DealMaker Documentation
Introduction
When a poker tournament approaches its final stages and only a couple of players are still alive, often a deal is brokered for various reasons. The amount of money at risk is way higher than the players comfort zone. The blinds and antes are high in comparison to the players stacks and the luck factor becomes so much greater than the skill factor. Or the players are tired and just want to go home.
To offer a deal, the chip stacks of the remaining players need to be evaluated and compared to the payout structure of the tournament. This is not a trivial task and various formulas have been suggested over the course of time. DealMaker offers three methods to calculate payouts in relationship to the chip stack of each individual player: Proportional, Landrum/Burns and ICM.
- Proportional: Each player gets the payout of the last place still in the tournament, plus a share of the remaining pool proportional to his/her chip count. This method favors big stacks, especially if their lead is significant. It is most often used by tournament directors, since it is easy to calculate with just a hand calculator.
- Landrum/Burns: Each player gets a share of the first place money according to his chances to win, plus shares of the other places payouts, assuming he is equally likely to finish in any place other than first. This method favors smaller stacks.
- ICM: The Independent Chip Model uses each players chances to finish in each position to calculate a fair payout for each player. The calculation is complex and hard to execute with just a calculator. In fact, there will be a noticeable slowdown in your ICM calculations when there are seven or more players left in the tournament.
Usage
– General Calculations
The initial screen has two columns where you can enter the sizes of up to 10 chip stacks and up to 10 payouts given by the tournament host. You can enter them in any order. The program will sort them biggest to smallest once the Calculate button has been hit.
There are two payout columns on the right side if the screen. The column header buttons let you select what to display in those columns: One of the three payout methods, a customary tip for the dealers or your tournament equity in percent.
There is a second page with calculation results which can be reached by swiping over the areas without a button. You will see 4 more columns which can also be configured to display any of the payouts, tip amounts and percentages.
Your configuration of the column headers will be stored from session to session which will allow you to find and keep your favorite configuration.
– Store and Recall of Favorite Payout Structures
If you play in the same tournament multiple times, you may want to store the payout structure as percentages and recall it when a deal should be offered. Just select a structure, enter the total prize pool and the missing chip counts. This comes in handy for Sit’n Go’s as well.
To save a payout structure, enter percentages into the payout column, hit Payout and then Store. You will be prompted for a name for this structure.
To load a payout structure, hit Payout and then Load. Select a structure from the list offered and enter a total prize pool as well. The name of the structure will be displayed in the top right area of the screen.
To change or update a structure, load it first, make your changes in the payout column and press Payout and then Update.
Pushing Payout and then Delete will delete the payout structure that is currently displayed. It is removed from the files and can’t be restored.
Pushing Payout and then Clear will erase all chip count and payout fields as well as the result columns for a brand new calculation.
System Requirements
A smartphone running Android 2.1-update or higher.
Support
The software is provided as is. Should there be errors, problems or suggestions, please let us know about them by either using the Contact page or by sending email to [email protected].
References
The Independent Chip Model – An Introduction
Ankenman & Chen: The Mathematics of Poker
Disclaimer
While we have made every effort to deliver high quality products, we do not guarantee that our products are free from defects. Our software is provided “as is,” and you use the software at your own risk.
We make no warranties as to performance, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or any other warranties whether expressed or implied.
No oral or written communication from or information provided by us shall create a warranty.
Under no circumstances shall we be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from the use, misuse, or inability to use this software, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
Release Notes 1.1.2
Bugfix release:
- Changed how decimal input is handled in the payout column. Using strictly 2 decimals forced the user who just wanted to enter integer amounts to delete comma and decimals or to navigate to the left of the comma. Now the fields are initialized with integers. This should make the data entry less clumsy
- Fixed an abnormal termination issue when just 1 payout value and no stacks where entered
- After saving a payout structure the name of the structure is now displayed in the top right corner, just like it is after loading a structure.