How does switching seats work?

• Before the final table starts, players can choose what seats they want to sit at
  • A player will select a seat and automatically switch with whichever player is already seated there
  • Each player will be given 10 seconds to select their seat
  • A seat that has already been selected by another final table player can be chosen again later

• ​​Seat selection order is determined by chip count
  • The final table player with the smallest chip stack will be the first to choose a seat to switch with, with the second smallest chip stack the next to choose, and so on
  • The chip leader will be the last to switch seats
  • When chip counts are the same, the player who registered into the tournament first will choose last

How does Deal Making work?

• How to agree to Deal Making
  • In the top right corner of the final table, there is a Deal button (Deal Making button on desktop app). Select it to bring up the agreement pop-up
  • You will be able to agree to Deal Making from here
  • If you wish to cancel, then click the button again and select ‘Cancel Deal Reservation’

• When all players agree to Deal Making
  • All players must accept the deal for it to be finalized, after which the prize pool will be credited
  • Normal play will resume to determine the final ranking for Tournament Point (TP) purposes

• The Deal Making (a.k.a. ICM Deal) option is available after seat selection has been completed
  • All players must first agree to make a deal
  • The game will then pause to show the prize amount that will be distributed in accordance with the chip stacks in each player’s possession
  • The deal will be completed only when all players agree to this prize distribution
  • The method used to determine the prize distribution is the Independent Chip Model (ICM)
  • With the application of ICM, the payout is accurately calculated according to chip stacks, ensuring a fair distribution of the remaining prize pool

What is ICM (Independent Chip Model)?

ICM is an acronym for Independent Chip Model, and is a prize distribution method based on the current chip count of players, ignoring external factors such as poker skills, blinds, bubble, etc…

• How is it different from the Chip Chop method?
  • There are situations when the chip leader receives more than the first place prize amount when a Chip Chop method is applied. In these cases, other players will also receive prize amounts less than the expected prize payout. Therefore, many cases may arise where players will not agree to Deal Making if the Chip Chop method is suggested
  • Unlike the Chip Chop method, the ICM method takes more factors into consideration and ensures a fairer distribution of the remaining prize pool

• How are payouts calculated via ICM?
  • The chip count is not considered real money before the tournament is completed
  • For the sake of example, let’s say the first and second place prize amounts are 100 and 50 respectively but the chip stacks of the two remaining players are 1,000 and 1 respectively. In this situation, even though a player may have 1,000 times more chips than their opponent, the player can only be awarded a prize amount that is two times greater. Therefore, distributing the prizes based solely on the chip count is unreasonable
  • Using ICM in the example above, the prize will be distributed 99.95 and 50.05 respectively
  • When using ICM to calculate the prize payout, there is a specific amount of chips based on N players, and when players randomly go all-in (each all-in winning rate is 50:50), the odds of each player finishing from 1st to Nth place is determined in order to calculate EV
  • ICM EV$ = ProbabilityFinish1st * FirstPrize$ + ProbabilityFinish2nd * SecondPrize$ + … + ProbabilityFinishNth * NthPrize$

Blind Interval for the Final Table Features

Once the ‘Final Table Features’ are activated, the blind level will change based on hand counts (number of hands dealt) instead of time.

The number of hand counts per blinds may differ for each tournament.

What is a Chess Clock?

• A Chess Clock is a set amount of time to act given to each player
  • During pre-flop, there is a 30 second action time. However, a player can click on the “time extension" button to use any remaining Chess Clock time.
  • After the flop, a player will use his remaining Chess Clock time by default (no need to actively select this option).
• It will start to decrease during a player’s turn
• Once the Chess Clock expires, the player will only get 5 seconds per turn to make a decision
• At the final table, each player’s total Chess Clock time will be determined by adding their remaining tournament time bank with the average value of Tournament M
  • The average value of Tournament M is calculated as follows: (Chip Total of all players) / (Small Blind + Big Blind + Total Ante) / Number of Players
  • The maximum and minimum Chess Clock values are 15 minutes and 1 minute respectively

Blind Rollback

In certain tournaments with 100 entries or more, once the final table is reached the blind level may be automatically amended to ensure a better final table gameplay experience for remaining players.

If the average player stack in Big Blinds (BB) stands at less than 40 at the moment that the final table is made, the blind level will be rolled back to ensure that the average stack is at least 40 BB for the first hand played. The blinds may roll back multiple levels if required (for example, if the average stack stood at 15 BB at the start of a qualifying tournament’s final table, the blinds might need to roll back three or four levels).

This ensures that there will be more play at the final table!

If the average player stack stands at more than 100 BB, the blind levels may be rolled forward to ensure that the average stack is no more than 100 BB.