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 #40 by Jessica
June 20th, 2005 @ 11:39 PM
Doesn’t Evelyn do it by dropping the middle two chips out and then fanning? The video shows it done a different way.
Comment #39 by Nick
June 1st, 2005 @ 11:31 PM
Sorry Danny, but it’s way too hard to learn.
Comment #38 by Danny
June 1st, 2005 @ 7:33 PM
Awesome site…I was wondering if you could post the one trick by Antonio when he flips a single chip into his hand, making it look like its floating. That’ll be great if you could.
Comment #37 by Ryder Dynes
May 5th, 2005 @ 12:25 PM
Great site it took me a wile but i am mastering it
Comment #36 by gimbi
December 22nd, 2004 @ 8:21 PM
this is a pretty k00l trick, and i like the site overall. although i must say, i masterd every single trick on this site within a few minutes. it may be my backround (my hobbie is street magic) but ur site makes the tricks sound harder than they are. in anycase, great site, and keep the tricks comin in!
Comment #35 by Matt
December 22nd, 2004 @ 6:04 PM
this is considered a chip trick?? i masterd this while i was watching the video
Comment #34 by john
December 15th, 2004 @ 3:53 PM
hard as hell… anyone got any tips for me?
Comment #33 by Tim
December 13th, 2004 @ 6:27 PM
Good lord, harder than hell. Got a question though. You see rounders when johnny chan is sitting at the table and is takign the chips from the back and movint them to the front. I want ot know that trick, it looks sweet. Let me know if u hear anything about it, thank s-Tim
Comment #32 by Jacob
December 10th, 2004 @ 11:27 AM
Ya i’m in school too 2nd period right before lunch working on nothing in the library learning poker tricks, its great
Comment #31 by Aaron
December 7th, 2004 @ 4:39 AM
I actually find it easier to do it via Evelyn Ng by pulling down the two middle chips vs the two inside or two outside. From here, once you’ve seperated the top two from the bottom two, use your index finger to do most of the seperating instead of the thumb. Once they are split apart bring the middle finger in between the chips and try to touch your middle finger to your thumb. Then lower the two sets of chips and swing the middle finger out. I’ve probably confused more ppl then i’ve helped, but heck, its a confusing trick!
I tried for days and days and all I got from it was a sore hand. Went back one day and boom, floats like a butterfly. I find that once you do the rollout enough times, the breakdown will come automatically.