Butterfly
The butterfly is probably the coolest looking poker chip trick there is. It’s the most difficult too! Evelyn Ng performed this trick on a segment of “The Nuts” during the 2004 World Series of Poker. Antonio Esfandiari does a variation of this trick, but it’s quite a bit different.
Before you begin
Trick Difficulty - 3
Chips needed - 4
Tutorial
Hold all four chips between the index and ring fingers (perpendicular to the fingers), with the middle finger bracing the back of the chips. The grip is exactly the same as when you start the thumb flip. The chips should be about 1/2 an inch to an inch from your finger tips.
Begin by loosening the two chips closest to the palm with your thumb. As you lift these two chips and roll them onto your index finger, you also drop your ring finger, pulling the other two chips away with it. Start moving the pinky up towards the index finger.
As you pull the ring finger out, the pinky will soon be high enough to come in contact with the chips held by the ring and index fingers. Use the index and middle fingers to help move these two chips into a postion held by the ring and pinky fingers.
Make sure the grip with these two fingers is very strong, since the pinky is the weakest finger of the hand.
When the ring and pinky fingers have a firm grip on the two chips, release the index finger, which should be left holding two chips with the thumb. At this point you should have two chips held by the index finger and thumb and two chips held by the ring and pinky fingers.
Bend the middle finger in towards the palm of your hand. Once it passes the chips, move the two sets of chips together. As them come together, position the middle finger so that it can touch both sets of chips. Place pressure on the chips with your middle finger.
Use your thumb to pull the inner most top chip away from the middle finger. Use the pinky to pull the outer most bottom chip away from the middle finger. As you pull the thumb up and the pinky down, the middle finger moves back out away from the palm, rolling a chip along the index finger and another along the ring finger. At this point you should have a chip in each of the four gaps between the fingers.
Fanning out the chips is extremely difficult and will take a lot of practice.
Comment #10 by Steve
October 14th, 2004 @ 4:33 PM
I am finding it difficult to 1) roll the two chips out for the butterfly and 2) to seperate the 2 chips for the twirl trick what is the best advice you can give to start picking up this tricks? Watching you perform them, you make it look so easy yet it is really quite difficult. Please help
Comment #9 by David
October 13th, 2004 @ 3:47 PM
Ever since I saw Evelyn do this one on wsop 04 coverage I knew I had to figure it out. Thanks for the instruction, it took some time but I got it down.
Comment #8 by Son of Samurai
October 12th, 2004 @ 1:09 PM
GOT IT!!!! Finally! It took me about a week of fiddling around while talking on the phone, watching TV and sitting in front of the computer, but I got it down. Bringing them back was difficult, but I’m getting pretty consistent with that too. Thanks for the instructions, and the site.
Comment #7 by Israel
October 9th, 2004 @ 4:45 PM
i find this version hard since it requires a shift that involves only the middle, ring and pinky fingers — which makes it quite difficult since the thumb and the index fingers are the fingers with the most control.
so, here’s a variation i came up with.
1. hold on four chips just as in thumb flip, between index, middle and ring fingers.
2. release two chips with your thumb so they have a more loosened grip (similar to the twirl trick)
3. using your thumb, roll the two released chips below, between your ring and pinky fingers.
4. now, release your index finger and thumb, you must have a hold of two chips between the index and the middle, and two between the ring and the pinky.
(note: it looks alot cooler when steps 5 and 6 are done simultaneously)
5. roll one of the chips between the middle and ring finger with your index finger, up, using middle finger fixed point, now you should have a chip between index and middle fingers.
6. roll one of the chips between the ring and the pinky finger with your thumb, down, using the pinky as fixed point, now you should have a chip between your pinky and thumb.
so, you end up with a chip between index and middle, middle and ring, ring and pinky, and pinky and thumb. it’s quite different from the traditional butterfly, but also alot easier.
good luck.
Comment #6 by David
October 4th, 2004 @ 8:09 PM
holy crap man this is mad hard dude
Comment #5 by Nick
October 4th, 2004 @ 6:04 PM
The difficulty is really off the charts. Once you finally get the first part of the trick…putting it back together is a completely different story!
Comment #4 by Bill
October 4th, 2004 @ 6:01 PM
Holy frustration Batman! this is by far the hardest trick yet, it took me a while to learn the 3 chip “seperate and spin” trick, this will take even longer! BUT I WILL GET IT….awesome site guys!!
Comment #3 by James
September 30th, 2004 @ 11:00 PM
This trick is really cool, I’m still trying to learn the Fanning part though.. During that Process, I came up with a trick very similar to the Butterfly. Instead of using 4 Chips, I use 3, it is the same process of doing the Butterfly, but no chip between the ring and middle finger. I call it the “Triplicant”. Not sure if that is a word, but I like it. I think that trick can be a “Pre-Butterfly”. Like Pre-Butterfly:Butterfly::Finger Flip:Thumb Flip
Comment #2 by biggie
September 30th, 2004 @ 10:14 AM
sweet ollie mcgriddle
Comment #1 by kroniz
September 26th, 2004 @ 6:49 PM
Awesome trick, and site!