Chip tricks in poker game

hi friends
Can any one like to tell me why the poker players do chip tricks at the poker table . I am also curious to know which poker player is the best chip tricker ever .

Same reason people play with their pencils in school..or...um..don't have any other examples.

Gives us something to do while waiting to play a hand, or while we're thinking. It eventually just becomes a habit..

I think its just natural for humans to be doing something with their hands, I know I get bored very easily and smoke a hell of alot when playing poker to keep my hands doing something. Live poker is better in the fact that you dont just have to click your mouse once every minute.

People will give you a few different reasons for it:

Some will tell you it intimidates other players... and it can be true if they're playing a novice. Otherwise it's probably just bollocks.

And the more common reason is the one stated above: people get bored and want something to do when they're not in a hand.

As for who's the best at them, dunno. Like most things, the best in the world is probably someone nobody's ever heard of. But Antonio Esfandiari seems to be pretty handy with them, as does Evelyn Ng.

I remember one year during the wsop during "The Nuts" segment they had a bunch of different players doing tricks. I do not know which year it was or which players it featured. I do remember though a couple of the players said they felt they were able to intimidate players by being good at the chip tricks.


I also think during this year's coverage of the WSOP, they had a chip stacking competition. It was during a "The Nuts" segment.

IMO Antonio Esfandiari is the best 'PRO' at the chips trick game ... as for the best in the world well that could be anyone... if you find out i would be intregued to know!

IamBP said:

I do remember though a couple of the players said they felt they were able to intimidate players by being good at the chip tricks.

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I think that was Dutch Boyd in the 2003 Wsop.

IamBP said:

I remember one year during the WSOP during "The Nuts" segment they had a bunch of different players doing tricks. I do not know which year it was or which players it featured. I do remember though a couple of the players said they felt they were able to intimidate players by being good at the chip tricks.

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I think that was in 2004? Esfandiari and Ng were two of the players featured, I think the other one was Dutch Boyd (who didn't seem to be anywhere near as accomplished at them as the other two).

Basically, I think you can separate players into two categories: those who can do the butterfly, and those who can't. If they can do the butterfly, they've spent a lot of time working on their tricks.

I think there are two reasons.
The primary reason is akin to twiddling your thumbs. There's a lot of idol time at the tables, so it's comforting to do something with your hands.

The second reason would be for intimidation. Someone who does tricks is someone who's spent a lot of time at the table. By doing a trick you're showing that you've spent a lot of time at the poker table, so the assumption is that you know what you're doing and should be respected/feared.

I can riffle chips, pretty well on my own, but at a table I always tend to choke and spill them, so I don't do it during live play.

I do the chip shuffle with 10 chips (5 each side) mainly now out of force of habit whether I'm in the hand or not. It's calms me and helps me think.

There's some guy out there named Rich Ferguson who is apparently a poker chip trick master. He even has a DVD for sale teaches you how to do virtually every trick known to man concerning a poker chip.

I don't know why you would buy a dvd to learn chip tricks, seeing as youtube has plenty of instruction videos...


I do it because its just something to keep myself entertained while sitting there not doing anything.


Plus some of em, help me count out my chips in a not completely obvious to the other players way.

It's a convenient way to have 6 chips in your hand if your playing something like 3/6 limit too.


And by now shuffling, knuckle rolling, twirling, and butterfly have all become habits when I'm not paying attention, so when I find my self completely bored at the table, I've been trying to learn em all left handed.

I definitely agree that the main reason for doing chip tricks is simply to hace something to do with one's hands. Additionally it shows that the person doing the trick has spent some time at a poker table. It definitely can help intimidate a novice player.
One reason I have not seen on here is simply because they CAN do them... a way to show off.

phisig6057 said:

I definitely agree that the main reason for doing chip tricks is simply to hace something to do with one's hands. Additionally it shows that the person doing the trick has spent some time at a poker table. It definitely can help intimidate a novice player.
One reason I have not seen on here is simply because they CAN do them... a way to show off.

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Thats a good reason too.