Deal or no deal? In France, no deal

Deal-making in major poker tournaments is a crucial part of the modern game, but the practice is prohibited in France

February 22, 2023

Poker

by Howard Swains

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4 Minute Read

First published 22 February 2023. Updated in February 2024.

There are a number of rules governing poker in France that do not apply in the rest of the world. The European Poker Tour (EPT) brochures handed out here in Paris would have had to have been a couple of pages longer if tournament organisers had wanted to detail them all.

However, it’s worth highlighting one rule in particular — especially relevant on any day the prize pool details are announced.

It’s this: Deal-making in poker tournaments is prohibited in France.

Tournament officials can’t facilitate it. They can’t bring out the laptop and help players look at the numbers. And if they hear players discussing a deal at the table, they will request that the conversation stops.

The rule comes from the relevant gambling authorities and poker players in France are accustomed to it, even if they don’t particularly like it. According to insiders here, there are frequent conversations between poker officials and the authorities in a bid to get it changed.

But, as yet, they have never managed to drive the changes through.

It means that here at EPT Paris, tournament directors have their hands tied. As Toby Stone explained, tournament staff will remind players reaching a final table of the rules, and will instruct his dealers to keep their ears open for any prohibited deal chatter.

However, we also have it on good authority that tournament officials will permit players to take a tournament break if they request it, particularly if the game is short handed. Players can do whatever they please in these breaks.

HUGE PAY-JUMPS INCREASE THE JEOPARDY

As everyone involved with tournament poker knows, there’s a huge amount of variance in this game — particularly in the short term. And when you look at the prize schedule for the EPT Paris Main Event, you can see why deal-making is usually such a significant part of the modern game.

The huge field in Paris built a prize pool of many millions. The winner is scheduled to get just over 15 percent. And although second place will still get the kind of sum that would change most people’s life it still leaves a significant amount of money left for the final two to compete over.

Jordan Saccucci and Antoine Saout deal in Prague

Heads-up might be what some people consider the purest form of poker, but it’s also the most volatile. Someone could play absolutely perfectly in a heads-up duel, and get coolered out of a lot of money.

This is the principal reason that PokerStars has been an industry leader in facilitating deals in its tournaments, both live and online. The money on the table belongs to the players, and it’s theirs to allocate as they please.

(It’s worth remembering, of course, that a deal can only ever take place if all remaining players agree to it. It’s usually the players’ prerogative alone to decide how to split it up.)

HOW COMMON IS DEAL-MAKING IN MAIN EVENTS?

We’ve grown accustomed on the EPT to seeing Stone (or his predecessors) heading over to the TV stage clutching a laptop to help players do a deal. It seems like it happens at every event.

But the indefatigable Jan Kores, EPT Media Coordinator, went back through his extensive records to establish just how often Main Event deals actually do get struck.

Kores was as surprised as anyone by what he found out. It’s almost exactly 50:50.

Toby Stone mediates as Philipe Pinto, Aliaksandr Shylko and Max Menzel negotiate a chop in the PSPC

Since the PCA in 2014, there have been 47 EPT Main Events and 23 have finished with a deal. In the other 24, there has been no deal (at least not an official one). Those figures are accurate up to the start of the 2023.

Most commonly, deals are made heads up. Thirteen of the 23 deals (i.e. 57 percent) have been struck between the last two players. There have been eight three-way deals (35 percent), and two four-way agreements (9 percent).