So you're in a poker tournament. You've made it into the money, and everyone seems to be hovering around the same amount of chips. Play goes on for a while and eventually someone comes up with the idea of chopping. Everyone agrees because after all no one wants to be stuck playing forever and if the money is good enough to makes sense to just take the share and not risk losing it on some fluke hand. The question now becomes, who is the winner of the tournament? Since everyone chopped the tournament ends without an official winner. Well the good news is there are still ways to determine a tournament winner even when that person didn't technically win it. Let's take a look at some of these options...
Option #1: By Vote
Probably the most common one of them all. Everyone simply takes a vote on who should be the victor. It can be anyone. It could be the person the players think did the best. It could be the person who played horrible but wants the title and no one else cares enough about it to put up a fight. Whatever the reason is it doesn't matter. If someone wants to pitch in their hat to be declared the victor and everyone else is cool with it, that person it declared the winner by majority vote. Fun fact, this is how Johnny Moss won the first WSOP. He was declared the victor by a vote from his peers.
Option #2: By Runout
Runouts are fun option for declaring a winner for a tournament. The way a runout works is simple. Everyone gets a hand and they turn it up. The board is then run out with no action. Whomever has the best hand at the end of the runout is determined as the winner. It doesn't matter who had a bigger or small chip stack. It's a winner take all action where the gods of fate decide who should be the winner. It gets even funnier when the board runs out in a way that it causes everyone to play the board as his or her best hand, therefore making everyone who is in the runout a co-champion. This actually happened in out of our tournaments recently funny enough.
Option #3: By Chip Count
One of the simplest methods you can go with. You simply take the person who is the chip leader and declare him or her the winner. It's for sure a more meritocracy based way of making the decision. After all, the person with the most chips must have been doing something right to get into that position. So it is only fair that the leader should get the title. Then again we have seen how quickly fortunes can turn in a tournament, and no amount of chip lead can promise anything. That said, if all else fails taking the chip leader can always be the go to option.
Where Can I Go To Win A Tournament Like This?
If you are in the Cincinnati area you can come try out our club. We have tournaments going on almost every night, and even have cash games too. We're in the West Chester area at 4844 Union Center Pavilion Drive. You can also email us or reach out on Facebook with any questions you have for us.