What Is Chip Dumping And Why Do It?

Because it is an uncommon, unethical, and often illegal play, most are not able to answer the question, "what is chip dumping?" or know why it is done.

What is chip dumping? In poker, it means losing chips to another player in the match on purpose. As such, it requires to co-operating opponents in a poker game, which is considered unethical on its own. Often, it is done when one player has a high stack and the other a lower stack. Since chips won't always have a linear value, the involved players will prefer having two average-sized stacks over one very large one and one very small one.

Any hand at all where one player loses on purpose is considered to be a chip dump. Most often, this happens when one of the two players raises before the flop and then folds after his accomplice re-raises. There are, of course, a number of ways to lose rounds of poker, so there are a number of forms and ways this can happen. Most of them, however, are easily detectable, particularly when an involved person breaks away from their usual style and ends up losing because of it, especially when the person they lose to has a smaller pile. This is an extremely easy strategy to detect, and is very often looked for in well-monitored establishments.

Chip dumping is considered unethical and illegal. Often, the action alone is grounds for immediate disqualification from a tournament. Establishments take as strong an action against it as any other form of cheating because acting co-operatively with an opponent is both against the rules and the spirit of poker. As a result, establishments treat dumpers as they would any other rule breakers. In any well-policed venue, it is next to impossible to get away with doing this, and it is ill-advised to try to. While this means it can be an issue in the less well policed casinos, in high-level, more important events such as tournaments, there is no question that this is not something that can be done successfully and is something that will have serious consequences.