Here's Why I Like To Make A Deal

I mentioned in my last post that I like to make a deal when I have a dominate chip lead, as it helps to lock up my equity and reduces my variance.

In Sunday night's $55 donkament at the Peppermill, I had the Tower Of Power working with three players left in the 2k/4k/400 level. Up to this point, nobody had said a word about any kind of deal, including a Bubble Save. I was glancing at the payouts, trying to figure out the right deal for me.

Before I had a chance to bring up a deal, the Button went All-In for 15k. (Let's call him Nick.) I was the SB with QJo, and quickly called. The BB folded, and Nick showed 95s. Unfortunately, he hit a 5 on the River to double up. Very next hand, Nick and the other player got their chips in the middle, and Nick eliminated the shorter stack.

Well, that killed my three way deal. I still had a healthy chip lead, but Nick had shrunk the gap. It was something like 90k vs 50k, so we had some room to play. 

There was still no mention of a deal, so we started playing Heads-Up. In the very first hand, Nick was the SB, and raised to 20k. This was a surprise to me, as it's only the 2k/4k level. I haven't seen him play much, as he came to the Final Table with a good stack, and only played a few hands up to this point. I quickly folded.

Next hand, I limped in the SB, and he made it 20k again. This was starting to get annoying, and I asked him if he just wanted to get all of it in the middle and flip a coin. He didn't say anything, so I folded.

Nick kept doing this every hand, and it was pissing me off. I finally called with A6o. He had 44, and flopped a Set. This devastated my chip stack, as I lost all of my 1k chips, and most of my 500 chips. I don't remember exactly how many chips I had left, but he had roughly a 90% - 10% chip lead.

I had to shove All-In the next two hands, and Nick was kind enough to call with anything, including 53c. This got me back in the match, but he still had a big chip lead. He kept either raising to 20k or folding his Button.

A few hands later, I got it All-In again with 66, however he had TT. It's pretty sick to get Pair vs Pair in Heads-Up, but not as sick as the 6 that hit the Turn. This evened out the stacks a bit, but he still had a 2-1 chip lead.

The level went up to 3k/6k/500. He was still frequently over-raising to 23k. I started to limp almost every time I was on the Button, just trying to get him to play smaller. Sometimes he just checked, and the pot size would be 13k. He would then bet 23k on the Flop, and I would fold in disgust.

The strangest part of his play was on the Button, as he was folding 2/3 of the time. Naturally, when he folded his SB, I would look down at hands like 88, AK, JJ, etc.

Play kept going for awhile with out any big hands. I couldn't make any ground up against his chip lead, and would have to shove All-In on the SB occasionally because my chips were getting too low. He would fold, and then fold his SB in the next hand to give me a few more chips. I was able to hang around, but I wasn't making up any ground.

Towards the end of the level, I look down at AJs in the SB, and limped like I've been doing almost every hand. Nick was kind enough to finally do something that I wanted him to do, and raised to 23k. I shipped it All-In for 48k total. He thought for close to a minute, and folded. This brought us close to even in chips.

Shortly after this hand, the level went up to 5k/10k/1k. There had still been no mention of any deal, which was fine with me. I want to bury this guy as he's been pissed me off, but the jump from 3k/6k/500 to 5k/10k/1k is huge. I think about it for a moment, and realized that business is business. I asked him for a chip count, and we are close in chips. I asked Nick about an even chop, and he agreed.

I walked out of the Peppermill with $260. If I had done a 3-way deal, I would have left with around $310 - $320. So by not making a deal when I had the Tower Of Power, I lost around $50, and had to endure about 30 minutes of stress and anxiety.