Deal making is allowed in many tournaments when at the Final Table.
Understanding Deal Making
- All players must first agree to making a deal
- Then the game will momentarily stop to show the prize amount that will be distributed in accordance with the chip stacks in each player's possession
- The deal will be completed only when all players agree to this prize distribution
- The method used to determine the prize distribution is the Independent Chip Model (ICM)
- With the application of ICM, the payout is accurately calculated according to the chip stack ensuring a fair distribution of the prize
Understanding “agree to Deal Making”
- In the top right corner of the Final Table, there is a Deal button (PC: Deal Making button). Click it to bring up the agreement pop-up.
- You will be able to agree to Deal Making from here.
- If you wish to cancel, then click the button again and select 'Cancel Deal Reservation'.
- All players must accept the deal for it to be finalized, after which the prize pool will be credited
- Normal play will resume to determine the final ranking.
Understanding ICM (Independent Chip Model)
ICM is an acronym for Independent Chip Model, and is a distribution method based on the current chip count of players regardless of external factors such as poker skills, blinds, bubble, etc.
Understanding how ICM is different from the Chip Chop method
- There are situations when the chip leader receives more than the first place prize amount when a Chip Chop method is applied. In these cases, other players will also receive prize amounts less than the expected prize payout. Therefore, many cases may arise where players will not agree to Deal Making.
- Unlike the Chip Chop method, the ICM method takes more factors into consideration and ensures a more fair distribution of the prize.
Understanding payout calculation via ICM
- The chip count is not considered real money before the tournament is completed.
- For the sake of example, let's say the first and second place prize amount is 100 and 50 respectively but the status of chips is 1,000 and 1 respectively. In this situation, even though a player may have 1,000 times more chips, the player will only be awarded a prize amount that is two times greater. Therefore, distributing the prize based solely on the chip count is unreasonable.
- Using ICM in the example above, the prize will be distributed 99.95 and 50.05 respectively
- When using ICM to calculate the prize payout, there is a specific amount of chips based on N players, and when players randomly go all-in (each all-in winning rate is 50:50), the odds of each player finishing from 1st to Nth place is determined to come up with EV.
- ICM EV$ = ProbabilityFinish1st * FirstPrize$ + ProbabilityFinish2nd * SecondPrize$ + … + ProbabilityFinishNth * NthPrize$