Quick Poll: Do you chop?

[mmanne]

It is not 100% advantage when you play. You are incurring the wrath of all the players at the table (and the poker gods) when you switch between chopping and not chopping. The Chop allows you to "skip" one of your blinds, and for this privilege you must give up something. What you give up is the tiny EV from those times when you have good cards.

Like most here, I don't care whether you chop or not (I personally chop), but don't change your stance.

matt

[TheRake]

Last week, while in Vegas, I was playing 2/4 at the Luxor. The dealer would not let the players chop. It came up twice and the dealer refused the players' wish to chop both times. I don't get to play much B&M, but this seemed a little unusual. I was not involved in either hand, but I think I would have been annoyed had it been me.

Anyone know if other casinos have this policy?

TheRake

[Toro]

I've been told that most Casino's techically do not allow chopping the blinds but most informally allow it as a courtesy.

[baggins]

great story.

[CrackerZack]

Monte Carlo wouldn't let people chop. It was funny actually. I was BB, I asked, he accepted, dealer said no even though we had both exposed our hands so he just threw me the $2. I threw it back to him and the dealer took it from him and gave it back to me? I asked why I couldn't tip the player instead of her but that only got me a dirty look. I gave him $2 worth of advice instead. I think he thought it was worth more. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[sfer]

I had the opposite experience at Borgata. I was the SB and it was folded to me. I asked the BB if he chopped. He was in the 1 seat and clearly new to live poker, if not poker in general, and looked confused. The table did the worst thing possible and everyone, all at once, told him their version of what my question meant. So to speed things up, the dealer took his cards and slid his blind back to him.

[Barry]

I'll chop so long as the table has at least 6 players. 5 or less and I'll play. That is what most folks do anyway.

A month or so ago, I was playing at a loose-ish 20/40 game and their hadn't been a chop in a long while. It's folded to me in the SB (I don't look at my cards until it is my turn to act) the BB and I agree to chop; he flips over AK and says, "Shoot!". I flip over my cards and they are, of course, 2 Aces and I now say "Shoot!"

[bunky9590]

[Franchise (TTT)]

[ QUOTE ]
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?

[/ QUOTE ]

Because at this point you're basically adopting a passive-aggressive strategy of taking advantage of the opponent's trust.

Chopping is an agreement made by those who want to avoid heads up pots between the blinds, out of discomfort, time/rake factors, or whatever. Chopping is not a tactical factor that can be used in the heat of battle.

[art_vandelay]

At my local casino the general expectation is players chop. However, because of the jackpot, the only exception is when one of the players has a potential jackpot hand which can be anything but which is generally understood as pocket tens or better or AK AQ and maybe AJ.

In that case, what usually happens is that the SB completes and the blinds then checks it down.