How To Do Poker Chip Flip
- Poker Chip Flip Trick
- How To Do Poker Chip Flips
- Poker Chip Tricks Thumb Flip
- How To Do Poker Chip Flip Flops
- How To Do Poker Chip Flipping
To shuffle poker chips, start with 6 chips divided into 2 stacks of 3. Then, with the 2 stacks next to each other on a flat surface, place your fingers down on the table and around the chips. Position your thumb and index finger so they’re on opposite sides of one stack, and do the same with your pinky and ring finger. Chips you win are worth less than the chips you lose. The fact that tournament chips don’t have a monetary value is the main factor that differentiates pre-ante tournament play from cash games — even if the stack sizes in terms of big blinds are the same. For example, if you win 100 big blinds in a $.50/$1 cash game, you win $100. The best way to learn poker is to study from the best. I am a 10+ year poker pro and one of the winningest poker players in online poker history at the lower stakes (BlackRain79). I run a free poker blog and poker YouTube channel teaching people how to learn to play poker. I have also written 3 best selling books on the game.
Robert Woolley
Ed. note: For those who might have missed it before, we’re reprising Robert Woolley’s series of articles for poker players who are new to live poker. The series is great for newcomers, and likely useful as well to those with experience playing in casinos and poker rooms.
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This article concludes my three-part survey of the rules and procedures surrounding poker chips in brick-and-mortar casinos. In the first part, I discussed the complicated relationship between chips and money, chip colors, stacking chips, and other rules regarding chips. In the second part, I covered some things to think about when calling, betting, or raising with chips.
Today I want to finish the discussion by considering a variety of other chip-related topics. All of the following points apply equally to tournaments and cash games.
The ‘Oversize Chip Rule’
It often happens that you want to call a bet but don’t have a combination of chips that will match it exactly. For example, you want to limp in by just calling the amount of the $2 big blind, but you have only $5 chips. If you say nothing and just put out one red chip, it’s potentially unclear whether your intention is to just call (expecting the dealer to give you $3 in change) or to raise to a $5 bet.
The ‘oversize chip rule’ (a.k.a. the ‘one-chip rule’) resolves this ambiguity in advance by declaring that a single chip larger than needed to constitute a call is nevertheless deemed to be just a call unless you have verbally announced a raise before putting the chip out.
Note that this isn’t an issue when the overage is not enough to constitute a raise anyway, e.g., if you call a $4 bet with a $5 chip. The rule is also not invoked when you put out more than one chip. For example, if you are facing a bet of $15 and put out two green ($25) chips, nobody could mistakenly think that you intended to just call. Where there is no ambiguity, there is no need for a rule to resolve it.
Once in a while, a player new to casino poker believes that this rule should not be applied if he has small-denomination chips such that he could have used them if his intention were to call rather than raise. For example, he puts out a $5 as the first player to act after the blinds in a $1/$2 no-limit game. When the dealer, following the rule, declares this to be just a $2 call, the player might protest, pointing to the large stack of $1 chips that he could have used if he had wanted to just call.
This argument is never considered valid. The rule goes by what was actually done, not by what could have been done.
Handling Chips
I’m not a germophobe, but I do try to keep an awareness of which objects in my environment are reasonably clean and which are not. Casino chips, to put it bluntly, are filthy.
Poker Chip Flip Trick
I prefer handling chips as little as possible, and advise you to do the same. Nobody knows for sure, but it stands to reason that poker chips could serve as a vector for transmitting cold and flu viruses from one player to the entire table. I, for one, would like to minimize the risk of being on the receiving end of such a ‘gift.’
Chip Tricks
You will often see poker veterans playing with their chips in interesting ways. They will shuffle chip stacks one-handed, run them over their knuckles, flip them like tiddlywinks, bounce them perfectly onto a target, and so on.
Though I can appreciate the time and effort it takes to master such tricks, I have no interest in learning to do them myself, and my advice to you is not to waste your time and energy, either. It’s a distraction from what you should be paying attention to.
Also, you may unconsciously give off ‘tells’ this way. Chip-shuffling players are notorious for slowing down — without being aware of it — when they have a monster hand.
Finally, if you spend much time in a large poker tournament room, the ‘white noise’ of hundreds of players mindlessly shuffling their chips may remind you of cicada season and make you want to vow not to contribute to the din.
Small Denominations
When playing a in a $1/$2 game, I like keeping at least five or ten $1 chips in my stack at all times. That way, I can bet any exact amount I want to without having to make a verbal announcement of the amount, or call another player’s bet without forcing the dealer to make change for me in the middle of a hand. The reason for that is just that I don’t want to be distracted by such details when I’m trying to focus on what my opponents are doing and making my best decisions.
If I have less than five or ten small chips, I’ll rebuild my supply by paying a couple of round of blinds with larger chips and getting change from the dealer. This, of course, isn’t a rule or even a standard practice or point of etiquette — just a practical hint that you might find helpful.
Making Change
Sometimes another player or even the dealer will ask you to make change — e.g., exchange five $1 chips for one $5 chip, or whatever. Helping out this way when asked is not only perfectly acceptable, but a nice bit of social lubrication to keep the game friendly and moving efficiently. Just be sure that you count both the chips you’re giving and those you’re receiving, so that both parties concur that the trade is being done fairly.
Particularly when doing an exchange with another player, be as open as you can be about the counting of chips, both verbally and visually. That way, neither the other players nor casino security personnel observing the game through overhead cameras are given any reason to think that unethical ‘chip dumping’ is taking place.
Collecting Chips
Many players like to keep poker chips as souvenirs of their visit to a casino. Not only is this legal, but the casinos love it when you do this.
When they put into circulation chips with colorful designs commemorating this, that, and the other thing, they earnestly hope that you will take the chips home without cashing them out, resulting in pure profit to the casino. It’s the same principle as the post office printing stamps that they hope you will purchase, then place in an album rather than on an envelope, giving them revenue without having to provide a service in exchange.
If you like collecting chips, feel free to do so. It can be fun to see how many different ones you can accumulate. Be aware, however, that, like most collecting hobbies, it can suck you in and drain your bank account if you let it get out of control.
Whew! Three whole articles just about poker chips! I hope it has been a worthwhile excursion into a subject that isn’t discussed much, but is actually central to how casino poker games operate.
Next we will move on to tackle another category of poker table equipment, also sometimes confusing to the new player — all of the many forms of ‘buttons’ that are used.
Robert Woolley lives in Asheville, NC. He spent several years in Las Vegas and chronicled his life in poker on the ‘Poker Grump’ blog.
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- cash game strategylive casino pokerbeginner strategyrulesetiquettechips
We’re going to show you how to play Help Your Neighbor! This is a card game (well, really a card and dice game) that is perfect to teach kids. It can be hard to find games that are equally fun for young kids as well as older kids and teens, and this one really fits the bill. I grew up playing this card game with my family when my grandparents came to visit.
Number of players: 4–8
Recommended ages: This game is great for ages 4 to 99! Seriously!
This game works with 3 players, and my kids will sometimes play it that way. But I think it’s more fun with at least 4. You can have any number of players from 4 to 8. I wouldn’t recommend it with more than 8, just because it would get a little crazy, and the wait for turns would be longer.
How To Do Poker Chip Flips
Here’s what you’ll need to play Help Your Neighbor:
- 1–2 decks of cards. You’ll need one full suit for each player.
- 2 dice
- Poker chips — 15 for each player
- A bowl to be the “pot” for the poker chips
Setting Up the Game
Remove the kings, aces, and 7’s from the deck. You won’t need the jokers either.
Each player will get 10 cards from the same suit. They should arrange them face up in front of them as shown below.
Each player will also get some poker chips. You can decide how many, and it depends on how long you want the game to last. I would recommend 10 for families with young kids, and 15 if you want your game to last longer. When we have played with 10 chips each, players are starting to be eliminated in round 2.
Poker Chip Tricks Thumb Flip
How to Play
Each player will put a chip in the pot to start the game.
The first player will roll the dice. Then they will flip over the card that matches the number rolled. Jacks are 11, Queens are 12.
Here’s the help your neighbor part! During game play, if a player rolls a number that they do not need (because that card is already flipped over), it will go to the next person who needs it, going clockwise around the table. This ends that player’s turn, and play resumes with the player who accepted the roll. The player who accepted the roll ALSO gets to roll and take their own turn.
As the game progresses, a player will likely roll a number that everyone has already flipped over. If that happens, they keep rolling until they get something that they can use, or someone else can use.
During game play, anyone who rolls a 7 puts a chip in the pot. This ends their turn.
The first person to turn over all of their cards wins! Each player puts a chip in the pot for every card left face up. Then the winner gets ALL the chips in the pot!
Then you can continue to round 2, etc. Once a player is out of poker chips, they are out of the game.
And that’s all there is to it!
Looking for more family game ideas?
Here are 15 Card Games for Families — these games are perfect to play with kids and adults together.
14 Comments
How To Do Poker Chip Flip Flops
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- Thanks for sharing! This sounds fun and pretty doable even with the littler kids… great for counting. :)
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- This looks like fun! We are going to play after dinner.
- It would be awesome if you had a printable of the rules of the games on your site. ☺️
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- So much fun! Modified the game a bit for preschoolers…only used cards 2–6, one die and if you rolled a 1 is when you put a chip in the pot. Also helped with manners…Thanks neighbor! You’re welcome!
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- I play this with my aftercare group. They love it thank you for a new activity!
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- My family of six just played. We had a blast! All ages, 8 through 18, all had fun. Thanks so much, we will enjoy this one again!
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- This would also be great for elders in a daycare setting because they usually have varying degrees of dementia. Most of them naturally gravitates towards helping one another out.
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- When someone is rolling the dice do they continue to roll until there is nothing to turn over, or do they only roll one time and then pass the dice?
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- If they roll a number that they need to turn over, then they turn the card over and pass the dice. If they roll a number that they don’t need but someone else needs, then the turn goes to that person. They DO keep rolling if they roll a number that no one else at the table needs. I hope that helps!
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- I don’t, but that’s a great idea!
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- Thank you for posting! This is the game I remember playing at my grandparents house with my cousins. I’ve been looking for the rules so I could teach my kids. So excited to finally find them! Thanks!
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- I remember playing at my grandparents house when I was growing up. I loved it. Of course my grandmother loved playing cards. I didn’t realize this was on here and just needed a refresher course. Forgot about the chip part of it. Thanks for sharing. Love it.
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- You don’t put out the number 7 card, lay out 2 through king, but skip the 7. Whenever you roll a 7, you put a chip in the pot.
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- Thanks for sharing! This is a game that I could have my students play to build our classroom community vibe!
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- Oh, the fond memories of playing this as a kid with my extended family of all ages back in the 1950s and 1960s! It was a big hit for the 8–12 of us who opted to play it at the long dinner table after a Thanksgiving feast.
- I never forgot the fun nor the name of this game but I DID forget how to play it long ago and by then the older generation who did know how to play it had passed. So I’m very pleased to see this well-organized set of rules so I can play it again with extended family again someday!
- And we all did make sure to say ‘Thank you, Neighbor’ at the right time as noted in the third post. That was also fun to do because we kids could be creative in how we said that!
- Thank you so much!
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- Say everyone only has one card left. Does the next person to roll keep rolling until they either win, roll someone else’s face card (in which case that person would win), or roll a 7?
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