What is a final table deal in poker?

A final table deal is an agreement among the remaining players to redistribute the prize pool by some formula - usually an ICM chop, a chip chop, or a hybrid of the two - instead of playing the tournament out to a single winner.

Deals are optional, negotiated at the table (sometimes with tournament staff mediating), and often leave a small amount of the pool still up for grabs - a “play for” amount the eventual winner takes on top of their guaranteed share, which keeps everyone still incentivized to play well after the deal is struck.

The negotiation almost always runs the same way. Someone asks for numbers, play pauses, the floor prints the chip counts and remaining payouts, and each player gets an ICM figure and a chip-chop figure. The chip leader argues for chip chop, the short stacks argue for ICM, and the settlement lands somewhere between - because the two methods always disagree in the same direction, with the gap widening the more lopsided the stacks are.

Three things are worth checking before agreeing to anything. Whether the numbers on the sheet are ICM or chip chop, since they can differ by a full pay jump. Whether the trophy, title or any package prize sits inside or outside the deal. And whether the remaining structure favours you - a short stack facing a level jump that will halve its stack in big blinds should take a deal that a deeper stack with room to play should refuse.

One structural caveat: chip counts are a snapshot, and a deal struck at a break prices the stacks as they were at that break. If two orbits have been played since, the numbers on the sheet are already stale, and it is entirely reasonable to ask for them to be reprinted.