...neat chip stacking means tight (mostly passive sometimes aggressive).

How accurate is this?

Could be. Wouldn't rely solely on it. Observe more and utilize your findings to make your hypothesis

When I am nitting it up really hard I line up the color strips on all the neatly stacked chips.

Card dead, bored, awaiting something remotely playable, it's something I do.

You can tell loose aggressive, they are reraising constantly. Its stupid to consider the way they stack.

I don't know.
.... tight players are always neat but neat players are not always tight?
.... messy players are always loose but loose players are not always messy?
(The above two statements are subject to argument)

I play at home games with two very loose aggressive players, one keeps his chips in a pile and the other stacks his chips neatly.

I have read an article on this to. I started watching the table and it is quite accurate. I then watched my chips, as I was playing a tight game and they were perfectly staked . What is your staking method?

I can't say I've ever actually used such information. Usually you can get a sense of a player's style pretty quickly. At least whether they're abnormally loose-passive or loose-aggressive or not.

I keep my chips super messy and im not very lag at all, im use to playing online so i dont feel tied to my clay circles, anyways you can tell if someone is lag in the first 15 hands, i keep them neat now after i realized the importance of the eye in the sky being able to track your stack in case something shady happens and your missing some chips

I used to play with this $10-20/$15-30 limit player who was the biggest nit I've ever played with. He kept his chips lined up so neat it was absurd. He obviously had some obsessive-compulsive disorder because his chip stacks were literally lined up so that all the stripes on the sides were lined up, and this was not something he only occasionally did; his chip stacks were literally like that all the time. I used to laugh at it at first but then after seeing it every day it was just normal. I'd say if you see someone that anal, who is obviously not doing it as a joke, that might be a quick tip-off that the guy is abnormally tight. But that's so rare obviously.

I'm not sure about this, but I have noticed a very reliable tell: players who have a lot of loose, unstacked chips in front of them tend to have won the last pot.

Along the same lines:
- Players currently removing chips from a rack tend to be new to the table.
- Players with no chips in front of them tend to be about to either leave or rebuy.
- Players with a rack full of low-denomination chips in front of them tend to be the dealer.

It could be a solid baseline, but you need to re-evaluate once you start seeing some hands played. It isnt super useful but probably is a semi-accurate baseline

Yes, these tells are in the first pages of Caro's book and the reason why I dismissed the book for quite some time, because I thought the rest would be of the same level. (which, btw, it isn't - it's a good book imo)
As others have posted, in today's game, it is actually pretty simple to see how loose a player is just by... looking how loose he's playing. So the read is pretty useless, added to the fact that it is not that accurate in the first place.
The thing that can be helpful though in my experience, is a change in the way a player stacks his chips.
A tag player who has been stacking his chips perfectly for 2 hours and now doesn't care anymore about that might be more risk prone now.
A lag player who has been taking irrational risks and wasn't taking care of his chips, that is now starting to count them thoroughly, might be starting to take the game seriously and try to solidy his game (which doesn't mean he will not be lag anymore, but probably less prone to gamble).

I have OCD and am pretty much always either "fixing" my stack, counting out chips into stacks of twenty and sorting them properly, or shuffling my chips. I keep my chips into neat stacks of 20, with the overflow in a separate stack to the right, and my big chips on top of the stacks of 20. I am a fairly Loose-aggro player even though I am OCD about keeping my chip stacks neat and well sorted.

As others have said in this thread you should be less concerned with how a person stacks/organizes their chips and more focused on betting patterns. When it is early in a MTT and the blinds are low and players are deepstacked, I tend to play a very high percentage of hands and open a lot of pots. People aren't going to look at my neat chip stacks and assume I am tight, they are going to rightly assume I am gambling a lot because I am playing a high percentage of pots.

I think carefully organized stacks are strongly indicative of someone who wants to be aware of whether they're up or down, and how much. I might respond by noting how they act differently when up or down. I won't automatically judge them as tight, but they may grow tight either when stuck for about 25% of their buy-in, or after they've peaked and regression to the mean starts kicking in.

If they played a bit loose and aggressive to run up considerably, then they throw away chips on a few bad bets, if they are otherwise fairly skilled they could be aware that others might now perceive them as loose, and decide right then that it's time to wait for locked up hands. Big bets and raises from them at that point are likely for value. One post-flop continuation bet can push them out of a hand, or reveal their strength. Can anyone critique this line of thinking? Am I missing something?

I know a strong player who is very sloppy with his stacks, and does other things like ordering alcohol at the table, because he recognizes that acting like a tightwad can encourage everyone else to do the same. He also cares little whether he's up or down, because to him it's all about making the right decisions in the moment.

This is generally true. Loose players are betting and restacking frequently and are often less experienced so a messy stack is more likely.

Nits have plenty of time and their chips aren't moving so they tend to stack more neatly and sometimes creatively. Anybody who lines up the colours is likely a nit.

I play tight but when im winning alot I have a pile of chips. I guess I read Mikes advice and im misdirecting...

What about the players who are nits and loose at the same time depending on the elements, those guys who switch gears like formula 1 drivers. Does their chip stacking change with their gear changes?

switching gears and then giving of a huge tell how you play is prolly the worst

I think that tell, or tendency, probably has some value with unsophisticated players. But you'd recognize this type of player in short order anyway, after you observed him playing a number of hands.

Generally speaking, most of the tells in Caro's book are more reliable for unsophisticated players. The more experienced and knowledgeable players are aware of these tells and avoid them or reverse them. But some do have value, even in today's games. One is the involuntary immediate glance away (or at your chips) after hitting the flop--especially a set (a flush or straight require interpreting the flop, which takes time, and allows time for a player to fake the tell (making it less reliable), whereas a player with a pair is looking for one thing and may immediately react when he sees it, without realizing it).

This +100

it is decent accurate

Does it matter? If someone is loose aggressive you should be able to tell fairly quickly, and if they play tight this can take a little longer since it's always possible they got a run of poor cards.

And as for being loose aggressive, sometimes you can be fairly sure after just one hand if they happen to turn their cards over when the hand is finished.

For example, if you're playing hold 'em at a full nine handed game, either limit or no-limit, and the UTG raiser turns over king-ten offsuit, it's probably safe to assume this is a loose aggressive player. On the other hand, if he was to turn over something like seven-six suited, you can't be as sure since this might be a balancing play they have added to their strategy.

Best wishes,
Mason

it's one data point. don't go hero calling the river all in with 5th pair just cause someone's stack is a little disorganized but it is one of a million things which you should observe and take into account