Final Table Deal Making by Linda Johnson

I’ve been on an abnormally good tournament run lately and made three final tables in three days. Two of them involved some interesting deal making, which I will describe in this blog.

When we got to the final table in the Ladies No Limit event at the Oklahoma State Championship of Poker at the Hard Rock Casino in Tulsa, the players were interested in making a deal and asked me to propose something. They were paying five places and the total prize pool was a little over $14,000. With ten players left, here were the approximate chip counts: Four players were in the 80,000 to 110,000 range, one player had about 45,000, one player had about 40,000, and four players had between 15,000 and 25,000.

I like to propose deals that are fair to everyone, so without taking time to do any math, I suggested that a simple solution would be to give the four chip leaders $1,000 each, give the next two stacks $600 each, and give the short stacks $400 each. That way, no one would walk away without making at least a little money (the buy-in was $340) for their ten hours of play. That also would leave more than $7,000 in the prize pool to play for. Everyone seemed like they wanted to take the deal and the short stacks were very happy since it was likely that they wouldn’t survive to fifth place or better for a payday.

The tournament director passed out the chop and no chop cards and we all threw in one card face down. If you aren’t familiar with this procedure, each player gets one card that says “Chop” and one that says “No Chop.” If there is a “No Chop” thrown in, there is no deal; no one knows who didn’t want the chop, so there is no pressure put on that player. There was one “No Chop” card in the mix, so play continued.

Three players went out almost immediately and we played seven-handed for quite a while. Ruth Hall went on a big rush and was the huge chip leader by then. The other six of us were fairly close in chips, so I suggested that six of us take $1,000 each, Ruth take $2,000, and we play for the other $6,000. This time, everyone agreed, which was good for me since I went out in seventh place when my A-K got beat on the river by A-J.

The next morning, I flew to Los Angeles to play in the Fallen Heroes fundraiser at the Bicycle Club and Casino in Bell Gardens, California. This is one of my favorite charity events of the year and you will know why if you go to www.fallenheroesla.org. There were about 150 players, most of them actively involved in law enforcement or the fire department. A great dinner buffet was served and more than 100 high hand gifts were given out as part of the event. Since all of the money in the prize pool goes to the charity, they had valuable prizes for the final table in lieu of cash. This puts a new spin on final table play since we were all jockeying to win specific prizes, which meant having to finish in a certain order.

For example, I didn’t want to come in seventh, fourth, or second because the prizes for those spots were a WPT Boot Camp, a WSOP Academy, and a seat in the WPT Invitational for second place (I already had a seat). Tenth place was an iPod, an inflatable mattress, and a few other things. Ninth paid a beautiful game table and chairs, a chipset, a satellite entry to Hollywood Park, and some poker gear. I can’t remember what eighth place was, but it was something I would have liked. Sixth place was a Full Tilt Poker table and gear like the one I have in my living room. Fifth and third places were 47-inch televisions and first place was a 55-inch television.

Three players went out immediately, so the next player out would get the Boot Camp. Someone who had me covered went all-in and I opted to fold a quality hand since I didn’t want to risk elimination and come in seventh and win the Boot Camp. That’s exactly what would have happened since my pocket tens would have lost a race against my opponent’s A-K.

Before you knew it, we were down to three players. I decided the proper strategy was to go all-in (I had fewer chips than the other two) and if I got called and lost, I would win a beautiful television. If I got called and won, I would be the huge chip leader and in a good position to win first place and the biggest television. My 9-8 suited triumphed against my opponent’s K-J and I doubled up and was chip leader. We played on three-handed for a few hands and I lost a pot and was second in chips, but only slightly behind the chip leader, Kelly Kim of the 2008 WSOP Main Event final table. Neither of us wanted to come in second since we already had seats for the WPT Invitational.

Meanwhile, Kelly had talked with my friend Juli Sobka, who had come in ninth and won the game table, chipset, poker gear, and satellite entry and found out that she wanted to trade her prize for the WPT Invitational seat, so whoever won would get the big television and second place would get Juli’s cool prizes. Kelly and I were about even in chips, so we left it up to luck and agreed to move all-in pre-flop. I was dealt A-Q of diamonds and Kelly had Q-4 offsuit (the four was a club). After a flop of A-10-3, I was already trying to figure out how I would get the TV home to Las Vegas. However, when the turn and river were clubs, putting four clubs on the board, Kelly was crowned the champion.

It was wonderful evening and we raised a lot of money for Fallen Heroes. Thanks so much to all who participated!