Bad etiquette to color up in small stakes?

Grizwold · #1 08-22-2006, 01:05 AM

Particularlly in the $2/4 limit hold'em game at the local casino, the whole table uses just $1 chips. I've never seen any other chip denomination at the table, even though the dealer always has many different chips in their rack. But also I've never seen someone with $200+ yet (however, I'm young and very inexperienced in B&M, which is why I don't know the answer to this sort of question). Typically buying in for $60~100, and if a player is doing so well for several hours, the stack may become quite large and cumbersome. Sure some players like the image of a huge stack in front of them, but I find it unnecessary and I don't like to take up so much space since they jam 10 players to a table. Where's my elbow room?! So if a player is hot that night, and gets up over 200 or more (10+ stacks), is it poor etiquette to ask to color up with only some of your chips, about $50~100 or so? Maybe other players at the table would take this as a message, "I don't expect to lose any of this money now, I have so much." In fact if other players at the table do feel this way, they would not be far off. I would never consider changing some chips unless I have way way more than enough in $1 chips still to handle numerous hands. So if it's generally frowned upon to color up at a table using all $1 chips, how would someone handle this situation? Any feedback appreciated. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Etric · #2 08-22-2006, 01:29 AM

I've never seen anyone color up chips at a poker table ever. I'm not even sure it is possible. I have seen people with 7+ racks at a 3/6 game and I've never seen dealers with any different chips in their racks other than the ones that are being actually used at the table or chips that someone brings from the tables games section of the casino (blacks usually). So what you do is you get a rack and stack them up. Repeat.

Grizwold · #3 08-22-2006, 01:41 AM

Thanks for the advice Etric! I've never seen anyone ask to color up in a ring game either, so I was quite sure it wasn't the right thing to do. Also I've heard having racks at a table is poor etiquette too, but if anyone feels that way they are just gonna have to deal with it! I see racks at the $2/4 table infinitely more often than different chip denominations.

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Repeat.

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I hope I am this lucky [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

LasVegasMichael · #4 08-22-2006, 02:52 PM

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I've never seen anyone color up chips at a poker table ever.

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Really? Ever seen a mid stakes game in Vegas?

Seriously, I see color ups all the time at Venetian, especially at 2/5NL, and higher limit games, where stacks of greeens and blacks are needed to take over excessive stacks of red.

Playing limit, I have colored up to reds from having too many whites (one time, at 3/6 I managed to go on a run, and get to close to 1K, so color up was not optional, it was required).

Color ups occur all the time in cardrooms. Not a big deal at all.

Also, especially in limit, cash normally plays ($100 bills). So if you have a large stack, often, you can become the "cashier" of the table, when people enter the game, you can sell them chips from your stack, and put the hundreds on the bottom. A great feeling, and rather fun to do.

Biggle10 · #5 08-22-2006, 07:29 PM

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Playing limit, I have colored up to reds from having too many whites (one time, at 3/6 I managed to go on a run, and get to close to 1K, so color up was not optional, it was required).

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How many hours did this take? If you bought for $200, then that's around 130 bets. That's quite a few.

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Also, especially in limit, cash normally plays ($100 bills). So if you have a large stack, often, you can become the "cashier" of the table, when people enter the game, you can sell them chips from your stack, and put the hundreds on the bottom. A great feeling, and rather fun to do.

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I love doing this.

LasVegasMichael · #6 08-23-2006, 01:31 AM

It took about 6 hours roughly, with lots of miraclous cards thrown in. It was really a few big hands that did it. Full house over full house twice, set over set three times, and one straight flush over an ace high flush. It was just a great run. On a few of the hands, it was heads up with no cap, and it was raise and reraise back and forth until the opponant gave. It was my best 3/6 session ever, about four months ago at the Venetian. Of course, my once in a lifetime run has to be at a 3/6 game, but what can you do.

jjshabado · #7 08-24-2006, 08:33 PM

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Also, especially in limit, cash normally plays ($100 bills). So if you have a large stack, often, you can become the "cashier" of the table, when people enter the game, you can sell them chips from your stack, and put the hundreds on the bottom. A great feeling, and rather fun to do.

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Yeah I love being "the banker". I also get to jokingly talk about how I've been getting pretty lucky so that new players don't think I've earned my big stack through skill. Nothing's better than being a consistently lucky player [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Whenever I've played 2/4 or 3/6 I find you can colour up graduallly as you go. There's usually a mix of red/white chips in play, so if you want more reds just make sure you always bet 1s and start stockpiling the 5s. If you're low on 1s start playing your 5s, especially at times where the dealer doesn't have to go to the tray to make change (not a big deal at all, but it makes the game a bit faster).

AKQJ10 · #8 08-24-2006, 09:39 PM

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Whenever I've played 2/4 or 3/6 I find you can colour up graduallly as you go. There's usually a mix of red/white chips in play,...

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This is certainly the case in AC, and it's ridiculous. Seven players limp every hand, each with a nickel, hence each requiring the dealer to make change.

Buy in for a rack or two of white instead.

jjshabado · #9 08-24-2006, 10:25 PM

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Whenever I've played 2/4 or 3/6 I find you can colour up graduallly as you go. There's usually a mix of red/white chips in play,...

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This is certainly the case in AC, and it's ridiculous. Seven players limp every hand, each with a nickel, hence each requiring the dealer to make change.

Buy in for a rack or two of white instead.

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Yeah, its mostly the casinos fault too. I've had to argue a bit with a cashier to get white chips because she was too lazy to grab the tray with whites in it that was 3 feet away. I've heard other players complain that they had to get all reds because the cashier didn't want to give them whites.

AKQJ10 · #10 08-22-2006, 04:14 PM

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I've never seen anyone color up chips at a poker table ever. I'm not even sure it is possible.

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It's definitely possible. It's probably best avoided in a time-charged game or everyone will get surly. (Foxwoods banned color-ups in the $1-2 NL recently, even though it really just means they have to take fills more often.)

In a small-stakes, raked game if you want to color up say $100 in $1 and you're not slowing down the game after every third hand, you're fine.

Now once I saw a guy sit down at a $2/4 or $4/8 limit with a stack of green $25 chips. At FW both those games play with yellow $2 chips, and every time his stack went below an increment of $25 he'd make a bet with the quarters and require making change. Then when he won a pot, he'd color up $25 or $50 in yellows. That was pissing me off because it was just an absurd waste of time! (Maybe he was headed to a no-limit game or to the blackjack tables, who knows?) But if you don't go to these excesses then coloring up to high-value chips is generally fine.