"Don't touch my chips!"
It's something I've heard a lot during my time in this industry, so why are tournament directors doing discretionary color-ups?
Let me give you a tournament director’s perspective. Hopefully, I can find some common ground with players who frequently tell me they don't want their chips touched during a tournament.
Discretionary color ups are part of the rules
First off, I like to start this conversation from a point where we can all agree.
Let’s say I’m doing a race-off and come across a player with three racks of black chips – chips he’s collected from other players. If he says, “These are my chips. I paid rake. Don’t touch them,” most people would understand that’s not how it works.
It's just the time in the tournament when these chips are taken out of play. I'm going to have to buy them up.
What players don't understand is that discretionary color ups are also a rule. The TDA (Tournament Directors Association) rules state that if a TD can’t quickly estimate the size of a player’s stack, it’s likely other players can’t either, and that’s a problem for pace of play.
Discretionary color ups don't happen at a set point in the tournament like race-offs do, but they're very necessary, well within the rules, and even a responsibility.
When we do these color-ups, we are trying to maintain the pace of play, stay on top of chip inventory, and keep stacks countable. The person running the tournament is tasked with managing race-offs and discretionary color-ups.
TDs can overdo color ups
I do believe that when you overdo it and leave too few chips in play, it affects the pace of play similarly.
Why? Because players have to make change every time they make a bet. I understand that there needs to be a middle ground. Some TDs are overdoing it, and some are underdoing it.
Take, for example, the start of the tournament when we give you 20 to 30 chips. There are usually zero complaints about maneuvering chips. You can always tell who has more chips because they have 60 to 80 total.
When you get to a point in the tournament where all you've really done is add zeros to all the numbers, it makes sense to understand that's the kind of stack size range we want to keep the chips in. It doesn't make sense to say you need 300, 400, or 500 chips to maneuver the tournament.
My hope in explaining more about why we do discretionary color-ups is that we can reach some sort of agreement.
What I ask for in return is for you to understand those chips never belonged to you. The tournament director is tasked with maintaining the chips. From the start, middle, and end of an event, they are tasked with maintaining the chips.
In a cash game, you purchase chips. In a tournament you are purchasing the right to have a value of chips.
My promise to the players
I promise I will listen to the players.
After all, a tournament is always about the experience of the players. I want the people playing my tournaments to have a good time, enjoy it, and do well. I’m willing to take fewer chips so that players can have more to play with (within reason).
Let me wrap this up the best way I can. When I come for your chips, perhaps during discretionary color ups, I promise to listen to player feedback and do so consistently.
I will always try to be fair. I’ll make sure you have enough chips to play with in any of my tournaments while also maintaining pace of play and making sure stacks are countable.
I'm sure if we all work together, when I come around to steal your chips, everyone will be happy with the end result.
Justin Hammer is the Live Events Director for PokerAtlas, online Tournament Director for the Texas-based poker app Hijack, and a Tournament Director for Thunder Valley Casino Resort. He also brings his expertise as a consultant and minority owner of Desert Bluffs Casino in Kennewick, Washington.
With years of experience across live, online, and casino operations, Justin has established himself as a trusted leader in the poker world.
For more info visit PokerAtlas.com, HijackPoker.com, and bluffs.poker. Follow Justin on X
