Poker Stars WCOOP 1st event yesterday...

[threeonefour]

that is the ugliest human being i have ever seen....

...i am not going to be able to sleep tonight after seeing that...

[Myrtle]

In the simplest terms, a “save” in this particular example would be when the 2 smaller stacks agreed to combine 2nd & 3rd place money, and split it 50/50…thereby “saving” either of them from finishing 3rd and taking less money.

There are all kinds of saves possible……think about it for a second.

It all depends on the flexibility, mind-set, stack size and ultimately the disposition of each player.

They key issue when these kinds of deals happen is…….Is the proposed deal public and on the table for all remaining players to consider? If ANY deal is negotiated without the knowledge of all the remaining players, then it is unethical.

However, let’s say that in this case being discussed, one of the 2 short stacks offers the following deal to the table…..”Mr. Chipstack leader, give us X% of the 1st place prize, and we’ll concede 1st place & the trophy to you, and we’ll add the percentage that you give us and split 2nd & 3rd equally.”

Again, the potentials are limited only by ones imagination. I’ll give you another real example.

Last year at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, my friend Craig and I traded 20% of each other. I got knocked out 9th and collected my $$. He went on to end up being H/U. The stacks between he and the other player were roughly equal. 1st place was 27K….2nd was 14K. Once it got H/U, Craig offered a “deal” to the other player. The other player was very adamant about not even wanting to talk about a deal with Craig! They then decided to take a 5-minute pit-stop break.

During that break, I approached the other player and asked him what his objections were to even discussing a deal. He then told me that he had been in this situation once before and he had been taken advantage off by another more experienced player, hence he decided that he would never again even consider making a deal. He also said that he wanted to “win” 1st place.

I told him that I understood where he was at, but then proposed the following to him…… Add 1st and 2nd place together….That’s 41K total. Given that he & Craig were roughly even in chips, I proposed to him that they “Save” 17K each, and play for the remaining 7k and the trophy. He thought about it for about 5 seconds and said… “That’s a good deal, I’ll do that”…..and they made the deal.

The moral of the story is……ALWAYS listen to any proposition that is offered! Here was a guy that was dead-set against making any deals, but when one was presented to him in the proper manner, he changed his mind almost immediately! Why?….. Because it made sense to him and overcame his fear of being taken advantage of.

How did it end up? Craig finished 2nd, BUT the deal I made for him essentially paid for my 20% share of his winnings. The other guy got to “play” for the trophy and won it and the extra 7k, while at the same time mitigating his potential downside by accepting the deal.

ANY deal works well only when it can be crafted as a WIN/WIN for all involved. Any experienced businessperson fully understands this…………