Chip Dumping

In poker, chip dumping is a practice of deliberately surrendering a pot to another player to help increase their stack. Although some players may not see it as such, this is cheating, and it is forbidden in all live rooms and online sites alike.

Chip dumping usually happens in tournaments and it is uncommon in cash games as it doesn’t serve much of a purpose there.

There are many ways to dump chimps, but one blatant example would be for two players to get in a heads-up pot. One player has a big stack, and the other one is on a short stack.

The big stack player bets on the flop and the turn, and the short stack player calls both streets. On the river, the big stack player checks, and the small stack player moves all in for just a few blinds. The player with the big stack has a top pair and is getting great odds but decides to fold.

In this scenario, the big stack player is clearly helping the other player, allowing them to increase their stack size with no risk. This influences other players in a tournament quite significantly.

As to why players dump chips, there are many possible reasons. Sometimes, it is just a friendly gesture as they want to “help out” their buddy, and they have chips to spare. Sometimes, however, reasons are more nefarious, as players may be working together to cash for as much as possible and split the profits later.

Regardless of the reasons, chip dumping is never acceptable at a poker table, and it can get you disqualified from a tournament or even banned from a poker room.

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