Dead Money

Also known as: dead money in the pot, dead chips

Chips in the pot that no longer have a fighting claim on it — or a player with little chance of winning the tournament.

Dead money has two senses. In a pot, it's chips contributed by players who have folded or who hold hands that won't win — the antes, blinds, and the calls of folded players. Dead money lowers your required equity to continue because you're contesting chips nobody is fighting for; it's the engine behind stealing, squeezing, and why fold equity plays are profitable. The more dead money, the more attractive aggression becomes.

In a field, "dead money" describes weak players (a fish or a short-stacked whale) who bought in but have little real chance of winning — their buy-ins inflate the prize pool for the skilled players. A tournament full of recreational entrants is said to have lots of dead money in the field, which is exactly what makes it worth registering.

Quantify it at the table: a pot with a 1.5bb open, a flat, and 1bb of blinds plus antes already has meaningful dead money, so a squeeze only needs to work some of the time to print, even before you see a flop.