Thumb Flip
The idea behind the thumb chip flip is to lift a chip with your thumb and flip it over a number of chips that are lined up behind this chip. You may have seen several poker players on the World Poker Tour or World Series of Poker doing this trick. It is one of the easiest tricks to learn. Other popular names for the thumb chip flip are “front to back,” “thump chip flip,” or simply “chip flip.”
Before you begin
Trick Difficulty - 1
Chips needed - 3 or more
5 or 6 chips seem to work best in order to provide a strong base.
Tutorial
Setup the trick by placing the chips in between your index and ring fingers in a perpendicular fashion. The middle finger is used as a backstop to prevent the chips from falling. Apply pressure to the chips with your index and ring fingers so that the chips do not fall over.
This trick is also commonly done by holding the chips in between the middle and pinky fingers, using the ring finger as the backstop. This variation should be more difficult for most people because the pinky is the weakest finger of the hand, which makes it hard to apply pressure to the line of chips.
To get started, place your thumb near the bottom of the chip closest to the tips of your fingers. Loosen this chip by pulling it towards your body and away from the ring finger. Keep holding the remaining chips tightly with the index and ring fingers.
With your thumb, roll the loosened chip up onto the index finger. Once the chip is 1/2 to 3/4 of the way above the line of chips, slide your thumb towards your palm and the chip should follow so that it is now perpendicular to the other chips and on top of them. The thumb should be on the top side of the chip at this point.
Pull your thumb down, letting the chip fall behind the line of chips and into place. During this phase, the pressure applied to the line of chips by the index and ring fingers must be enough to keep them from falling over, but not so much that the chip cannot fall into place.
When the chip is on the way down and into place, the thumb is actually nothing more than a guide because gravity takes over.
Comment #10 by Barnett
November 4th, 2004 @ 11:07 AM
If the chips fall over when you try this trick try this…Spread your index, middle and ring finger out to creat a nice cradle for the chips to sit down in. You should apply very little pressure at this point. Now after you raise the chip with the thumb increase your index and ring finger pressure so that the stack won’t fall to the side while you are pulling the chip over the top. Works great — Great site
Comment #9 by Nick
November 1st, 2004 @ 2:13 PM
Barnett, I believe you are referring to the Finger Flip.
Comment #8 by Barnett
November 1st, 2004 @ 1:39 PM
Variation - same set up but hold chips with index finger and thumb. Your grip should be above the center of the chips… Now instead of rolling a chip upwards - use your ring finger to pull the 2 chips on the right hand side downward and eventually on top of your middle finger. Now use your index finger to bring the single chip over. This is not only easier it also looks good because the two chips are dangling for everyone to see - not hidden by your hand.
Give it a shot
Comment #7 by Abunai
October 7th, 2004 @ 10:21 PM
It took me a few hours to learn this trick and beable to do it with both hands. Im right handed but i found that my left hand was able to do this trick better then my right. But now i can do it with both. The video helped a lot.
Comment #6 by davidyoo
October 6th, 2004 @ 8:51 PM
It actually helped me to tilt the chips a little bit. I tilted them foward (towards the fingertips) so that it would be easier to grip each chip as their turn comes up to be flipped back.
This site is awesome. Thanx for the tricks
Comment #5 by David
October 4th, 2004 @ 8:27 PM
this is a really cool trick and its fun to do. i do it in between my classes and when i walk on the street. pretty much any time i can.
Comment #4 by Ian
October 3rd, 2004 @ 4:55 PM
This trick is very easy and didnt take much practice to learn. The way that I do it my index and middle fingers almost touch at about 9:00 (If the chips were a clock face that would be exactly opposite from your body), and my ring finger at about 5:00. Once the chip gets completely over the other two or three chips just let it fall into place and push it up against the other chips with your thumb.
Thanks for the SWEET site
Comment #3 by Hunt
September 27th, 2004 @ 9:57 PM
I learned this trick pretty quickly. One thing that helped a lot was realizing that you do not push or put pressure on the chip with your thumb. All your thumb needs to do is “lift” the chip.
Also, one thing that slowed me down was the fact that my middle finger would move, resulting in the chips becoming angled and the trick wouldn’t work. I just practiced and this went away.
Comment #2 by JHC
September 27th, 2004 @ 4:39 PM
Thumb Double Flip — a variation that happened by accident. If you lift with your thumb low on the first two chips, with the tip of your thumb covering the seam between the chips, you can flip two chips up and over the top. Has a nice weight and a click-click sound to it.
Comment #1 by JHC
September 26th, 2004 @ 10:17 PM
Thanks for the breakdown … it took me about four hours over a couple days to learn this trick and get as quick as the video. (I learned with my left hand so I could practice while working at the computer).
I found that moving the ring finger back to help as a backstop and moving the pinky up to support the bottom of the chips provided additional stability, and I didn’t have to use much pressure at all to hold the chips upright — just the contact of the 4 fingers was enough to keep the chips upright.
If the chips were a clock face, the index finger would be at 1:00, the middle finger at 3:00, the ring finger at 5:00, and the pinky at 6:30.
I also found that I was more successful when I started my thumb low on the chip, with my thumb at 7:00 just touching the pinky.
Also, after learning this trick with a four-finger setup it only took me 2 minutes to learn the Pickover (Difficulty 3) using the same hand position, since the pinky can come off easily to help lift the chip out of the cradle formed by the other three fingers.
Thanks for a great site.