Must you play with all the chips you purchase?

[Emily Trott]

I was playing a 1-2 No Limit game yesterday and saw something I don't think that I've ever seen before. A player joined our table with some black ($100) chips and cashed one in for smaller chips. After half an hour or so he still had most of his chips when he put a $100 bill on the table to buy more. He asked the dealer for one (green) $25 chip and the rest to be (red) $5 chips.

I wasn't paying all that much attention but after the dealer pushed the chips to him he lifted himself up from the chair a bit and, out of the corner of my eye, i thought I saw him putting something in his right hand pants pocket. I looked very carefully at his chips on the table and saw the red ones and the black ones, but no green chip that he'd just purchased. Wanting to be positive I looked carefully at each individual chip he had, and sure enough there wasn't a $25 one.

I'd think that taking a chip off of the table after purchasing it in a No Limit game would be against the rules. However, I'm not sure about that and didn't want to create an issue by asking at the time. I know it is against the rules to take chips off of the table, but this could be more like he wanted $75 in chips but had to break a $100 bill and had some change left over after the purchase. What do all of you think?

 

[Navin Sarabjeet]

I was playing a 1-2 No Limit game yesterday and saw something I don't think that I've ever seen before. A player joined our table with some black ($100) chips and cashed one in for smaller chips. After half an hour or so he still had most of his chips when he put a $100 bill on the table to buy more. He asked the dealer for one (green) $25 chip and the rest to be (red) $5 chips.

I wasn't paying all that much attention but after the dealer pushed the chips to him he lifted himself up from the chair a bit and, out of the corner of my eye, i thought I saw him putting something in his right hand pants pocket. I looked very carefully at his chips on the table and saw the red ones and the black ones, but no green chip that he'd just purchased. Wanting to be positive I looked carefully at each individual chip he had, and sure enough there wasn't a $25 one.

I'd think that taking a chip off of the table after purchasing it in a No Limit game would be against the rules. However, I'm not sure about that and didn't want to create an issue by asking at the time. I know it is against the rules to take chips off of the table, but this could be more like he wanted $75 in chips but had to break a $100 bill and had some change left over after the purchase. What do all of you think?

Indeed it is not allowed to take chips off the table.
But in this case he just purchased some top up and probably did not want all of that in play, so he just put 75 in play and put the 25 in his pocket which is absolutely allowed.
If he had topped up the 100 and put all on the table and after a hand or two had decided to take 25 off then that is not allowed.

Good luck!

 

[Pete_Stew]

I completely agree with Navin Sarabjeet, but i would like to add: In such a situation as a buyer of chips, i always tell the dealer how much of the new chips will be in play...just to avoid any misunderstandings.​

 

[Jillychemung]

As long as he hasn't played a hand, the player is fine taking some of the just purchased chips off the table. Also some tables have a max buyin for example my local casino has a $300 max buyin for their $1/$2 game, so if your stack is at $250 and you buy $100 in chips you can only top up to $300 and $50 has to come off the table.