chip colour retiring -- WSOP official rules (in case you care...)

[Darren Dirt]

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2006/9/two-million-questions-two.htm#Color-Up%20And%20Race-Off%20Procedures

The Tournament Directors Association has the following rule #2:

When it is time to color-up chips, they will be raced off with a maximum of one chip going to any player. The chip race will always start in the No.1 seat. ...

Now this TDA rule presupposes that we know how to run a race-off and when and why.

From Roberts Rules of Poker, we have more but not complete information:

The lowest denomination of chip in play will be removed from the table when it is no longer needed in the blind or ante structure. All lower-denomination chips that are of sufficient quantity for a new chip will be changed up directly.

The method for removal of odd chips is to deal one card to a player for each odd chip possessed. Cards are dealt clockwise starting with the 1-seat, with each player receiving all cards before any cards are dealt to the next player.

The player with the highest card by suit gets enough odd chips to exchange for one new chip, the second-highest card gets to exchange for the next chip, and so forth, until all the lower-denomination chips are exchanged.

If an odd number of lower-denomination chips are left after this process, the player with the highest card remaining will receive a new chip if he has half or more of the quantity of lower-denomination chips needed, otherwise nothing.

e.g.
There are ten players remaining. Each player stacks their black $100 chips out in front of them in stacks of five. Each stack is exchanged by the floor for a single $500 chip or two stacks for a $1,000 chip etc. Seats 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 each had black chips in multiples of 5 and therefore they are done with their chip-up and since they have no extra chips they are not involved in the race-off.

Seat Two has 4 Black (100) chips, Seat Four has 2 Black chips, Seat Six has 1, Seat Eight has 3 chips, and Seat Ten has 3 Black chips. Notice there are a total of 13 Black $100 chips involved in the race-off. The dealer deals 4 cards face-up to Seat Two. The dealer then deals 2 cards to Seat Four, 1 card to Seat Six, 3 cards to Seat Eight, and 3 cards to Seat Ten.

The dealer then collects all Black chips and exchanges these (either from the table bank or more often from the floor person running the race-off) for 3 Red $500 chips. One chip for each 5 Black chips and an additional chip for the odd 3 chips.

The highest card gets the first chip and that player's cards are mucked, as you may only win one chip in any race-off. Second and third chips go to the next two highest cards and the race-off is done and all of the $100 chips are off the table.

...

$25 Race-Off Example:

In the case of the $25 chips, since four chips would be exchanged for a $100 chip, the race-off would involve only individual players with one, two or three chips remaining after they had exchanged all chips they held in multiples of four.

The number of $100 chips a table would be competing for would be determined by the total value of chips in the race-off.

For instance, if a table had twelve $25 chips in the race-off, or $300 total value in chips, they would ultimately be substituted for three $100 chips.

A lot of words to describe a relatively simple exchanging/race-off