Newbies love the poker chip tricks. Although I think it is somewhat comical that people who are playing a game that takes a lifetime to master are busy playing with their chips, I know some people jsut play the game for entertainment. Here is a description of a few of the popular chip tricks.

This trick is where you bounce a chip off the felt and onto your stack. This is less about technique and more about practice. It is best to just keep practicing dropping a chip and letting it fall and getting a feel for the amount and direction of the bouncing. The key is the angle at which it hits the table - the angle has to be very small and any subtle innacuracy in estimation will result in failure.

This trick is when you are holding a small stack of chips sideways in your hand and moving the front one to the back and repeating. tart with 4 chips. You can do this trick with 2 or more chips but I find it easier to do it with about 3-4 chips in your hand. Hold them with all your fingers, except for your pinky. Assuming you are using your right hand. Push your thumb against the left-most chip and pull it up. Once it is up then move it behind the other chips and push it down. You have to hold the other chips firm enough so that they don't move. You pinky is on the bottom of the chips and probably is the finger that is most important in keeping the chips steady. This is one of the easier tricks to do and once you get it down then it will actually get to the point where it is hard ot not do it correctly.

This strick is where you take 2 stacks of chips and use your fingers to splice them together into 1 big stack. You should start off doing 6-8 chips, so have stacks of 3-4 chips that are touching each other. You thumb goes onto the left lower side of the left stack. Your index finger should go in between the 2 stacks and touch the chips where the chips meet. Your middle and ring fingers go on the right side of the right stack of chips. Most people don't use the pinky. To do the trick, you push the 2 stacks together slightly while lifting up with your index finger and pulling both stacks up at the same time. Use 2 different color of chips so that you can easily see how your results are. It helps when the surface is slightly soft because initially getting the chips off the ground is the hardest part. Doing it on a poker table is perfect as opposed to a hard table.

This is where you roll the chips accross the table from one hand to the other. You should start off with 3-5 chips. You can have the back of your hand right on the table or a couple of inches above it and your hand should be at an angle so the chips will roll onto the table instead of being dropped. You should have the chips held in between your thumb and your index finger. Your other fingers should be in front of, and below, the chips so that when the chips are let go they roll over the fingers and onto the table. Slowly release each chip.

This trick is probably the hardest to learn. Here, you have 3 chips held in your hand using all your fingers except for your pinky. The ring finger is the finger on the bottom holding the chips up and the chips should be about a half inch away from the end of your fingers. Use your thumb and index finger to seperate the 2 outer chips from the middle one. Lift the 2 outer chips up and lower your ging finger to completely seperate the middle chip from the oter two. Once this is done, use your middle and ring fingers to rotate the chip 180 degrees while balancing the chip on your pinky. When the chip is completely rotated slide the two outer chips down around the middle chip and you are done. The hardest part of the trick is to rotate the chip once you have it seperated.

The knuckle roll is one of the easier tricks to learn. It is the one where you use your fingers to move the chips over your knuckles. You start with the chip between your thumb and your index finger. Slide the chip up with your thumb. At the same time push your index finger down and your middle finger up. Then push the chip into the space between your index finger and middle finger. When the chip looks like it is partially inserted into the space then lower the middle finger down and so that it pushes the chip into an upright position in between the 2 new fingers. You repeat this until you have the chip in between your ring finer and pinky. Once it is there then you can reverse it and go backwards to get the chip back in it's original position. If you get really good at this you can learn how to do 2 chips at once.