How to Chop the Tournament Cash

Recently some friends of mine were getting together to play a little poker. Steve showed up at Dave's house two hours early and they decided to play a World Series (best four of seven games). They each put up $250 and whoever won four of the freezeouts (play until one player has all the chips) would get the prize money.

Lo and behold, the tournament took a lot longer than they expected. The rest of us arrived, got snacks, got drinks, and got fidgety. The combatants finally finished game five with Steve up 3 games to 2 and the rest of us made them stop.

Steve wanted the whole $500 because he was ahead. Dave wanted to divide the $500 by five games ($500/5 = $100) and give Steve $300 and take $200 for himself. I wanted to go home.After fifteen minutes of arguments, Steve gave in and took the $300. Our regular game started and then Dave whined that maybe he shouldn't have given up the extra $100. That's when I snapped.

In my book, Dave got a great deal. Whoever won four games was going to get $500. There were two games left with only four possible outcomes:

• Steve wins games six and seven and gets the $500
• Steve wins game six and loses game seven but still gets the $500
• Dave wins game six and loses game seven and Steve gets the $500
• Dave wins games six and seven and gets the $500

Those are the only outcomes, and in them, Steve wins 3 out of 4. Dave can only win one of the four. Steve should get ¾ of the money, or 75%. That would have been $375 with Dave getting $125.

As it was, nobody had any fun in the regular game, we busted up after two hours, and Steve and Dave decided to finish their tournament.

Now at this point it was Dave who was making a mistake, because he had to win both games to get $300 while Steve only had to win one to pick up $200. Dave was laying 2 to 1 (in games) and his effective bet was $200 against $150 (half of Steve's $300).

I was so disgusted with Dave's reasoning here that I grabbed a Dr. Pepper from the fridge, snatched up the $500 and drove home. Steve won game six, his fourth, so he gets the prize money, if I bring it to next weeks game. I'm wavering.