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 #20 by Colin
September 4th, 2005 @ 11:46 PM
I am still trying to get this one down. I find that if I move my index and middle fingers together, it helps. But the key about that is to not apply any pressure with the middle finger.
I’ll get it, with some practice. I learned the shuffle faster than this!!!
Comment #19 by ark
August 23rd, 2005 @ 3:46 PM
tilting my hand inwards so that the stack didnt fall backwards, and increasing the pressure of the index and ring as you move the chip over the top are the two important things you need to do. I mastered this in about 10 minutes!
Comment #18 by t jerome
July 15th, 2005 @ 12:19 AM
i use my pinky to help my ring finger hold and thats seems to pwn noobs
Comment #17 by Ray
January 3rd, 2005 @ 9:55 AM
The key for me on this trick was that your index finger needs to be cocked, or bent a little bit before the trick, while your ring finger is extended straight out. That way when the thumb cocks back to pull the chip over, your index finger wont flex back and pull all the chips back (which makes them fall over). I still haven’t mastered this yet, but it’s getting there. I think this is harder than the finger flip.
Comment #16 by The Mexican
January 3rd, 2005 @ 4:25 AM
I learned the trick in 15 minutes. First i only could 5 repetitions. The secret is to practice in slow motion, then when you are done practicing try to push the chips with your thumb after doing the flip so they can get rearenged. Now i can do it very fast nonstop…i have an own record of 89 repetitions.
Comment #15 by Steve M
December 20th, 2004 @ 2:55 AM
I think the secret to this movement is momentum .. it’s a tough one to do in “slo-mo” - if you stop the chip at the top, then you lose the momentum… the key is to keep the chip moving… after you raise it enough, then its just a “flip” and the momentum and gravity take over!
Comment #14 by john
December 15th, 2004 @ 3:38 PM
i cant do it with my thumb but i can with my index finger ….lol
Comment #13 by schulte
December 9th, 2004 @ 9:59 PM
i’m still trying to get more than 1 maybe 2 chips if i’m lucky before the rest of them fall down but towards jimmy, i put all of the chips at the back of my fingers and just propped the chip closest to me in the opposite direction and that was easier than the chip towards your body….
Comment #12 by jimmy
December 3rd, 2004 @ 7:06 PM
I can’t do any more than about five iterations (repetitions) of this trick before the chips get too far back. Is this inevitable, or is it possible to go on and on?
Comment #11 by Billy
November 23rd, 2004 @ 9:24 PM
I find this trick to be much easier by putting the chips between you pinky and ring finger with the middle finger helping the ring finger, works much smoother for me