[Matthew]

In your home game tournaments - does anyone just round up in the color up and effectively not do a race?

Rounding up example - coloring up red 5's - to green 25's. Obviously for every 5 reds they get 1 green, but, if they have 4 reds they still get a green chip, 3 reds equals 1 green, all the way down to the single red for a green. Rounding up.

Race - odd chips get a card dealt for each chip - higest card gets a chip and then next highest etc. For red to green race, example 1 player has 4 reds, one player has 3 and 3 others have a single chip - 2 greens need to be given out. The player with 4 chips gets 4 cards, 3 chips 3 cards and 1 chip one card. Highest card gets the 1st green chip, next highest card amoung the other players gets the other green chip.

So - Round up or Race?

[jmda]

I race them off.

[ky70]

I've done both but I prefer the round up as it's simpler to me.

At the points where I color up, the round up isn't significant to the blinds. I use 25s, 100s, 500s, and a single 1000 denom chip for a T5000 tourney. I take off the 25s when the blinds are going to 200/400 (75 would be the max round up) and I take off the 100s when the blinds are going to 1000/2000 (400 would be the max round up)...so at worst a player having his chips rounded up isn't even getting half of the small blind. It's a small amount but I'd rather go up a little than down as I never want to take chips away from a player (even small amounts).

[JP]

I race them off as well.

[austin5string]

We've done both. I plan on rounding in the future. As has been mentioned, the value of the small chips is insignificant at the time of coloring up, so why waste the time.

~John

[FreckleDaddy]

I just round up them up as well. I do this for two reasons:

1) It's much faster as you don't have to sit there and explain how the race off works to new people.

2) People seem happy when the benefit from it. Not that an extra 20 makes a big diiference when the blinds are 50/100.

I'll probably do this until I catch people purposely keeping an extra low denom chip so that they get the maximum benefit from rounding. "Oh you all have one extra red chip, looks like it's racin time."

FD

[omar]

Originally Posted by austin5string

We've done both. I plan on rounding in the future. As has been mentioned, the value of the small chips is insignificant at the time of coloring up, so why waste the time.

~John

Well, it can get a little more significant a little later in the tournament when your coloring up higher value chips, but......the real reason to race them off is that IT'S THE WAY YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO PLAY THE GAME. To quote Walter in the The Big Lebowski, "....this ain't 'Nam, there are RULES here!!....".

It takes about 8 seconds more to race chips off, so why not do it right? As far as the people that don't understand the race off......TEACH them. The world will be a better place. Then maybe we won't have people complaining that checkraises are illegal............

And finally, if we wanted to do stuff half-a**ed, then we could all use Dice chips and Bee cards and folding tables. Then we wouln't have a need for Chiptalk and group buys and this jazz. Yes, this would be a less expensive existence, but not nearly as fun!

[ky70]

Originally Posted by omar

Well, it can get a little more significant a little later in the tournament when your coloring up higher value chips, but......the real reason to race them off is that IT'S THE WAY YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO PLAY THE GAME. To quote Walter in the The Big Lebowski, "....this ain't 'Nam, there are RULES here!!....".

It takes about 8 seconds more to race chips off, so why not do it right? As far as the people that don't understand the race off......TEACH them. The world will be a better place. Then maybe we won't have people complaining that checkraises are illegal............

And finally, if we wanted to do stuff half-a**ed, then we could all use Dice chips and Bee cards and folding tables. Then we wouln't have a need for Chiptalk and group buys and this jazz. Yes, this would be a less expensive existence, but not nearly as fun!

Bottom line, I say to each his own (I have no real issue with the race), but from a practical standpoint the "chip race" makes less sense to me than a round up. To simplify the chip race, I'm gonna flip cards and give the guy with the highest card(s) some chips from ANOTHER player that he didn't win (HUH).
Regarding it being the way we're suppose to play, I like to use the common sense test on "poker rules" that are not crucial aspects of the game. If doesn't make good sense and I may not do it. For example, if a player mucks his cards in my game know one gets to see it. I understand that the rules say that a player can request to see a mucked hand but the rule doesn't make sense (and can be abused) unless you suspect cheating so I don't include it.

[Pavel6969]

I do neither. When I take my $5 out in favor of $25, you need to have 5 $5 to get a chip. Yes it can cause complications, but I find all it really takes is one person to give someone else a single $5 or maybe two. No one at my game minds. Whoever has the most $5 (say I have 3 and you have 2) gets the $25 chip.

I do this because I want to keep the amount on the table correct. If we all start with $1000 in chips, Rounding up causes that number to go up. Not a big deal, but I don't like it.

And I hate the idea of a race. Say I have 4 $5 and you have 1. Perhaps you hit the ace and I don't. I don't think that is fair for someone who has only 1 chip to get upgraded while the guy with 4 gets nothing.

[DaveHNK]

Originally Posted by ky70

Bottom line, I say to each his own (I have no real issue with the race), but from a practical standpoint the "chip race" makes less sense to me than a round up. To simplify the chip race, I'm gonna flip cards and give the guy with the highest card(s) some chips from ANOTHER player that he didn't win (HUH).

I agree with you on the race. But in my game, it's also just a lot faster to round up, especially when the extra chip usually isn't significant. All about keeping it simple, especially with the gang I play with.

And as for teaching them the chip race, once they've mastered that string bets ain't cool, we'll move to other aspects of the game....