Counting Chips Quickly

[Khabbi]

I've been trying to think of a way to offer you some constructive help, but it would appear to me that your friends are just idiots.

Seriously, how hard is it to count chips. Why can't they count their own stack of 10? Even get them to start with a stack of 5 of their own chips and match up to that.

I usually stack off into stacks of 20: First I will count 5, then stack off another to make 10. Then I stack off another 10 and voila, I have 20 and it took me about 6 seconds.

[bolgenmod]

We also play a low buy-in home game ($10), and I have found that the quickest and easiest way to cash people out is to have them make stacks equal to $1 (whatever the denom) and then put them in rows of five. I verify one stack of each denom -- yes, there are 10 ten-cent chips in the stack -- and eyeball the other stacks of the same denom to make sure they are the same height.

The rows of 5 work well because it is easy to tell at a glance how much each person has -- for example, 3 rows is $15, plus whatever else is in the fourth row.

This method also helps when putting the chips away -- I put a full starting stack in each row of the case: $4 dollars in 10-cent chips, etc. Since most of the stacks are equal to a dollar, this is quick and easy. It also helps that most players keep their 10 cent chips (the lowest denom) in stacks of ten, so all they have to do is arrange them in rows when we are cashing out.

[ichthyologist]

[ QUOTE ]
This makes no sense. If you have enough for the "in-between" denomination you should just make 2 chips have same value for the lower one or whatever?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's of course a good idea (and one I may have to use this Saturday, as the weather has delayed the shipment of the new chips I ordered). It didn't occur to us because, due to inexperience, we didn't understand that having too many denominations would be a problem.

[Etaipo]

meh, you guys are ninnies, the more chips the merrier!

i try to get as many chips as possible on the table. makes for huuuge stacks at the end of the night, and what's more fun than having a ton of chips in front of you?

it -does- make cash out time take a little longer, but as long as everyone isn't a complete moron (i.e can stack chips in $1, $5, or $10 stacks), it should take no more than 2-3 minutes to cash someone out, even if they're sitting on a couple hundred bucks including tons of small denom chips.

[ichthyologist]

[ QUOTE ]
I've been trying to think of a way to offer you some constructive help, but it would appear to me that your friends are just idiots.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sigh. I was afraid comments like this would come. As I said there were other issues, some stemming from general inexperience, others stemming from some other chaos, as I'd mentioned. It probably didn't take that long to count things really, but we were trying to do it faster because one couple, who had brought their two month old, along with a person who rode with them, had to leave immediately because of a rather spectacular diaper failure. You don't want me to elaborate. Hence counting their stacks very quickly became a community effort, hence the stacks getting mixed up, etc.

I just thought a 5x5 or 10x5 chip rack could be helpful here, so I thought I'd see if anyone knew of any (since all I could find online were 20x5).

I greatly appreciate all the constructive advice given here.

[ThinkQuick]

If you're going to try to write a length and polite response every time someone on these forums spits a sarcastic insult, you are in for a lot of wasted time.

And definitely do stacks of 20 chips, as few colors as possible.

[Gonso]

Here's how a dealer and most experienced players cut cheques out, hopefully this is handy to someone:

You always start with stacks of 20, and kind of 'octopus' your hand over the stack when you pick it up. Bring the stack down to the table or close to it, and you kind of slide your hand up and break of 5 cheques with your index finger and leave them on the table.

Now you've got a stack of 15 in your hand. Stay down along the table, then line the stack back up against the 5 on the table. Slide your index finger along the top of the 5 stack from front to back, and that will take you to the point of your stack where you need to cut again. Repeat a couple more times and you have 4 stacks of 5. Stack them back up and there you go. Now you have your measuring stick for other stacks so you don't have to break down any more.

You'll be able to do break down a stack in a hurry with little practice doing this. You "prove" one stack to be 20, and you measure all other stacks against it. Easy.

Also, and this won't matter in a home game - just a dealer thing, some denominations are typically broken down into stacks of four, not five: 25's, 500's, 5000's (counting by fours gives more even numbers: 4x 25 = 100). Everything else is five.

Anyway, just know how much each 20-stack is by heart, and how to cut cheques, and you'll speed the whole process way up.

Whites = $1 = Stack of 20 is 20
Red = $5 = Stack of 20 is 100
Green = $25 = Stack of 20 is 500
Black = $100 = Stack of 20 is 2,000

And so on. After this you need 500, 1000, maybe 5k, but that's about it for typical home tournies. You don't need blue $10 chips and those in-between denoms at all.

[Khabbi]

Was there something unconstructive about my response? I don't get it.

Stack chips - put them in front of you. How do racks help with this?

Is it easier to count chips when they are laying down? Do you have to carry the chips to another table to count them properly? I'm not getting it.

[pfapfap]

Lots of good advice here. Practice cutting and stacking the chips, use fewer denominations.

But I strongly encourage you to get 20-chip racks. Really, most chips make easier numbers in 20, anyway. 5x20, 25x20. Do you carry 10s or 20s in your wallet? But this way, as the game is drawing to a close, you slide racks to people and they start racking up. Keep the chips in the rack as you pay out, and put the cash under the rack until all stacks are counted and everyone is paid.

Something I've started doing as the game draws down, is to color up some pots. I do it in front of everyone, using the rack. Partially to show I'm being honest, but mostly because we're all drunk and stoned and need outside verification.

Once you get used to counting in 20s, it's the easiest way to do it. Racks also are a lot easier to start up fresh games. I don't like cases. Racked up and stacked up.

[Agent Zero]

You might consider having only one player handle the chips-to-cash transitions -- the guy running the game or maybe the best guy at counting chips, or maybe just the most honest guy. This might alleviate the chaos; this appears to be a classic example of "too many cooks".

Cutting stacks into fives and tens as mentioned above is also very helpful in counting chips quickly. I can get six players, with about 50 chips each, going in about a minute or two by getting a stack of five, matching it with another stack of five, then using that as a reference stack for every other stack of ten chips. Just repeat the process backward.