[M.B.E.]

[ QUOTE ]
When I offered to give him the seat for $3500 I thought it was a reasonable deal still...and might have been willing to settle at $3000. I'm glad I didn't obviously.
I think I had around 3k in chips to his 10k at the time.
I didn't think $2500 was a very good deal.
Remember...this is a package worth $11k+ ($10k seat...$1k cash...PLUS the free hotel stay for wearing their crap).
So I really did think $3500 was reasonable considering there really was an actual chance I could come back (obviously).

[/ QUOTE ]
There were 13,500 chips in play (1,500 x 9), and you had about 23% of them. Meaning the probability of your winning was 23%. If you disregard the value of the hotel, then the prize differential between first and second was $10,840 (since second gets $160).

Take 23% of $10,840 and you get $2,493.

We can put a value on the hotel accommodations at perhaps $1,500 -- that's probably a bit generous but let's use it anyway. Then the differential between first and second is $12,340 of which your equity share was $2,838.

(However, it's problematic to set the value of the WSOP seat at $10K. Suppose it were a regular MTT tournament with first prize $10K in cash. If you won, would you use the money to buy in to the WSOP main event? If not, it means you are setting the value of a WSOP seat at something less than $10K. If both players negotiating the deal would set the value of a seat at less than $10K, that should -- theoretically -- be factored into the deal.)

On balance, the $2500 he offered at that time might have been a tad low but it was not terribly unfair.

[ QUOTE ]
I had used most of my time already on a couple of other hands (I think the time-clock carries over from the first round actually) so I really didn't have time to fully analyze it and figure out what the hell I was trying to do with my hand and settle down my nerves and think about the deal all at the same time.

And I wasn't particularly interested in sitting-out either to discuss it and just letting the blinds and antes rise.

Plus...if the sit-out takes place at the wrong-time and then we resume play at the wrong-time it could really work to my disadvantage if I have to play from the BB twice in a row.

[/ QUOTE ]
I agree completely. Lots of people have suggested to Stars that they install a "check-to-pause" box at final tables of tournaments. If everyone unanimously wants to stop play (to discuss a deal, to take a bathroom break, or whatever), then they could do it without having to sit out and wait for support to arrive. The last time I emailed about this, as I recall, they said they had decided against doing this, but might reconsider.

Also I've emailed them suggesting that in any shootout-format tournament, the time bank should be reset in each round. It's particularly necessary in the heads-up shootouts like the World Cup of Poker qualifiers.