What Is a Chop in Poker?

A chop is a split pot: two or more players reach showdown with hands of exactly equal value, so the money is divided between them instead of pushed to one seat. The same word covers two agreements made away from the cards: chopping the blinds when the table folds around to them, and chopping a prize pool at a final table rather than playing it out.

How a split pot is settled

Only five cards play. Anything beyond your best five is scenery, which is why ties happen far more often than new players expect.

You hold A♠Q♣ and your opponent turns over A♥J♦ on a board of K♠K♦8♦8♣5♥. You both play kings and eights with an ace kicker: the queen and the jack are sixth cards and never enter the hand. A $120 pot becomes $60 each, so if you both put in $60 the hand is a wash apart from the rake. When you are unsure whether two holdings genuinely tie, the poker hand rankings chart settles it in seconds.

Pots rarely divide cleanly. When one does not, the odd chip goes to the tied player closest to the left of the button — worst position, small consolation. Split $85 two ways and one player collects $43. Side pots are settled separately, each chopped only among the players who contested it.

Chopping the blinds

In many live cash games, when the action folds to the blinds, either player may offer a chop: both take their money back, no hand is dealt, and the button moves on. It is a house rule rather than a rule of poker, both players must agree, and it never applies in tournaments, where chips cannot leave the prize pool.

Chop only if you have a reason to. Blind versus blind is one of the most profitable spots a good player gets: one opponent, very wide ranges, and 1.5bb already in the middle. Giving that back every orbit is a quiet leak. If you do decline, decline every time: chopping only when your cards are bad tells the table precisely what you hold.

Chopping the prize pool

At a final table with a fast structure, players often agree to divide the money rather than let one flop decide it. The floor must approve the deal, and rooms usually hold back a slice plus the trophy so there is still something to play for.

Method	How it splits	Who it favours
Chip chop	Prize money in proportion to chip stacks	The big stack
ICM chop	Prize money by tournament equity	The short stacks

An ICM chop is the fairer of the two: chips do not convert to cash in a straight line, so doubling your stack does not double what you take home, and a pure chip chop overpays whoever is in front. Ask for the ICM numbers before you agree to anything — five-handed, the gap between the methods is routinely a few hundred dollars.