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Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use knowledge of this tell outside of the poker table. If other our tips may be successfully applied in daily life, then this tell is only restricted to poker (unless you carry stacks of chips with you all the time).

Glancing at chips is considered to be an intention cue. What does it mean? In psychology, intention cues are known as gestures and displays that signal our intentions. Let’s look at the short example. Pretend that you are chatting with your friends in the bar and suddenly notice that one of them, who was facing you squarely just moments ago is suddenly pointing his feet, legs and torso towards the door.  You do not need to be a qualified psychologist to understand that this person has lost interest in conversation and wants to leave as quickly as possible. There might be plenty of reasons of such behavior. Perhaps, he saw someone else he wants to talk to, he might have to go through the bathroom, go to the bar to get a drink or he might really want to leave that place altogether. No matter what his reasons are, but the signal is clear - your friend wants to leave your company as quickly as possible.

  

Intention cues may be also often met at the poker table. For instance, they occur, when players are holding their cards ready to throw them in the muck preflop. This tell has been around forever, and is especially common to amateur players, who do not know yet, how to control their emotions. However, the difference between this tell and the “glancing at chips” tell is that the latter is unconscious, just like the situation with your friend at the bar. Of course, if you are aware of the existence of such tells, you can control and consciously avoid them in your behavior.

The most important thing to remember about this tell that it is very short in time. No one would sit, staring at the bunch of chips for half an hour. It will be only a brief glance. Bum! Quick like a shot. In order to catch it, you need to search for the so-called "trigger" - a reason that causes such a behavior. It might be opponent’s bet, or cards that appeared on the board. After this you will have only a few seconds to "mirror your" opponent's reactions and make the right conclusions.

Let’s move from theory to practice and look at some examples.


Joe Hachem Catches Trips and Tries to Talk his Opponent’s Head off



As you can see, during the WSOP Joe Hachem has a very weak hand 42o and flops trip deuces. Look carefully at his eyes at about 0:09. As soon as Joe saw two deuces on the flop, he immediately looked at his stack. Subconsciously, he tells everyone at the table that he is willing to add some chips to the pot. This tell lasts for only a second, but I have no doubt that Joe hit the flop perfectly.

Ram Waswani Catching two Pairs at the EPT



Another vivid example. During a European Poker Tour event, Waswani has KJs, and flops top two pair. You've followed his gaze after the flop came, haven’t you? If you pause this video at 0:45, you'll see how he looked at his stack. Again, everything happens very quickly, almost in sync with how the dealer lays out the cards on the table flop.

Scotty Ngueyen at the WSOP



And finally, our favorite - Scotty Nguyen, who managed to catch quads at the World Series of Poker. This example is less obvious than the first two because of the camera’s angle (it is not aimed directly at Scotty’s face). But let’s look at the eyes of "Prince of Poker" at 0:49. Now you understand what I mean? And actually, one trick about this tell is that the head usually tilts downwards also at the same time. This means that you can sometimes spot this tell even when a player is wearing sunglasses. And if you watch Scotty’s eyebrows at 0:49, you’ll notice that they move downwards at the very same moment he looks down at his chips. You have to make a great effort in order not to change a position of your head, while looking up, down, or to the left or right (you can practice before the mirror.)

The ability to discern tells can be very useful at the table. As you might see, the player glancing at his chips is usually very strong. In my experience, such behavior is common to players, who flopped real monsters. Most of the time, you will not catch this tell when a player has only flopped a marginal or random hand.

Many articles were devoted to this tell, and believe me, you will continue to see it in the future. Its beauty is in the simplicity, and despite the short duration, it is quite easy to track. Be attentive at the table, and success won’t be long in arriving! Good luck!