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 #30 by Adam
November 30th, 2004 @ 6:05 PM
Anyone having trouble bringing their middle finger towards the palm? When I do it my ring finger tends to follow and I lose grip with the chips between pinky and ring finger.
Comment #29 by Jebediah Springfield
November 27th, 2004 @ 2:47 AM
From my own experience, on the setup there is one key point where you can tell whether or not it will work: When you transfer the two chips to the ring and pinky finger, you want the outermost chip (the one that will STAY between the ring and pinky finger) to have the STRONGEST grip. The other chip (which is going to go between the middle and ring finger) should be gripped very loosely when it is held in the pinky and ring finger. If its’ the other way around, then you’ll have a real tough time trying to grab the chip for the middle and ring finger away from the pinky and ring finger.
And if you understood all that, you must have like 6 fingers on one hand : D
Great site! rah rah
Comment #28 by bojow
November 26th, 2004 @ 10:54 PM
i am only 12 and i almost got it
Comment #27 by Brett
November 24th, 2004 @ 10:21 PM
Poker chip tricks - my anti-drug.
Comment #26 by Aaron
November 16th, 2004 @ 3:59 PM
wow…haven’t quite got the breakdown yet, but this one is so rewarding once you finally get a hang of it
Comment #25 by PwNeR
November 1st, 2004 @ 10:37 PM
Practicing for about a week now I can do this trick pretty consistantly. My way of bringing the chip back takes a bit more flexibility from your fingers but less strength from your original “holder” fingers. I bring my middle finger down to bring the two outer chips together so I have two chips between my thumb and index and ring and another two between my pinky perpendicular to my fingers. I then drop my middle finger a little bit so that one side comes down and I slide my middle finger under all four chips as they come together as the middle finger is no longer there supporting the middle. In the end it seems to work out better than doing the butterfly EXACTLY backwards.
Comment #24 by Andrew
October 30th, 2004 @ 10:33 PM
hey man this is by far the best tutorial site ive seen… thanks for showing how to do the butterfly, keep up with good work!
Comment #23 by PwNeR
October 27th, 2004 @ 2:47 PM
After about a day and a half, I’m able to fan out the chips about 90% of the time but might there possibly be a better way to bring them back?
Comment #22 by achrom
October 26th, 2004 @ 9:01 AM
In 2nd period comps class oct 26 doing nothing since im done my work so trying to catch up on some tricks what else is there to do in shcool then play poker or look at poker sites or think about poker haha we this msg goes with # 13 14 16 17 18 and heres another holar to my boys bfet TLP Sam G and this is achrom peace out
Comment #21 by Nick
October 25th, 2004 @ 2:08 PM
Just the opposite way you fan it out. I’m working on this part of the trick, but it’s not very easy. I’m trying to come up with something that’s easier as a variation.