Just wondering about the different ways of putting chips into the pot, and views on which ways are friendliest to the dealer/speed the game along the most?

Set them down properly stacked in tech of the dealer but still clearmy in front of you. Don't throw. Don't knock your stack over. Don't set them next the bet of the other player. And don't help the dealer by picking them up and throwing them as the dealer is reaching for them.

If you break down your stack to count it. Leave it broken down. If you stack it back up I'm going to have to count it again.

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If I'm reaching for the chips you've already pushed out, please stop breaking it down. I'm about to do it. I'll likely do it faster and be able to keep my own counting up with my own motions.

Everything psandman said. Especially this.
Also.

When I'm reaching to scoop in bets don't gather up the bets
around you and push them all toward the pot. That is not helping me.

If a player wants to count down his own stack I let him.

I had a dealer try to grab chips out of my hand. I said "I got it." and stacked my bet quickly and clearly.
He got mad and grabbed my chips stacked them and broke them down himself. Never tipped him since.

Thanks very much guys. Much clearer on what's desirable now (and on the bad habits I have to kick!).

I'm not a dealer but the most irritating thing that slows the game way down (in NL) has got to be neatly counting out 10-20 chips in nice stacks of 4 or 5, then stacking it all up and then put it on top of an uncounted stack, and then silently toppling it over into the pot (with the top chip skittering across the table, naturally). Inevitably the opponent asks, "How much?" and the dealer, who is now obliged to count it all since the second stack wasn't counted out, has to find all the chips and recount to verify that it's $175 rather than $180.

Then for bonus autism spectrum disorder points, the bettor will make a snarky comment to the dealer, along the lines of "of course my stacks are 20 high" or "pay more attention while I'm counting my chips" and then if rebuffed (usually twice, because he didn't take his earbuds out the first time), go tell the floorman that he's taking his business elsewhere.

if you have to ask this question, just put the chips out in one stack and push it up close to the dealer so she can reach it if you're sitting in an end seat. Don't splash the pot and don't put them in a messy pile of dirty chips.

Just a feeling from experience that games are being slowed down by the tons of ways players find to brick putting chips in, and good to get clarity from players'/dealers' perspective.

I appreciate that you ask. I understand some players think they are helping when they do things that actually make it harder.

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Welcome to the forum .. interesting first thread. The issue obviously becomes more important the more chips that are required to make the bet or call. I think I tend to be more careful about the chips when it gets to 6+ chips.

If you are going to break them down try for 'easy' math based on the size of the bet. $45 is 3 stacks of 3 red, $40 is 2 stacks of 4, $65 is 3 stacks of 4 and one on top and so forth. I've seen dealers who prefer 20 stacks and some 25 so even though you may have your own break down method you may see a different one from dealer to dealer.

Please don't lay out stacks of $10, even $15 stacks are tedious but if it works out better for the math then so be it.

The one common 'policy' from dealers ... Don't make your own change!! GL

What about 2 equally sized stacks, like you are putting in $70, I'd put two stacks of 7 reds and gently knock over one so they fan evenly and everybody can easily tell how much is there. Is that bad? Should I just be putting out the stack?

For $70 I would put out either 3-$20 or 2-$25 with the rest on top. Any stacks of more than 5 chips are hard to gauge across the table IMO. Putting out 1 tall stack is fine as well.

I do like it when you knock down a stack, but anything above 5 can be hard unless they fall perfectly.

One thing not being mention here yet ... Just verbalize your bet and it wont really matter how you put your chips out!! The dealer is going to check them anyway so 1 stack is great! GL

The worst thing you can do is just toss the entire bet into the center of the pot.

Barring splashing, the worst thing you can do scatter the chips so that they need to be restacked to be counted.

The next worst thing would be:

If you want to know the best way to do something, WATCH A PRO DO IT! Every game you guys play, has a trained dealer. Just watch how HE does it, and do that!

I've seen a lot of bad dealers, but I've never seen one "put two stacks of 7 reds and gently knock over one so they fan evenly".

it's standard for all casino's procedure to cut whites, reds and blacks in 5's and greens in 4's. So if you stack them in 7 chip piles the dealer's just gonna re-stack them according to standard procedure. The only exception would be an odd bet of 35 dollars would be two stacks of 4 with one chip on the top (visible for the "camera").

No, no, 1000x no!

The dealer is NOT "going to check them any way", if they're properly presented. I spend almost all my time dealing LIMIT poker, and the games would move SO much faster if players would put their bets out in a way that they can be verified with a glance instead of a full reconstruction project.

My personal peeve is when they put out their bet perfectly, but if they get raised, they splash their second bet into their first. Now I've got to audit the whole pile in front of them. Just another 21st Century thing that NEVER would fly back when I broke in.

So you think 14 red chips toppled over so they "fan" makes it easy for everybody to see how much there is? That is not the easy way to show how much there is. The easiest way to see how much that is would be 5 stacks of 5 chips and a stack of three chips which could be "fanned". But if handling and cutting out chips doesn;t come natural to you just push out your chips in stacks and the dealer can break it down when it needs counting.

There is a pretty basic method by casinos for breaking down stacks. It is widely ignored in poker because poker doesn't get the same oversight that pit games do so many dealers are never properly trained.

but the general key is that your stack should equal 1 chip of the next regularly used denomination (wierd denomination like $10 and $20 chips don't work for this)

so $1 chips are stacked 5 high -- $5 because $5 is the next denomination. $5 chips get stacked 5 high $25 because $25 is the next denomination. $25 chips get stacked 4 high $100 because $100 is the next denomination. $100 chips are stacked 5 high $500 because $500 is the next denomination. This Key doesn't work for $500 which are generally stacked 4 high (2 high is just annoying). $1000 chips get stacked 5 high, $5000 chips 5 high, 25k chips 4 high etc ...


Now as a dealer if a player stacks $40 in red as two stacks of 4 chips each I don't correct it. But if I have to handle the bet to count it I do it the correct the way that is a stack of 5 and a stack of three.

I don;t expect players to do this but they should know that there is a right way....

Please make your own change from your own bet. That is actually helpful. If you call a $5 bet and it gets raised to $25 and you throw out a $25 chip ... please go ahead and take back the first $5 you pt out.

Yes, that is bad. I have a hard time visually confirming more than 5 chips whether stacked or fanned out. Also, I'm not sure why people knock over one stack at the end. I guess they see cashiers doing this at the cage or something. What they miss is HOW the cashier does it - there is a very specific routine involving running their fingernail along the top of the stacks to show the camera they are the same size. When players do it they just flick forward one stack. Sometimes it's the same size as the others, sometimes it's shorter. Often the flick leaves them clumped or sends one chip flying across the table. Because I don't know for sure how much is there, I'm forced to restack everything and start again.

If it's easier for you to count out 14 chips by doing it in two stacks then by all means do it that way when you're preparing your bet, but when you push it forward either leave them stacked as is or break them down into stacks of 4 or 5.

The cashier knocks down a stack that is under the standard breakdown size so the camera can see it. This is never more than 4 chips

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The games are slowed (a little) by the way people put in chips. It's likely more the others at the table though and unless you're going to teach them all it won't affect the speed of the game.

In 3-chip/6-chip games I always wonder what dealers think about turn raises being put out in 3 stacks of 4.

I always throw out my bet so the chips fan evenly and everybody can easily tell how much is there. Granted I play mostly MTTs live and only do it with no more than 10 chips, but I have never once heard someone complain about it. To me its just as easy to pick up 6 fanned out chips as it is to pick up 52 fanned out cards.

--This dealer prefers 4x3 (glance!) over a sloppy mess (reconstruction!).

--"52 fanned out cards" is a terrible analogy, unless they fan out 52 cards every time a player puts chips in the pot.

Pretty much echoing what Psandman has to say about it. Toppling over the chips is always a pain. When I play I'll toss out (fan) 5 chips, and if I bet, say, $40 in reds I might fan out 2 rows of $20, but for the most part I'll just push out the chips in a single stack (or multiple stacks of 20 if the bet is big enough).

And please try to remember to push your chips out a few extra inches if you're sitting in seat 2, 3, 8, or 9.

Still never changing how I bet, hope it tilts each and every one of you

And maybe the cards were a bad analogy but, is it really that hard to slide 6 chips to the main pot that are fanned out compared to stacked chips that are on top of eachother, when every single one of the chips are visable to both dealer and player?

I have never had the dealer have to physically move the chips to see what was bet.

the reason they do this is so everyone is aware how many chips are in each stack