Last weekend I had a problem I have never had before in a cash game - too many chips to cope with. And I'm very curious what the proper way to handle it is (should it ever happen again) - because it kinda screwed me up.

Short version, I sat down at a 1-2NL game with the max buy in, $300. And I apparently sat down at the crazy table. Surrounded by crazy people, I was up to $1400, in mostly reds, within two hours. I've never seen anything like it, and likely never will again.

I did my best to get $25's where possible, but that doesn't really help much. $1400 in reds is a *lot* of chips to have in front of you, and they get in the way. I was in the 9 seat at a 10 seat table, and if I stacked them to my left, they impeded the 10 seat's play. If I stacked them directly in front of me, they impeded my play. A smart man would have gone home with em, but I had planned on spending the day playing poker, and that's really what I wanted to do.

So I played uncomfortably for a long time, not knowing what to do about it. It was both physically, and socially awkward. Additionally, my play is generally very tight, so I didn't let anyone really have a good crack at them, which actually made me feel like somewhat of a table jerk. My stack was mumbled about around the table. And I actually delayed leaving the table because not only did I feel like a jerk taking all the money off the table suddenly, but I couldn't figure out how to easily get three chip trays without fumbling about the casino. So I just played until the table broke (which I often do anyways).

(Chip trays are a persistent problem, finding just one chip tray is sometimes hard)

Is there some standard procedure for coloring up at a cash table? Is there a way to pull it off without coming off as an ass? Is there a secret to efficiently stacking your chips and holding your hands in a non-problematic way?

This will never happen again. And I know, I know, everyone wishes they could have that problem every day. But I often feel awkward on a good day, and this just didn't help. I'm curious if anyone has any helpful suggestions.

I have very limited live experience, but a couple of things:

1. Dealer has a float, you can probably get some $25s or $100s from him.

2. New player arrives, they sometimes have all or mostly big chips, offer to change him up.

Also, 25 to 30 chips is a reasonably stable column, you should only need 8 to 12 of these in order to hold them all in a small area.

Is there a right way to ask? "Hey Dealer, can I ....?". (It would have only gotten me so far. The tray was pretty exhausted by all the crazy people reloading constantly)


First buy in is at the cage, and for these 1-2NL games, people come to the table carrying almost exclusively reds. Not allowed to trade for paper anything that's on the table. I did buy a few 25's when I could, but, well, I ended up with all the 25's relatively quickly...

I did 5 core columns of approximately 40, and they were mostly stable. With a spire of 25's on top, and rough misc stacks to the side. But if I lined them up too far into the table, then neither the dealer nor the 10/1/2 seats could see if I had cards in play, and that didn't go well. So I had to keep them back and wide, no more than 2 rows deep, which is where the rows started spreading out left or right inconveniently.

What I really needed was a setup (like in Vegas) where you can independently personally call for a chip runner. We don't have chip runners here...

Stack em up, I like seeing how many levels I can make of my chip bricks. Some prefer a triangular base, I prefer square.

As for feeling like a jerk because you have the chips you could always have just given them back to everyone. Maybe tip the waitress a stack of reds every time she brought over a drink? Donate $100 to random pots?

I never have that problem my missus always nicks mine , it's so frigging annoying. I always ask her iff she wants chips with her burger "oh no thanks i'm not hungry" then down come the claws from hell to pinch my bloody chips. Not taking her to the chippy any more sod it.

Just ask the dealer if you can color up. Each rack of reds turns into a nice little stick of green.

Yeah, color up. Rack up two racks and go to the cage and color up, or have a runner do it. Also 3 racks of chips is not that many; 7-9 racks, sure, 3 or 4 not so much. You need to up your chip-stacking empire game.

The first few times you experience something can be a bit unsettling, but the biggest thing I tell anyone about poker ... If you are uncomfortable, then change the situation or you will not play at your best.

1) $1400 is not unusual for 1-2 .. Please don't say it will never happen again. You have enough things to think about in poker, keep it positive!!
2) Keep your chips in front of you, not to the side. I actually use $75 stacks at 1-2 and you can easily have a 'base' of 10-16 stacks in front before I start stacking on top. Players use multiples of $25 or just keep 5 or 6 stacks at an even height.

3) Watch other players to see how they handle their 'conversions' and stacking. Don't do it 'every' time, see what other player's stacks are and make sure you don't get things into a jam if you get into a big pot. Players do react differently when 'color' hits the pot. You can use this for and against the opponent mental side.
4) When you are ready to leave ... leave. You hit a nice score, take it!! You owe nothing to the rest of the table. They will be more than happy if you stick around and get coolered out of those chips. My first time at 2-5 I ran very well and got really nervous once I hit $2500. I just told the table ... Hey guys, this is a lot for me and I am going to book it. I actually geared down to 1-2 and pocketed the chips. Later in the night a couple of the 2-5 players were at my 1-2 table after the game broke and told me I did the right thing by 'gearing down' and booking a win.

I have lost many a chips when I 'ran like God' the first hour and then felt obligated to stay at a home game or I had planned on a 5 hour casino session. As soon as you feel your game change .. recognize it and adjust. GL

2/5 is a redchip game and $1400 is nothing for 2/5. I've seen stacks of red far far bigger than that. That being said it can be tough in certain seats. If there are chip runners pay them a dollar to color you up. Otherwise go to the cashier and do it yourself.

And apparently the seat position makes all the difference in the world.

I slowly worked up to a similarly (smaller) sized stack yesterday, but sitting at the 5 seat, there was really no problem at all - plenty of room on both sides.

I also stopped trying to build a triangle shaped spire of 25s on top of three red stacks. That was just more trouble than it was worth. Just having the stack of 25s on it's own made the entire array of chips far less wobbly.

Thanks all for the advice, I'll get this worked out one of these days...

Check out the chip stack thread in the live casino poker forum for several visuals on how to deal with large stacks. Warning: most of the posts are just brags but it's fun to check them out.