Quick Poll: Do you chop?

[tpir90036]

people who don't chop in raked games usually bother me for some reason....everyone who i have ever ran into who didn't chop either:

a) did not understand chopping...which is fine and does not bother me
b) thought they were such hot sh*t that they wanted every opportunity to outplay people post-flop for a grand total of .20 BB after the rake.

if it's a time collection game, fine, play it up. anyway, as long as they are consistent about it i can be a big boy and deal with it. if you chop, you better chop AA as well since i have done it plenty of times.

here is my favorite non-chopping hand of all time:
i am in the BB with T [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] and it gets folded to my neighbor who just sat down. he seems to be a little bit grumpy/anti-social. i turn to him and ask "do you want to chop it up?" no response. "do you chop?" no response. he reaches for his chips to complete. "so i guess you don't chop." no response. i check.

flop: J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
he bets, i raise, he calls.

turn: 5 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img])
oops, i just picked up more outs. he bets again, i raise agin, he just calls.

river: Q [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (5 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img])
bingo! he bets into me again!! i raise again. he re-raises. i 4-bet and he just calls. although it is not quite the nuts my hand is good and he tables his two pair anyway.

a smart ass at the other end of the table yells to my neighbor "i guess you should have chopped, huh?" i couldn't help but chuckle at that one...my neighbor busted out a few orbits later [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[toots]

I was surprised at the opportunity find out what "chopping" is.

I mean, normally at a $4-8 table at Foxwoods, the probability of everyone folding to the blinds is slightly lower than that of flopping a straight flush.

But, yeah, point well taken. Be consistent.

[rbenuck4]

I do chop, but I don't mind when people do not chop. The one thing I do mind is when a person will chop with a garbage hand, but then won't chop when they have a monster. You should either chop all the time or never. The advantages to chopping are that assuming you and the player of are about equal skill or even if you are slightly better, you will be losing money over the long run by playing the hand normally because of the rake from the casino. you can only possibly be getting money from that one person, and so half the rake comes from you and half comes from him, thus making you pay more for that particular hand than you would for normal hands that involve more than two people.

A funny story happened. I was at a 4-8 table and the BB in this situation had been chopping with the SB a few times in the few hours I was there, but then it got folded around to SB, and then BB offered a chop, and SB responded "not this time" and put in a raise. The BB was obviously annoyed so he reraised. It was capped preflop, and capped after the ragged flop, and the SB called the BB's bets all the way to the river. BB flipped over pocket aces for the win. In other words, the BB was willing to chop the pot, even when he had aces. I was really glad to see him take that pot down. That's karma baby!

[JoeU]

Zack,

In the raked low limit games I frequent, I always chop. I HATE those people who choose their spots to chop because they have 72o but raise in the SB with KK.

If you chop, then you ALWAYS chop. If you don't chop, then you NEVER chop, period. The biggest hand I've ever chopped is TT. I never look at my cards until the action is on me. Thus the decision to chop is made prior to knowing what my hand is. When I do chop, I muck face up, just for laughs. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Joe

[daryn]

yes i do the same, i always chop and whenever i do i just flip the cards up, then usually the other person does the same and we get a small chuckle out of it somehow [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Vehn]

I chop in 15-30 mostly because almost all the regulars do and there's rarely any "problems" with chopping in it. Plus the rake is a lot more compartively. I do not chop in 30-60.

[slavic]

I run into people who don't chop all the time in drop or raked games. In a drop game your should probably go ahead and play because the drop is coming out. However in a raked game playing it out at lower limits is just a bit nutty. At 4/8 the house is dropping as much as the big blind when you see the flop, that's not good mojo.

Now when I have someone who won't chop I tend to like them on my left.

[Warik]

I've never been faced with a chop before so I'm interested in knowing why you guys adopt a "do it always or do it never" policy.

If the point of playing poker is to win money, why chop with hands like AA and KK? AA and KK are big gigantic monsters headsup.

It makes sense to accept an offer to chop (or offer it yourself) if you are holding small unsuited garbage, but why chop a monster?

[slavic]

If we agree to chop heads up I'm agreeing to chop for the session. This is because I think the price the blinds offer after rake is not enough to play most hands profitably heads up and certainly not over a session.

Now if you come along and will chop your bad hands but play your monsters this puts me at a disadvantage. A heavy disadvantage, so depending on how I feel about your play I will either move seats, or never chop.

Also remember that you must give action to get action. What you are proposing is just about the biggest violation of this idiom possible.

[Warik]

I understand what you're saying, but as far as advantage vs. disadvantage goes, it is 100% my advantage to play a monster pocket pair or hands like AK heads up and it is 100% my disadvantage to play garbage hands.

If I play a monster and win, that's great for me. If I play a monster and he folds, good too. If I have crap and he tries to play it, I would have check/folded anyway... The only downside I see is playing a monster and being outdrawn, but that happens all the time.

I'm told that everybody loses money in the long run playing from the blinds. Shouldn't we be taking every advantage we can get? We can only HELP the opponent by agreeing to chop when we have something good.

(Not necessarily disagreeing with you... just trying to educate myself. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img])