Shuffling chips at the poker tables is a ubiquitous sight. People do it while making a decision, or they just do it habitually because shuffling is fun. Shuffling is a way to keep your body busy while your mind is working. It is also a way to keep boredom away at the poker rooms because live poker at times tends to be very slow. But how to shuffle poker chips like a pro? This article will help you understand how to play with poker chips and poker chip trick all you need to know while you play poker.
Tips to shuffle the chips:
Get your poker chips stacking perfectly with these simple poker tricks with chips and impress your friends.
Doing a Basic Chip Shuffling
There are several poker chip tricks that have been developed. Doing a basic chip shuffle involves following steps, and it is more easier to learn; here is how to shuffle poker chips:
1. Start with six chips
Shuffling becomes easier when you have a smaller number of chips, and as the minimum number of chips required for shuffling is 6, it is better to start with 6 chips at a time.
2. Divide the chips equally into two stacks of three each
Take 6 chips and divide them into two stacks of three in each stack. It is recommended to pick 3 chips of one color in each stack and the remaining 3 chips of another color. This will help you to gauge whether your shuffling went right. A correct shuffle will put all the 6 chips in a single stack but with alternative colors.
3. Now place both the chip stacks on a flat surface
After dividing all 6 chips into 2 different stacks, place them on a flat surface parallelly to you, which will make it easier for you to shuffle. The softer the surface, the easier it will be for you to shuffle them. The more you practice shuffling, the faster you will learn to shuffle them, and then you can try shuffling on a hard surface like a professional poker player.
4. Position your dominant hand over the chips
Proper finger placement is very important when shuffling chips. Make sure you are holding the two equal stacks stably with your thumb and index finger on one side, and on the other side, you are balancing the force with your little and ring fingers. Then place your middle finger in between the two chip stacks. This will help you to lift the two stacks simultaneously from the center. It is very important that you hold them tightly onto both sides while lifting them together from the center with your middle finger. Otherwise, the stacks might slip and fall on the floor.
5. Apply pressure to the two stacks together to let the stacks fall together on to your palm
Apply slight pressure onto the one stack from both sides, with your thumb on the left, ring finger on the middle, and little finger on the right side of the stacks. Hook the tip of your middle finger just at the center of the two stacks together. Then pull your finger to let the two stacks fall simultaneously onto your palm. Remember, while pulling your thumb underneath the two stacks, you need to squeeze your fingers (mainly the index finger and the thumb) together so that all the six chips fall together.
6. Use your middle finger to control the falling of the chips
Align your middle finger in a way so that it can guide the chips as they fall. Set your middle finger along with the two stacks so that there are alternative colors placed in between the chip stacks as they fall. Once you have mastered the lacing of the two stacks with alternative colors in between them, squeeze your hand completely so that a single stack is formed with all six chips together with alternative colors placed in between. If all the six chips have alternative colored chips in between them, then you have perfectly aced the shuffling trick. Congrats!
7. Split the stacks and repeat
Now that you have mastered how to shuffle, you can repeat the shuffling process. Lift the top three chips with alternative colors from the tall single stack with your middle finger and thumb. Place them parallelly to the bottom three so as to get two equal stacks of three chips each, just as you started the shuffling process. Shuffle again, repeat, and split until you are confident to shuffle all the chips in one fluid motion.
Shuffling is easy, and there are other factors like the material of the chips or friction of the poker table surface or the psychological dilemma going on inside the player’s mind that contribute to effective shuffling. Clay chips are easier to shuffle than plastic ones. Then again, it is easier to shuffle chips on felt rather than on glass or a wooden table. The lack of friction on felt help in easy shuffling as players can easily get their fingers under the chips.
How to improve shuffling skills?
Shuffling is an art that gets better with practice. People shuffle to get rid of tensions or make any crucial decisions when the mind is working, and the body is at rest, but it needs some warm-up that only shuffling can provide. Here are some simple tricks to make your shuffling skills better.
- Practice shuffling – Even if you don’t own any chip, you can practice shuffling with coins to sharpen your skills.
- Use soft surfaces – If you are an amateur poker player, you may start your shuffling on soft surfaces like on a bed or on a couch before moving onto the hard-wooden poker tables.
- Don’t worry about failures – Don’t waste your time lamenting on your failure; instead, concentrate on the shuffling skills and you will come out victoriously.
Wrap Up
Shuffling chips at the poker table is a ubiquitous sight. Professional poker players are often seen playing with their chips even after the folding. Poker is undoubtedly a nerve-wracking game, but if it becomes your daily grind, it loses that aura and becomes very boring. Some poker tables also do not allow electronic devices with the players, so as the players wait for their turns, it becomes absolutely boring, and this is when they start playing with their chips. When the players sit for 16 to 20 hours per day at the poker tables with practically nothing to do most of the time, shuffling helps a lot to cut down this boredom. Poker and casino chips are not only used for games and they are valuable in casinos or in poker; those who collect poker and casino chips may find it more interesting. Poker chips are of different colors like white, blue, red, black, green & more. Players used Poker Chips to play a poker cash game, but players find some exciting ways to make them fun and help pass the time.
FAQs
1. How to stack poker chips?
Poker chips need to be stacked in two equal halves of 3 chips, each with alternative colors. Placing alternative colors in between helps the player to understand whether his shuffling went on perfectly or not.
2. How to cut a poker chip?
A poker chip stack of a lower denomination can always be exchanged with a poker chip sack of higher denomination, and this phenomenon is very common in poker rooms, which is often referred to as poker chip cutting.
