Building Pyramids

[Barry]

During one of my trips to Vegas this year, I reintroduced myself to Mason and we chatted for a couple of minutes. A while later he walked past the 15/30 table that I was sitting at. The table was very good and I was running well, so at the time I had something like $2,800 worth of red chips in front of me. The way that I usually stack chips is to build pyramids with them. The first level is a triangle of 10 stacks of chips, then 6 stacks on top of that, then 3, then 1. When I am running well; the next step is to add stacks to the bottom layer so that it has 15 stacks then continue to build upwards from there. So at the time, I had added even a few stacks to the second level.

So Mason walks by, points to my stack and says that I was in violation of the chip stacking guidelines. We both laughed and I got to see that Mason has a sense of humor, or so I thought at the time.

So anyway, I got around to adding to my book collection, and recently bought "Gambling Theory and Other Topics" in order to better understand the concept of non-self weighting strategies. I get through the meat of the book and into the "Gambling Fantasy" section and the essay on "Building Pyramids" which really is an essay on stacking chips

I'm reading the essay, and I realize that I'm following them. OK the essay says that you add chips to the right, but since I'm a lefty, I add mine to the left. I also quickly shed any green and white (or blue) chips, if I'm in a red chip game. My stacks are 20 chips high. I think back to Mason's joke and now wonder what he was talking about, as I'm following them perfectly, proving I guess, only that I am as obsessive/compulsive as Mason. Then I read the very last item "Don't start to build a pyramid on top of a completed one". I am immediately crushed. So I begin to wonder again, if Mason really does have a sense of humor /images/graemlins/grin.gif.

So my formal response to Mason's comment, a few months back is: Pyramids are 3 dimensional objects, not 2. You are advocating building mere triangles, not stately pyramids. I hope this is one area where you have changed your thinking over the years.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm reading the essay, and I realize that I'm following them. OK the essay says that you add chips to the right, but since I'm a lefty, I add mine to the left.

[/ QUOTE ]

Friggin' lefties. Can't trust 'em, nope. Of course you were wrong, Mason knows (correctly) that chips go to the RIGHT you friggin' freak!

[ QUOTE ]
...I am as obsessive/compulsive as Mason.

[/ QUOTE ]

THAT in itself... (hold on, I am stacking my virtual chips)... is not a flaw. You have to be slightly (..stacking again..) obsessive/compulsive to play poker in the first place. (Eighteen, nineteen, twenty, new stack, always add to the RIGHT... ahhhhhh... the universe is now perfect again...).

al

[mostsmooth]

this is a little off your topic, but my pyramid building technique: base starts as 6 stacks of 20, then 3 on top , then 1. then i progress to add 4 to the left side of the base, starting closest to me out to the middle of table, then 3 to the middle, then 2 to the old top , and 1 for a new top. then proceed in similar manner for more chips. all odd colored chips go under the very bottom right stack, no matter how difficult it is to remove the necessary chips from the top of said stack to keep it at 20 chips.
anyway, im a righty, but i add stacks to the left. and come to think of it, i do all my chip handling with my left hand. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[andyfox]

Clarkmeister is the best at it. And he usually has tons of chips.

[TimM]

Your structure sounds dangerous and may be in violation of local building codes. If that thing fell it would cover the entire table in a thin layer of red chips. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Barry]

Actually it's very stable. You should see it when I push the entire thing across the table when I change seats.

[34TheTruth34]

[ QUOTE ]
You should see it when I push the entire thing across the table when I change seats.

[/ QUOTE ]

lol


did you invent this method of stacking on top or did JTG? He told me about it a long time ago...

[Mike Gallo]

Barry,

I agree with Mason here.

I like to build my pyramids so big that players complain because my stacks have crossed into their territory.

Ironically enough many players who do not know me call me pyramid. They do this of course because I protect my chips with a pyramid.

Try Mason's method.

[Barry]

I certainly didn't invent it; and I don't remember where (or who) I got the idea from. It could have been JTG. I just know that I like to do it that way as it is usually unique at the table that I am at. Of course that excludes the times I play with CrackerZack.

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]

Friggin' lefties. Can't trust 'em, nope.

[/ QUOTE ]

That was left-handed. I'm on it.

~D

[rory]

Barry's chip stacking method rules-- it is impressive to see it in action.

Impressive and unfortunate if you are at his table.

-rory

[Hirez]

You should only build on top if you do it like jesus

http://hi-rez.net/jesus.jpg

[The Dude]

What you describe is the way I've always stacked my chips, and most of my friends do the same. GoT does as well.

A properly built chip pyramid is a beautiful thing. Once, when sitting small stakes with a friend, I got into a buy-in war with a maniac at the table, and had a 11 rack 1 stack pyramid (21 Stack Base). Yeah, that turned into the only night I've ever been drunk at the poker table.

And oh yeah. I generally like what Mason has to say in his Poker Essays, but his stance on chip stacking is misguided and ignorant.

[Barry]

And I thought that the 5 rack buy-in of $1 chips (which I wound up turning into 9+ racks) that Clarkmeister talked me into at the 4/8 MB game was nuts.

[ArchAngel71857]

I find Ferguson's t-shirt to be incredibly funny on many many levels.

I have a friend who stacks his chips into an phallus. if he is doing well, he adds to the chonson and it gets erect, if he does poorly, it goes limp.

-AA

[scrub]

I spent most of Thursday night attempting to learn the art of the Barry pyramid from the man himself.

Barry was not only better at stacking the chips, but also at accumulating them. He's also much better at cutting out bets quickly, especially when he's 3-betting me the only time I took a shot at the blinds the whole night... Barry was a great host, though, and I had a great time trying to figure out how he manages to keep his stacks so straight. Mine kept slanting all over the place. The table did look pretty funny with two big red chipcastles on it, though... /images/graemlins/smile.gif

scrub

[Barry]

The game was much better after you left and my pile continued to grow. Especially when I was checkraised (by the guy that was sitting between us) on the river by trip kings when I had A's full of K's.

Yes, you should work on your chip handling skills; rather than your mouse skills /images/graemlins/wink.gif. At least you didn't make any string bets /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[scrub]

Yeah, I had a hard time walking away from it once I realized that all the nits were going to make the game better instead of worse. A combination of not wanting to listen to them anymore and wanting to sleep in the room I had payed for won out, but standing up wasn't the smartest move...

I'm not bad with the chips in other games, but the 8 chip big bet kills me at 20/40. I always used to pull the right number off the top of my stack and toss them out so I never learned the whole cutting off of a bigger stack move.

I loved the guy sitting between us, maybe even more than the guy with the sunglasses. Glad to hear you kept running well--there were certainly a lot of extra bets to be made... /images/graemlins/smile.gif And thanks again for the rundown of who was who--I haven't played that game nearly enough to have a sense of how a lot of the regulars play.

scrub

[bisonbison]

The way that I usually stack chips is to build pyramids with them. The first level is a triangle of 10 stacks of chips, then 6 stacks on top of that, then 3, then 1.

Mmmm, 4th level thinking.

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Everyone:

It's our policy at Two Plus Two to make sure that what we write and publish is detailed and extremely accurate. That includes the pyramids.

best wishes,
Mason

[The Dude]

Yeah, well, in the 21st Century Edition of Poker Essays, I hope you update the information to relfect the new, more profitable style of pyrmading Barry desribes.

[Barry]

Mason -

I tried it your way for a little while the other day and I just couldn't stand it. It upset my sense of 3 dimensional symmetry. Not to mention that it didn't look quite as impressive.


I guess that's why I'm just a mediocre poker player!

[BarronVangorToth]

[ QUOTE ]
The way that I usually stack chips is to build pyramids with them. The first level is a triangle of 10 stacks of chips, then 6 stacks on top of that, then 3, then 1.


My buddy calls them "floors" when he's building up the pyriamid and he usually builds them like most of you seem to do (I do as well ... problem is, I infrequently get enough ahead to build more than a chimney on my base) and one time when he finished the fourth floor a dude at the table was joking with him that it was good that he was done building, because the dude had my buddy's "tell" and was going to "bust him" in the next hour or so.

"Barron," my buddy said, "I'm going to build the fifth floor tonight, funded exclusively by Seat X."

He almost did ... but the guy busted out before it was more than expansion plans.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.


Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com (http://www.BarronVangorToth.com)

Mmmm, 4th level thinking.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Sundevils21]

[ QUOTE ]
You should only build on top if you do it like jesus

http://hi-rez.net/jesus.jpg

[/ QUOTE ]

I do it this way. More practical than any other system.

[Lazymeatball]

Hey, that picture of Ferguson is from Binions, I knew I learned something important in that Casino Carpet Quiz in the B&M forum