Dexas Holdem

Final Table Deal Maker

ICM · chip-chop · save · negotiated
Pure ICM calculator →

1. Remaining stacks

2. Remaining prize pool + payouts

Remaining prize pool ($)

Paid spots

Total %: 100.0%

ICM + Chip Leader Premium

How much extra goes to the chip leader vs pure ICM. Short stacks "pay" this premium for the certainty of locking equity in. Typical real deals: 5-15%.

10%

Save-For-First (locked $ for winner)

Set aside $X for whoever actually finishes first; distribute the rest by pure ICM (locked-in). Players keep playing for the saved amount.

20%

Seat	Stack	Chip %	Pure ICM	Chip Chop	ICM + Premium	Save-for-1st

Total chips: 0 · Method: —

What each deal is:

Pure ICM — Malmuth-Harville. Each player's $ equity = sum of (probability of finishing in each place × payout for that place). The mathematically fair baseline.
Chip Chop — Each player gets a share of the prize pool proportional to their chip count. Simplest and most generous to the chip leader; usually rejected by short stacks since it ignores that the short stack would already have some chance of cashing.
ICM + Chip Leader Premium — Start from ICM, then transfer a small percentage of the pool to the chip leader at the expense of the others (pro-rated by their ICM share). Recognizes that the chip leader has the most variance to avoid by dealing.
Save-for-First — Set aside a fixed amount for whoever actually finishes first. Distribute the rest by pure ICM, locked-in. Players keep playing for the saved amount only. Common when one player refuses to deal but the others want to lock equity.

How to use the slider tweaks: In practice, deals often end up at "ICM + 5-15% premium" or "Save 20-40% for first." The sliders let you compare what each looks like in dollar terms. Start with pure ICM as the anchor and negotiate from there.

One rule of thumb: a deal is fair if every player at the table would (in principle) be indifferent between accepting it and playing on. In practice, that's never exactly possible — but a good deal gets close. Use the dollar differences in each column as a quick check: nobody should be giving up more than ~10% of their pure ICM equity unless they're explicitly accepting a chip-leader premium.