try to take your opponents' money? Of course it is, but you're playing poker, not some egalitarian fantasy-game.

If this deal does not increase your expected utility (and it looks like it doesn't), then screw him.

Re: Offer to share the wealth rebuked
 

I'm not sure about you, but I play poker to win money and compete. Merely entertaining the idea of a deal as a big stack is being kind, to say the least. You are in a much better position to actually win one of the top prizes and if you think your skill is superior to others at the table your chances look that much better. You're literally giving away part of a prize that you have great odds to win for yourself. That's not being greedy. That's playing winning poker and there's nothing wrong with that.

It sounds to me like this kid wasn't very sure of his position at the table and was looking to secure the best deal for himself, and only himself. He hadn't considered other factors, and probably didn't know to. I'm surprised the other bigger stacks at the table didn't object along with you. He was, in fact, the one being greedy here and probably didn't even realize it.

Don't feel bad for him for a single second.

Re: Offer to share the wealth rebuked
 

I feel bad for all of you guys for playing a 42+20, but other than that, your offer was fine.

Re: Offer to share the wealth rebuked
 

i've played in that tourney. it's really really weird. apparanently it's fairly common for the whole final table to split up the money evenly, even when there are big stacks.

if i thought i could expect to do better given stack sizes, i would not hesitate at all to pass on the deal. screw the social crap.

but if i were short, would i pile on the peer pressue for the bigs to chop? yeah, probably.

Re: Offer to share the wealth rebuked
 

I remember being a railbird for the PS $500k final table a couple of months ago. The topic of a deal came up. Every time someone made an offer, the short stack said, "great! I'll take it"

Cuz he knew he was unlikely to move up much higher and ANY deal puts more in his pocket. Guy's a moron for being anything other than encouraging for a deal to happen, regardless of specifics.

Re: Offer to share the wealth rebuked
 

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I remember being a railbird for the PS $500k final table a couple of months ago. The topic of a deal came up. Every time someone made an offer, the short stack said, "great! I'll take it"

Cuz he knew he was unlikely to move up much higher and ANY deal puts more in his pocket. Guy's a moron for being anything other than encouraging for a deal to happen, regardless of specifics.

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why are the big stacks giving him such good conditions in the deals?