[WolfPack]

sometimes when we go to color up we will have 2 people each with 1 50 but we want to color up all te 50's to 100.

How do you handle that situation? Do you just give a 100 in place of the 50? or have the 2 people cut cards to see who gets the extra chip?

[UW85]

For along time we used to do a "Chip Race" -- such as in the situation you describe where there are two 50's you need to get rid of and they add up to ONE 100, then you simply flip a card over to each and the higher card wins the chip. It also can work with mulitple people. Such as if you had 5 people each with 50's -- that's two 100's + a 50. In that case the way I did it was to play for THREE 100's. All 5 would get a card but only the top three would get the 100 chip. If there is a tie, such as two aces, we always followed suits ( spades, heart, diamonds, clubs) -- an ace of hearts beats an ace of clubs.

Having said all that, looking at the big picture and knowing we almost always start with very deep stacks of chips (tons on chip value), I decided just to give each player a straight across exchange instead of doing chip races (they get time consuming). The amount of extra I'm giving them in the "big picture" of all the chips in play is so small, it's insignificant. This wouldn't be true in a cash game though. So, in the case of tournament play, if I had three people with a 50 chip, now I just give them all a 100 -- again, just due to time & ease. Hope that all makes sense.

Edit: Can't spell suit and compost's advice on the order of suits -- guess I had it wrong.

[jalsing]

rounding up is the new 'chip-race'

[compost kid]

If you are doing chip races, and two or more players receive a card of the same value, ties are broken by suits, in reverse alphabetical order - spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs. No player can receive more than one chip of the higher denomination, and no player can be eliminated during a color up or chip race.

There are several threads here that talk in length about chip races. Do a search and you should be able to get lots of good information.

At our games, we always race, it just seems to be the "official" way to color up chips.

[UW85]

Originally Posted by compost kid

ties are broken by suits, in reverse alphabetical order - spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs.

CRAP -- have I being doing the suit order wrong all this time? Geeze. Thanks for the heads up.

[compost kid]

Originally Posted by UW85

CRAP -- have I being doing the suit order wrong all this time? Geeze. Thanks for the heads up.

You'll have to go back and replay all those games

[bigjohn]

Usually when there is an off amount and the lessor chip is no longer in play we round up to the next denom.

[on tilt]

I had the same question and researched it. The following explanation is very clear:

Let me see if I can give a practical example of how the process works.

Dealer announces that you’re going to color up the green (or whatever other color) chips.

Players put their green T25 chips in stacks of 4 so that they add up to T100 and place these stacks of 4 in front of them. If they have odd chips (as in 1, 2 or 3 green chips) at this point they just hold onto them for the time being.

The dealer collects each stack of 4 green chips and exchanges it for a black T100 chip.

Once all the stacks of 4 have been collected the dealer tells players to put out their odd chips.

Starting at the dealers left he gives each player a card for every odd chip they have, in this case up to 3 cards. The cards are dealt face up and a player receives all their cards at one time (or in a row).

Once the cards have been dealt the dealer collects all the odd chips and puts them in stacks of 4. A T100 chip is issued for every stack of 4 chips. If there is a stack with 1, 2 or 3 chips an additional T100 chip is issued for that stack (note, some people do not issue a chip for this stack, or they only issue a chip if it is a stack of 3 chips, it’s up to you).

Now that you know how many T100 chips will be issued for the stacks of odd chips you start with the player that has the highest ranked card (pairs and so forth do not count, just the rank of the highest individual card). If there are two aces or any other card of the same rank, you determine the winner by the suit of the card. The rank of suits from highest to lowest is: Spade, Heart, Diamond, Club (reverse alphabetical order).

When you give a player a chip remove all of their cards as they are not eligible for more than one chip per chip race.

If a player is all-in on the chip race give them the first chip. A player cannot be eliminated during a chip race.

Start the next level and enjoy
Some people just round everybody up. It’s easy and people generally do not complain about being rounded up.

When I’m in a game that rounds up I’m very likely to limp on the last hand before the color up if I will still be rounded up to the same amount of chips, so I don’t really like the round up option because it offers the idea of a free play

[shanghai_sparky]

In the games I play, we round up if over 50%.
If two or more players are below they cut the cards with the winner collecting the change. Then if they are over 50% they round up.

[billsrcursed]

A bit of a thread jack, but on the same topic;

How do you introduce new chips?? I will be using 6 colors, but starting stack will only have 4. How do I introduce the 2 other colors? Do I color up twice in one shot?? Help!!!!