WHY PLAYERS SHOULD DO CHIP TRICKS AT THE POKER TABLE

WHY PLAYERS SHOULD DO CHIP TRICKS AT THE POKER TABLE

Chip Flourishes (Chip Tricks): handling chips in a fancy manner.

Poker is fast becoming America's favorite form of entertainment. Hold 'em tournaments are broadcast daily on TV. You and I are able to peek into the pros hole cards, as well as see the way they handle their chips. Some don't flourish at all, but others, work with the chips in a manner that reveal their thousands of hours spent on the green felt. They riffle shuffle their chips. They delicately finger the chips...extracting one, turning it over, and replacing it. They bet their chips with flair.

The colorful tricks include:

• running a chip across the knuckles,

• twirling a chip between two fingers,

• and rolling out a stack of four chips so that a chip is gracefully placed between each finger.

They impress us with their chip acrobatics. And it's second nature...they aren't even thinking about it.

There are several reasons why players do chip tricks.

TABLE IMAGE:

I've read pros suggest that players should project an image that they are a "madman" or "unsure of themselves"....when in reality...they are not. Throw your opponent off. Appear the opposite. This does have advantages, but I just can't get myself to do it. When I sit down at a table I want everyone to know that I grew up with a deck of cards in my hand, that I'm a "player", and that I know what I'm doing at the table...all the time. Performing chip tricks helps me stand out and gives me a bit more control of the table.

I can opt to look like a poker veteran, and unleash my collection of chip handling techniques. Or if I want to look like a beginner, I can simply choose not to do anything fancy.

RELIEVE STRESS:

Just as some people twiddle their thumbs, bounce their knee, or tap their fingers, performing chip tricks can be a means to physically dissipate nervous energy. Poker can be a stressful game in several ways. One is the nervousness one feels at the beginning of a tournament. This is easily decreased by some chip shuffling. Poker is a sedentary game and there aren't many physical ways to "blow off" a bad beat or major chip loss. A player can get out of his seat and walk a few steps, he can verbalize, or pick up a drink. There's not much else to do. Golfers can walk off their frustration. Baseball players can fling their helmets and bats into the ground after striking out. One way to "let off steam" for a poker player, is to work the chips. Moving your fingers and handling the chips, is one physical means to lessen stress, and take your mind off the last hand.

INTIMIDATE OPPONENTS:

I've seen beginners fold solid hands being intimidated by players who look like "seasoned" poker players (many do twirls, rolls, flips, and other fancy fingering of chips and cards). The psychological factor in poker is far more important than in other card games. If you look like you grew up playing poker, you will have your raises respected more. You will find opponents laying down hands because they think you have the winning hand. The confidence you display, and the way you handle your chips & cards, effects other people's decisions and play.

EARN RESPECT FROM DEALERS AND FLOOR PERSONS:

I don't look like a beginner, and I am more likely to be noticed and remembered. I'm looking to maximize my comps and courtesies!

Sometimes a dealer may get "testy" with a tourist or one who is new to the game. I'm not put in that category.

Over the years, I've seen a variety of borderline situations at the table, where the veteran player gets the better shake. My flourishing puts me in the "poker veteran" category.

STAY AWAKE:

During long tournaments, keeping my fingers moving helps me be a little more awake and aware of what's going on. There are some boring stretches to poker, and handling my chips helps me stay alert.

FOCUS:

Handling the chips keeps me focused on the game. My hands are physically on them, and I'm mentally attached to the cards at play. The purpose of the game is to gain chips, and there is no better way to remind me of this than to finger the chips.

HELPS TO WARD OFF CHEATS:

Someone who performs chip tricks and handles cards with a flair does not look like an easy mark. He is thought to be well versed in proper poker shuffling, cutting, dealing procedures, and protocol. He is one who is more likely to be aware of card "mechanics", collusion, and other scams. I am less likely to be the "mark", and any cheat will think twice before trying to pull one on me. For them...there are easier prey in other seats.

OTHERS WOULD LIKE TO DO IT:

Every person at the table would like to be able to perform tricks with their chips. It takes some initial practice but once you learn it, you learn it for life. Make sure you have them second nature before sitting down and gambling. If you have to concentrate on the tricks, and take attention away from the cards at play, you'll be hurting your game. Try performing tricks while talking on the phone, or while playing on-line. If you can do it then, you are ready.

THE PROS DO IT:

No matter what sport or game, everybody wants to emulate the professionals. They are the stars, the successful. Do as the pros do!

IT'S COOL TO DO!

Tom Golabek is an award winning magician, and plays the poker tables of South Florida and Las Vegas. He has produced a step by step instructional DVD on how to perform a colorful collection of poker chip tricks, and card handling techniques. Go to www.pokerchipdvd.com

POKER ROOMS IN ST. LOUIS, MO.

POKER ROOMS IN ST. LOUIS, MO.

There are other poker rooms in the St. Louis area. There's the Ameristar in St. Charles and there's the President on the river downtown. Each has its special charms (Ameristar more than the President, to be sure). But for serious poker players interested in the biggest games, the best tournaments, the highest limits, and the best action, there really isn't a choice of where to go. This is the place.

The poker room at Harrah's is a modern, well-lit, spacious room, full of tournaments and live games and very well run. Unfortunately, they do not spread 7-card stud.

It's not plush or luxurious, but it is very comfortable. They have 21 tables and will soon be expanding to 22 tables. Not bad considering they started with 12 tables just three and a half years ago.

The poker room opens, usually with people waiting to get in, at 8:00 every morning. It closes in the wee hours at 4:00 AM. State law forbids casinos from staying open twenty-four hours each day. There are two tournaments every weekday – at 1:00 PM and 7:00 PM and one or two over the weekend as well. They have regular promotions. When I was there they were just about to start up satellites for the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. This past year they sent eight players – one of whom finished 30th in the Main Event.

They also have an Aces Cracked promotion. $100 goes to each of the first five players of each day who have their pair of aces beaten. The promotion seems to be succeeding in getting players to arrive early. By 8:30 AM, when I arrived, there were two tables going. I stayed and played for a little over an hour (earning $62 in the $1/2 no-limit game). No one had aces beaten while I was there. I had aces once but no one called when I raised the blind pre-flop. In retrospect this was probably a terrible move on my part. I would have made more money had I just called along and either won the hand with no bets or gotten beaten.

On the low end, the room regularly spreads a $1/2 no-limit game and a $3/6 limit game. During the day they are filled with retirees and a few stranglers. Nights and weekends, there are college kids and young adults. They tend to have more games for the higher rollers at night and on the weekends -- $2/5 and $5/5 no-limit and limit of $20/40 and $30/60 each with a half kill.

Those are very big games considering that there is a $500 maximum buy-in at the cashier's window every two hours. That's state law. They don't want gamblers losing more than they can afford. But no matter, regular players in the know just stash chips until they have the large stacks they need for the bigger games.

Players earn $.75 for each hour of play – regardless of what level they play. These points may be used for food or a room. They are also transferable from one Harrah's property to another (they have many including Caesar's in Las Vegas and the Horseshoe in Tunica, Mississippi). Players will need a lot of these points for the better restaurants, Mobey's or The Range. Both are reported to be excellent and are quite dear. The poker room supplies free coffee and soft drinks – and donuts in the morning.

The level of play during the morning, when I was there, was the expected rocking and timid play of retirees. I'd like to check out the action at night and on the weekends when the "old money" and "young hot shots" roll in. But from everything I observed and heard, this is the place to be for serious poker in the St. Louis area.

Harrah's St. Louis Hotel & Casino
777 Casino Center Drive
Maryland Heights, MO 63043
Phone: (314)770-8100
Fax: (314)770-8399

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POKER CHIP TRICKS DVD

TWIRL A POKER CHIP BETWEEN TWO FINGERS!

HANDLE A DECK OF CARDS LIKE A “SHARK“!.

Learn a colorful collection of poker chip tricks.
Look like a seasoned poker player

My DVD is a step by step instructional DVD on how to do:
The flip
Back to Front
The Twirl
Butterfly
Roll & Drop
Knuckle roll
Shuffling......and more!

also

Three EASY, but ELECTRIFYING card handling moves that will make you stand out.

Bonus of 10 clay chips comes with the DVD.

Go to www.pokerchipdvd.com.

“Jeez, You’re Big…You A Poker Player?”

“Jeez, You’re Big…You A Poker Player?”


It “hit me” when I played at the 2005 World Series of Poker. Walking to the tables I found myself behind T.J. Cloutier. “Jeez, this guy is big!”…I thought. A well fitted Tommy Bahama shirt covered his broad shoulders. He reminded me of an ex-linebacker. I’m no slouch… 6’1”, pushing 200 pounds, and I‘m barely seeing over his shoulders. “He didn’t seem that big on TV”.

Later, in the Full Tilt Poker Courtesy Room I talked with Phil Ivey. I found myself looking up at him. And he appeared to be in great shape. Not the guy I want to wrestle.
Hey, here comes Howard Lederer. Holy Shit, he’s bigger than Ivey!

I met Marcel Luske and I had to look up at him as well. I never thought of him, or the others, as big guys.

Finally, I’m at a table with a pro who many people consider a wimp and whiner,…Phil Hellmuth. I was really surprised when we came nose to nose. He’s a big boy, no matter what his persona is.

I looked around the expansive convention hall set up at the RIO for the WSOP, and began to notice the heights and sizes of the players. Was it my imagination, or were most of the people in the poker room larger than the general population? Are those who play poker any larger in size than the average person?

Upon my return to Florida from the WSOP I discussed my new observations with professional poker player “Easy Jack“ Arias. He expressed strong conviction that the guys who play poker are larger in size, on average, than those in the general population. Jack gave me variety of reasons for this, but that is a topic for a different article. During the next week we played at three different casinos and poker rooms and surveyed the clientele at the tables. Our unofficial count favored that his theory was true. However, I would have to poll players to get any kind of accurate count. I thought about asking the poker rooms if I could poll the entries of various poker tournaments. As entrants signed up, I could ask their height and weight, and maybe their age. To make the data a little more valid, different geographic locations should be surveyed (Vegas, A.C., Biloxi). I visit each place twice a year, and have a good relationship with various card room managers in each city.

It sounded like a lot of work and effort, for the sake of curiosity. “Maybe I’ll test the waters with something a little less time and work intensive“, I told myself. I play on-line poker daily and have membership in over thirty on-line poker forums. A Poker Forum is an on-line site where players discuss various poker subjects (strategies, WSOP & WPT events, bad beats, etc.). The memberships are mostly on-line players, instead of (but not excluding) the guys who play the casinos and poker rooms that “Easy Jack” and I are talking about. The on-line crowd might not represent the brick and mortar population, but it seemed interesting to get an idea of the size of on-line players as well….and easier.

With this in mind, I made posts on 30 different poker forums, explaining who I am, and asking volunteers to post their height, weight, age, and gender during the month of September, ‘05. I stated I would retrieve this data after the cutoff date (9/30/05), analyze it, and complete a report/article/piece for publication in a poker periodicals, the forum, or whoever might be interested in such trivia. That’s all it is….trivia. No cancer cure here, no peace plan for the Middle East.

Funny things happened in collecting this data. 10 of the 30 forums had zero replies to my post for the statistics. For instance, Poker Monster ( 240 members); Online Champs Poker (388 members); Perfect Poker Play (427 members); Poker Words (56 members); Toronto Poker (143 members) were a few of the forums where my post did not elicit a single response.
One forum, Total Bluff, elicited what I call 6 “idiot” responses. Idiot responses consist of inane remarks or nonsense.
One poster warned that, “the problem is that this methodology is so fundamentally flawed that it’s difficult to take seriously”. [Thank you, but I’m not going for the Nobel Prize here.] Another post advised, “If you ever wanted to take a crack at serious writing you would know that to do research you have to actually do research instead of asking for voluntary submissions”. [Serious writing?!!, no, I’m into non-serious writing, seriously!]

Some of the more memorable posts asked if I had a theory that “only short fat guys played on-line?”; told me this was a “Sorry way to pick up chicks”, and asked me if I was “kidding?”. One fellow explained that he plays Center for his HS football team explaining his heavy weight. Another noted that he is “Asian” so I would understand why he weighed so little.
I was happily surprised that I only got one post which listed an obviously bogus height and weight (eg. 7’3”, 135 lbs.).

Unexpectedly, many of the weights and heights posted were presented in the form of kilograms, stone, meters, and centimeters. I’ve got to stop thinking that the U.S. is the center of the universe. All measurements were easily converted to pounds and inches though.

Other forums were more receptive to the poll. Scott’s Poker Table (1902 members) logged 25 replies. Poker Strategy (1491 members) and Internet Texas Hold ’em (4627 registered users) each had 16 responders.

Of the 149 responses, five were from females. A statistical analysis of such a small sample size is meaningless. For curiosity the statistics for the five female responders were:
5’ 9” at 125 lbs, aged 28
5’ 10” at 160 lbs, aged 33
5’ 8” at 145 lbs, aged 29
5’ 4” 107 lbs., aged 23, and
5’ 8”, 212 lbs, aged 31.



I have the data on 144 male on-line poker players regarding their weight, height and ages.

Before you read further, take a moment. What’s your guess as to the average height, weight, and age of the 144 male responders over the twenty poker forums?

Here’s some other interesting (but more useless) data I found on-line:
-The average NFL player is 6’1” and logs in at 245 pounds.
-Average 2001 NY Yankee was 6’2 and 204 lbs.
-Height of average Japanese male is 5’5”
-The average Viet-names male is between 5’ and 5’4”
-The average height of a solder in Napoleon’s army was 5 feet.
-Teddy Roosevelt was 5’8”, sometimes heavy, sometimes slim.
-The average height for males in US increased from 5’8” in 1960 to 5’9 ½” in 2002 (CDC).
- “ weight “ “ 166.3 pounds in 1960 to 191 pounds in 2002 (CDC)

**The best comparison I found**
-Average American male is 5’10”, 168-184 lbs. (I personally think the above 191 pound reference is more accurate).

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

AGE
The responses from the 124 male players who noted their ages were divided into 6 categories.

Under 20- 9%
In Twenties- 48%
Thirties- 30%
Forties- 8%
Fifties- 5%
Sixty + 1%

The age range of players was from youngest at 15 to the oldest at 60.
Using “the average” or “mean” is not the correct measurement in determining the age of the typical online player. Rather, if the “mode” is used statistically, one sees that the highest frequency group of players are in their twenties. In fact, they make up almost half of the responders (48%). If you combine the “Twenties” and “Thirties” you have 78% of the population. No surprises here for me. Oh yes, here’s one….at 59, I found only one guy in the survey older than me, and he’s only 60!!! Where are all the geezers who are older than me?!! Well, they’re probably in the casinos and poker rooms.

HEIGHT
The 144 responses were categorized three ways:

Shorter than 5’10” - 22%
5’10”& 5’11” - 24%
6’ & over - 54%

The range in height of players was from 5’1” to 6’8”. The average of the heights is 5’11 ½ inches.
The data reflects that 78% of the poker players responding are at least 5’10” (the height of the “average” American), and that over half (54%) of the responders are 6 feet tall at minimum. Did that sink in? Most of the players reported being six feet or taller.
OK, so far, it appears that the typical on-line player is in his twenties and probably 6’ or taller. Now, let’s find out if he is a “fat-ass”.

WEIGHT
These 144 responses were broken into six groups:

Under 168 lbs. 38
168-184 lbs. 30
184-199 lbs. 22
Over 200 52
Over 300 2

The range of weight was from 96 to 360 pounds.
The average weight of the responders is 192 ½ pounds.
The weight range for the average American male (found on the internet) is 168 to 184 pounds (remember, I like the 192 lb. citation). Only thirty of the responders fell in this group. However 76 EXCEEDED the UPPER limit for the average American (184 lbs.).

FYI: The two guys who weighed in over 300 are big boys…6’3” and 6’6”.


CONCLUSION

It appears that the typical on-line poker player is a pretty big boy. He’s 6 foot or more, tilts the beam at over 200 pounds and is in his twenties, maybe thirties.




Writing this was fun but the polling of “on-line” players took more time and effort than I thought. My scientific curiosity about the size of players I bump into at the casinos has waned.

I got to go play some poker.



Tom Golabek plays the poker tables of South Florida, Vegas, and Atlantic City. Tom has published for both Poker Player and Full Tilt Magazines, and is an award winning Magician. He has produced a step by step instructional DVD on how to perform a collection of colorful poker chip tricks and card handling techniques which will make you look like a poker veteran. It can be found at www.pokerchipdvd.com

Superstition and Poker Players

Superstition and Poker Players


See the guy across the table? He has a little green frog figure sitting next to his chip stack. About as tall as two dice placed on top of each other. Another fellow has a Marlboro box sized metal Buddha strategically placed beside his chips. At other tables I see a bear’s tooth, a silver dollar, a penny encrusted in clear plastic with “MY LUCKY PENNY” imprinted on it. Scanning the room I see a medallion with a crucifix embedded in it, a statue of what looks like a small white dog, a four leaf clover in plastic, a little red devil figurine, a piece of iron looking material claimed to be a meteor….you get the idea? Are these items on the tables to bring them luck? Does the owner think that their “lucky piece” will have an effect on what cards they’ll receive? Do they think that there is some mysterious force or energy emanating from these trinkets? Might they think their amulet elicits divine intervention to help them win at poker? I had the opportunity to approach five of them, and ask about their trinkets. I’ll tell you what they said at the end of the story. But let me give you my take on “lucky pieces” first.

Believing that a lucky piece (or amulet) will bring you good fortune is a superstition. There are various types of superstitions used in gambling and poker. Some make sure to wear the same shirt they wore when they won their last tournament.
I know a player who picks his cards up only with his left hand, another makes sure he looks at only one card at a time. I’ve seen a fellow get up and walk around the table every time he won a hand. Overall, I think all superstitions are absurd, but today I’d like to focus on the absurdity regarding the trinkets and related paraphernalia that poker players bring to the table to bring them luck and fortune.

Let’s talk about the Laws of Nature, you know, laws of physics and such. If you drop a ball…it falls (Principle of Gravity), it does not float in the air. If someone claims that they possess the powers to make a ball levitate, that would be counter to the principle of gravity. If proven, then the laws and principles of nature would change. All the claimer would have to do is prove it under scientific conditions.

As for poker players and lucky pieces, if you REALLY think that your lucky piece effects the outcome of games, well, uh, please read more.

Physics shows us definite rules by which nature always operates…rules for establishing what is physically possible, and for eliminating the impossible. The scientific community has confidence in these laws due to observations and experiments.

A “lucky piece” (amulet/charm which brings good luck) on the poker table for the purpose of bringing the owner good luck needs to demonstrate its effectiveness via scientific observation and testing which can be replicated.. Without such validation it is just a superstition, a form a magical thinking.

There is a rock in Africa where people travel thousands of miles so they can sit on it to become fertile. Some have become pregnant and conclude that the rock had caused the pregnancy. A golfer wears a copper alloy bracelet. The next day he feels less pain, and concludes that the “energy” from the bracelet caused the reduction of pain. A poker player places his “lucky stone” on the table and places in the money in his last three tournaments. He believes the stone effects the cards he is dealt. All of these are examples of magical thinking.

One of the learning methods humans are programmed to use is to associate things and events that “go together”. We are born into this world not as critical thinkers, but as magical thinkers. The tooth fairies, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, were all very real for us when we were children. We learned automatically about “what goes with what” and then later interpreting those associations in terms of “what causes what.” It is this association of events that occur close together in time that underlies not only our intuitive learning about the world but also superstitious learning…seeing cause and effect relationships where none exist.

Gambling is truly an event of numbers, meaning that a mathematic probability exists for each situation. Take the following situation as an example. If a person flips a coin 10,000 times, no one expects it to be heads then tails then heads again, etc. for the entire 10,000 times. You will have streaks or runs where it might be heads ten or twenty times in a row then tails seven or thirty times in a row. No one calls that good or bad luck. It’s just the probability of events.

So when a person gambles, they are walking into the event and they have no idea if the event is coming up heads or tails, or in their case a winner or loser. If a person plays 10 hands of blackjack and loses nine hands, they might think they have bad luck but in reality if you played 10,000 hands taking into the consideration that the casino has a house advantage you will win your appropriate amount of hands. Unfortunately, most gamblers do not have enough money to sit around for thousands of hands until it is their turn to win. Therefore, those gamblers would call it bad luck if they lost and good luck when they won and all that really occurs is a mathematical experience.

Hold ‘em Poker is different from flipping a coin. There are skills involved. Bluffing, playing position, slow playing ,stealing blinds, calculating hand, pot and implied odds, and analyzing the “texture” of the table are skills of a seasoned poker player. If you play “correct” poker, the chance expectations of you winning is higher than one who plays like a maniac.

Leaving skill and abilities out of the equation, over the long run, the good hands and the bad hands even out. Statistically, you should be dealt pocket aces every 220 hands. The odds against flopping a flush are 118 to one. Completing a straight on the river is a 5 to 1 shot. Those are called chance expectations. Sometimes you will be dealt pocket aces twice in ten hands. It happens. But believing that your lucky charm has a cause/effect on you receiving those aces is just silly. Sorry, that is not the way life works. Having a card marker/protector is one thing, but believing that it has supernatural power…well, you’ll just have to prove it to me. You’ll probably win the Nobel prize as well….and receive phone calls from the US Department of Defense, CIA, and a dozen or two foreign governments.

In fact, there is an organization, The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), located in Ft. Lauderdale. The JREF, offers a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event. The JREF does not involve itself in the testing procedure, other than helping to design the protocol and approving the conditions under which a test will take place. All tests are designed with the participation and approval of the applicant. In most cases, the applicant will be asked to perform a relatively simple preliminary test of the claim, which if successful, will be followed by the formal test. Preliminary tests are usually conducted by associates of the JREF at the site where the applicant lives. Upon success in the preliminary testing process, the "applicant" becomes a "claimant."

It costs nothing, and you can find the application for the prize at www.randi.org. However, before you apply, I suggest you do some preliminary testing yourself. Make sure your lucky charm can actually do the things you will be claiming it can do. Don't lie to yourself.

Find someone you know who is a reasonable, scientific sort and talk to him about your lucky piece. Ask him to be candid. Then, demonstrate your proposed claim to him. This is the second big hurdle. If you can convince an honest friend that your lucky piece works then keep going. Otherwise, stop; you will have no chance convincing the JREF's investigators.
If you feel your lucky piece consistently brings you strong cards, you might want to keep a record of your cards with, and without, your charm on the table.
Maybe do a little research. You might start with http://skeptic.com/ , or http://www.csicop.org/. Review the literature. Make sure you are not fooling yourself with claims that just can’t be supported. If after this, you feel you have “the goods”, submit an application for the million dollars

At the beginning of this article I told you I had asked five of the “lucky piece” holders about the pieces they brought to the table. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by their answers. None of the five actually thought their trinkets brought them luck.
Regarding the fellow with the plastic encrusted “lucky penny”…it was just a novelty…a remembrance from Las Vegas. The owner of the meteor told me how his object stimulated discussion at the table. Nothing mystical involved here. The player with the Silver Dollar used it as a card protector. No powers, no influences. The response from the fellow with the piece of metal with a crucifix embedded in it, was a hearty laugh and definitive “no way”, when I asked if he brought his item for luck. Finally I got to talk with the person who brought the statue of the small white dog to the table. As soon as I asked her about it, she whipped out two photos of her much beloved dog, which looked much like the statue. A lucky piece???…no way, she just used it as a card guard.

It was good to see that superstitious behavior was not a prevalent as I had thought.

Tom Golabek is an award winning magician, and plays the poker tables of South Florida and Las Vegas. He has produced a step by step instructional DVD on how to perform a colorful collection of poker chip tricks, and card handling techniques which can be found on pokerchipdvd.com

How to perform "The Twirl"

HOW TO PERFORM THE “POKER CHIP TWIRL”

This is a favorite of most players and it takes some initial investment of time and practice.

The Poker Chip Twirl is traditionally done with 3 chips held vertically, between the thumb and 1st finger, with some assistance of the 2nd and 3rd fingers. The move is to extract the middle chip from between the other two chips, twirl it (rotate), and reinsert it back between the other two.

At the start of this flourish the three chips are held with the pads of the 1st finger and thumb. I measure almost ¾ inch from the tip of both my thumb and 1st finger, to the center of the middle chip. The pads hold the 3 chips vertically, by the edges, on the upper portion of the chips.

Loosen the squeeze on the chips and you will find that the middle chip falls. Through trial and error you will find how much you need to “ease off” on the squeeze for the middle chip to fall, yet be able to maintain hold on the other two chips. It’s a feel you will develop. Once you get it, it’s like riding a bike. It may seem difficult at first but you’ll be amazed at how easy it gets. You can also try moving the chips either forward or back on the pads. Your fingers are contoured surfaces and an area a millimeter away may work better.

Position the 3rd finger by the thumb, on the underside of the chips. The 2nd finger stays beside the 1st finger to block the middle chip from falling out that side.

Once the middle chip falls, you trap it between the 3rd and 1st fingers. Apply a squeeze and swing the 3rd finger (and chip) out as the middle chip pivots against the 1st finger. The middle chip is now extracted from the other two chips.

You will find your middle finger is in perfect position to catch the edge of the middle chip and rotate it 180 degrees.

The middle chip can now be returned between the other two by swinging the 3rd finger back toward the thumb. The 2nd finger could follow up behind the chips closing them together.

Many times beginners will find that the two outer chips fall as the middle chip is being extracted. REMEDY: This is the result of not keeping enough squeeze between the thumb and 1st finger. Your attention is being focused on the extracted chip and you need to remember to maintain a steady squeeze on the other chips as well.

Another problem beginners find is that the middle chip travels up or down when rotated. This puts the chip in a different place and it is difficult to reinsert it back into the gap it just came out of. REMEDY: Either ease off, or tighten, the squeeze between the 1st and 3rd fingers when rotating the middle chip. Experiment. Find the pressure that minimizes the travel.

The gap between the two chips closes when the middle chip is extracted and it cannot be reinserted between the other chips.
REMEDY: When the gap closes you are basically dead in the water. Put the chips down and restart.
You may be easing off too much on the squeeze of the two chips, allowing the front of the upper chip to fall, thus closing the gap.. Keep a constant pressure.
Here again…it’s a “feel”. Work with it, and you’ll get it. It might seem hard at first but when you have it…its easy.

The middle chip just won’t fall?
REMEDY: Are your chips sticky? Got Coca Cola on it? That’s a real deterrent. Try cleaning the chips with warm water, mild soap, and dry quickly. No soaking.

Try not to pack the three chips tightly together when held vertically. Allow some air to get in between them. You can do a “chip flip” (flipping the front chip over the other two becoming the inside chip) to accomplish this.

I hope you are not using plastic chips. They weigh only 1 ½ grams and don’t have the weight needed for table acrobatics. You need clay or acrylic composite chips weighing 8 grams or more. If you don’t have any, take some home from your local casino or poker room. Use them, and return them anytime.
If any break, the casino/poker room will either replace them or buy them back. Life is good.


A variation of The Chip Twirl is The Double Chip Twirl. In this, you use 4 chips, and extract the two middle chips.

The Chip Twirl also looks good when used in combination with The Chip Flip and The Back To Front. Any rotation works, but I personally like to Flip, Twirl, and Back to Front.

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Butterfly
Roll & Drop
Knuckle roll
Shuffling
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also

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