When everyone folds their cards at a Texas hold em table, the players in the blinds have the option to chop. This means they can take their money back and not play the hand. The benefit is the button moves on and the blinds were able to get past being one of the forced bets without having lost any money.
Thus most players love to chop in this situation. What they'll tell you is that by chopping you are saving rake. I don't buy into this argument because I expect to pay rake. It's the cost of doing business. If I can win money from the player next to me in a heads up situation, that's a good thing. I don't mind paying 4 bucks rake in a heads up pot because it means that I've won a pot worth at least $40.
That said, I still usually chop to be polite. Even though I really like playing heads up and using my edge in short handed situations against most weekend warriors.
Of course there are some players out there who are smarter than me. They don't worry about being polite. These guys never chop. They insist on playing each hand out. Their attitude is we're not here to chop. We're here to play poker. So lets play poker!
I'm cool with both these groups. However there is a third group, a sect of human beings who peek at their cards first before deciding whether or not to chop. I have a problem with this group because they're not really chopping. They're folding and getting their money back because they didn't like their hole cards.
Luckily for me the universe punishes these people with unlucky Vegas Fact #13:
Vegas Fact #13
If a player in the blinds refuses to chop (after previously chopping other hands) he will go on to lose the hand to whatever random two cards the other player (who was willing to chop) is holding. Every time.
4 comments:
I normally chop just to keep games friendly. Here is a hand that cements Rule #13.
Bellagio $5/10NL.
Passed to SB who has previously chopped several hours earlier. He checks his hole cards and declines to chop. He makes it $40 to go. I look down at aces and flat call.
Flop is A92r. He leads for $70 and I call. Turn is another useless card. He bets $200 and I make it $600. He instashoves (and I mean instashoves) for $3500 more. I call and turn up AA to put him out of his misery.
He shows 99 and turns white as a sheet.
It's helpful however to make sure the other person in the blinds knows to not chop with a potential jackpot hand in a poker room with a jackpot.
that's funny about the chop. I did it every time when in vegas, except a strange situation once playing 1/2 at Planet Hollywood: it folded around to the button and for some reason he asked me and the small blind if we were going to chop. I had already looked at my cards and had pocket jacks so I didn't know how to respond and decided to say nothing. My lack of a response apparently gave him the green light to bet 15, which the SB called, and led me to reraise to 45. Button and SB folded. If the button hadn't raised though, I would've been fine chopping...I don't know what the hell he was thinking...
I saw this at a casino once.
It folded to the blinds. The big blind asked "Chop?" A lady in the small blind said "No," and completed the bet. The big blind now raised and the small blind folded!! The rest of us just sat there amazed. It was hard to keep from laughing actually.
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