Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing has been debated on message boards many times. Many skilled players feel like their ability to count chips easily and accurately gives them a hard-earned and well-justified advantage against less experienced players. On the other hand, many argue that the chip-counting process is so intimidating to beginners that it prevents new players from enjoying their tournament experience, and causes some players to give up the game. Driving off new enthusiasts can't be good for the game, so those who argue this point would advocate frequent mandatory chip counts.

I can see both sides of this argument, and frankly, I don't care whether mandatory counts are frequent or rare in the rounds that I play. But the fact remains that in most events, skill in chip-counting is an important part of successful play. Becoming adept at chip-counting just requires practice, preferably a lot of it. But that's not what I'm proposing in this month's article. Instead, I recommend trying to eliminate most of the chip-counting from your games!

Before I get into the details, let's look at some of the reasons that chip counting is hard...

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