Tools / ICM Calculator
Poker ICM Calculator & Final Table Deal Maker
Enter up to 10 stacks and the prizes still to be paid to see what each stack is really worth. Making a deal at the final table? Compare an ICM deal, a chip chop, or anything in between. Free, no sign-up!
Players remaining
6 players · 65,500 chipsPayouts (place 1, 2, 3...)
Pool: $5,900Places 4-6 pay nothing.
Deal method
Deal equity updated for 6 players.
Deal equity
| Player | Chip share | Chip share $ | This deal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player 1 | 28.1% | $1,657 | $1,497 |
| Player 2 | 21.7% | $1,279 | $1,250 |
| Player 3 | 18.0% | $1,063 | $1,084 |
| Player 4 | 14.7% | $865 | $915 |
| Player 5 | 11.0% | $649 | $712 |
| Player 6 | 6.6% | $387 | $442 |
“This deal” is whichever method is selected above. Amounts in orange pay less than an even chip-proportional split - that's the covering stack's real ICM cost of covering everyone else. Short stacks are almost always on the other side of that trade.
How do I read the results?
Chip share is just each stack's percentage of the total chips in play. Chip-chop $ is what that percentage of the remaining pool would pay if the deal were made purely on chip count. This deal is the actual payout under whichever method is selected above - and it's the number that matters if a deal is really being made.
The gap between chip-chop and ICM is never zero once stacks are uneven, and it always points the same direction: it favors the short stacks and costs the chip leader. That's not a quirk of the math, it's the entire reason ICM exists - a min-cash you can't lose is worth more than its chip count implies, and a stack that can still bust before the money is worth less.
What is ICM?
ICM (the Independent Chip Model) turns chip stacks into prize money. It works out how likely each player is to finish in each paid place, based on their share of the chips, and adds up what those finishes pay. First place pays far less than all the chips in play, so big stacks are worth less than their share of the chips, and short stacks are worth more. Our ICM guide walks through the model step by step.
How do the three deal types compare at one final table?
Three players are left with 50,000, 30,000, 20,000 chips, and the remaining prizes are $500, $300, $200. Here is what each deal pays, with the hybrid set halfway between the two:
| Player | Chips | Chip chop | ICM deal | Hybrid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chip leader | 50,000 | $400 | $384 | $392 |
| Middle stack | 30,000 | $320 | $328 | $324 |
| Short stack | 20,000 | $280 | $289 | $284 |
The chip leader gets $400 from a chip chop and $384 from an ICM deal. The short stack goes the other way, from $280 to $289. That's why big stacks push for a chip chop and short stacks push for ICM, and why a hybrid is often where the table ends up.
When is a deal worth taking?
An ICM deal pays you exactly what your stack is worth if everyone played equally well, so it's a fair price for removing the luck. Take it when you're short, when the blinds are high enough that the rest of the game is mostly shoving, or when the pay jumps are big compared to what you play for. If you think you're clearly the best player left, you give up that edge by dealing, so ask for more than your ICM number or play on.
Hosting a home game? BlindClock is a free blind timer for iPhone and iPad that runs the clock and splits the prize pool on the night. Come back here if the final table wants to make a deal.
Now play the bubble
ICM is why bubble and final-table shoves get tighter. Practice those spots hand by hand, or see the solved bubble ranges for every seat. Free accounts get 10 ICM hands every day.
Common questions
- What's the difference between an ICM chop and a chip chop?
- A chip chop guarantees everyone the last-place prize, then splits the rest of the pool in exact proportion to chip count - simple, but it ignores the fact that busting is disproportionately costly near a pay jump. An ICM chop instead gives each player their real Independent Chip Model equity, which accounts for that risk. ICM chops are more accurate; chip chops are easier to explain to the table.
- Why would anyone take less than their ICM equity?
- A hybrid deal (partway between ICM and chip chop) is common when the chip leader won't agree to a pure ICM chop - they're giving up some of their ICM edge in exchange for the deal actually happening. Big stacks tend to push for chip chop; short stacks tend to push for ICM.
- How many players can it handle?
- Up to 10, a full final table, which is where deal making happens. It runs the exact Malmuth-Harville model rather than a Monte Carlo approximation, so the numbers are the same every time you run them.
- How do I use this as an ICM payout or split calculator?
- Enter every remaining stack and the prizes still to be paid, then pick ICM, chip chop, or a hybrid. The table shows each player's share of the remaining pool under that method, which is the split a final-table deal pays out.
Sources and assumptions
- Harville (1973) - "Assigning Probabilities to the Outcomes of Multi-Entry Competitions", Journal of the American Statistical Association 68(342). The finishing-order model ICM is built on (Malmuth-Harville).
- Independent Chip Model (Wikipedia) - A general overview of how ICM turns stacks and payouts into prize equity.
The solved numbers on this page
- Exact Malmuth-Harville ICM, calculated in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server.
- A chip chop splits the remaining prizes by chip share. A hybrid deal mixes the two.
- ICM doesn't model skill, blind levels or who's on the button.
Key terms
- ICMglossary
- ICM Chopglossary
- Chip Chopglossary
- Final Table Dealglossary