I saw a new technique for hiding chips this past weekend at the Grand in Gulfport. I had never seen it before and I don't know if it is legal or not, but it was actually done by Ken's wife, so Ken, if it is illegal, sorry for bringing this up. Anyway, I noticed that Jan would keep her stack of chips out in front of her a bit and build up her next bet behind her chipstack ahead of time. I don't know if she did this all the way to the final hands or not, but I don't know why it couldn't be done unless somebody objected. If you were watching her chip stack, you might overlook the fact that she could have a max bet hiding behind them.
I don't know if she did it on purpose, but she seemed to have a pretty good idea what she was going to bet ahead of time, so once her hand was done, she would go ahead and set up her next bet. It did serve the purpose of hiding the chips. My wife tried to hide hers by making one big stack, but they caught that real quick when she had her yellow chips in the middle of a stack of blacks. I know they say you can't play with your chips, but if you set up your bets consistently, I don't know if they could say you can't unstack your chips until it is your turn to bet. BTW, Ken, I overheard someone standing behind your tables when you were both playing and making a comment to a friend pointing out the two of you, and she said "I am really more afraid of playing against Jan!"
Just ask Players hiding chips can be used to your advantage, as long as you know what they have you know how to bet and play your hand while others may make the wrong bets or play. Several players angle their stacks slightly and even though they are open for the dealer to see if they are at 1st or 3rd base their chips can be hidden to players in the middle of the table. This weekend at the Stardust they had some old fart that stacked his $5's and $25's chips in front of his $100's and then covered up all of them with his hand. He was called on it several times over the first two rounds. In the 3rd round he was told if he did it again it would be disqualified, that finally got him to stop hiding them. If the man played like that normally at the regular tables it wouldn't have been that bad, but I saw him at the regular table and his stacks were all lined up nice and no hands on the table. He just wanted to play like he didn't realize he was doing anything wrong. Remember you can ask to see any players chips if they are hidden from your view and if the player refuses to move them then ask the dealer and they will move them for you.
