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I'm very surprised that there aren't chops at every big buy in tournament

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If there are chops, you wouldn't hear about it, because the big tournaments are played to completion anyway, as there are titles and POTY points to be earned.

I like the post here about refusing to chop not being -EV when up against good players. Actually, refusing to chop exhibits confidence, and may earn you a psychological advantage.

The other question you need to ask yourself is if that little bit of expectation outweighs your chances of increasing your place by not chopping. If you are third in chips out of 5, but the top 2 players have tons of chips, then you really can't be sure what place you would finish in (3-5), so I would say take the chop. But if you are a huge chip leader, you would have to lose tons of expectation in order to kill your chances of earning the maximum, an amount of expectation that is probably impossible to lose.