How do you guys track buy-ins and cash-outs? (2 Viewers)

[Cowthulhu]

Do you guys have any tips for tracking buy-ins or cash-outs? I'm currently using a spreadsheet on a laptop where I track cash in/out and chip count/demon in/out. Do you guys do anything differently? Do you double check "chips in play" mid game?

I only host low stakes .5/.5 and below, so I'm not super worried about people sneaking chips in (although it's still on my mind), and missing a buy-in won't financially ruin me or anyhing.

 

[Highli99]

I don’t track.

Just money in slot / double count chips and ask each person to verify.

I count chip stacks on payout and double check math.

If there’s a mistake it’s on me. I’m not worried about who was in for what and what their profit/loss was.

 

[ArielVer18]

For me, just the credit players. I don’t track players who buy in with cash.

Once an hour, I count the cash and add up the debt ledger to see if the number matches the amount of chips on the table. If the numbers don’t match, I can narrow down the banking error to a smaller window of time instead of scratching my head at the end of the game wondering what went wrong.

 

[upNdown]

I don’t track.

Just money in slot / double count chips and ask each person to verify.

I count chip stacks on payout and double check math.

If there’s a mistake it’s on me. I’m not worried about who was in for what and what their profit/loss was.

Exactly this. And personally, one of the reasons I’ve never written down people’s buyins is that I might feel odd about somebody tracking my gambling numbers.

 

[200 Motels]

I'm almost always cashier at our home game and don't track it. I will track if a player goes 'on the sheet' (has no cash) but money goes in, chips come out and it's basically always spot on at the end of the night, even if I end up shit faced.

 

[Cowthulhu]

For me, just the credit players. I don’t track players who buy in with cash.

Once an hour, I count the cash and add up the debt ledger to see if the number matches the amount of chips on the table. If the numbers don’t match, I can narrow down the banking error to a smaller window of time instead of scratching my head at the end of the game wondering what went wrong.

Interesting! Personally... I would never want to deal with the hassle of credit, but I guess each person will have a different level of tolerance for that.

 

[tabletalker7]

If you want to track player activity and chips in play at a cash table, I suggest you make a Point of Sale register.

IMG_20190919_193700.jpg

• tabletalker7
• Jan 9, 2021

Cash register

This beauty takes care of that for me.

 

[Machine]

State of the art:

 

[Eriks]

No tracking. No cash. We use ”Swish” (like venmo) for buy-ins and cash-outs

 

[ArielVer18]

Interesting! Personally... I would never want to deal with the hassle of credit, but I guess each person will have a different level of tolerance for that.

It’s more to cater to people who forgot to swing by an ATM to get cash than a true credit system. All debts must be paid by the end of the game (Venmo, zelle, paypalFF, etc)

 

[detroitdad]

I don't track anything. They give me $100. I give them $100 in chips. No need to count everything up mid game unless you think you have a thief somewhere in the mix

 

[upNdown]

I don't track anything. They give me $100. I give them $100 in chips. No need to count everything up mid game unless you think you have a thief somewhere in the mix

Yeah, I remember trying to do that visually once before, because I thought I'd made a mistake. But if it's my game and my mistake, that's on me. I wouldn't want to interrupt the game to try to figure out if I'd screwed myself out of $20.

 

[CraigT78]

When you have all the chips at the end of the night it makes payouts a lot easier.

This is the way.

 

[Josh Kifer]

No tracking. Just correct money in, correct chips out. Correct chips in, correct money out.

Using one banker and a cash box can help.

 

[jazzV3]

No tracking. Just correct money in, correct chips out. Correct chips in, correct money out.

Using one banker and a cash box can help.

Second the "One Banker" rule. Too many hands reaching for cash when cashing out almost always leads to bank being short.

 

[darthEez]

+1 for no tracking. Cash -> Chips, Chips -> Cash. On the very rare occasion I mess up it's on me. But I have a very trusted base group and it's small stakes.

Plus you can get some unique (read awesome) chips as an excuse to prevent cheaters from padding their stack with their own chips.

 

[Taghkanic]

I don’t track buyins in my cash games.

For tournaments, I just use pen and paper. I’m mostly interested in the order in which people go out (been keeping a spreadsheet for years), but also mark an R for each rebuy and A for add-on next to players’ names. This is the same sheet (usually the back of an envelope actually) I use at check-in.

 

[Dugthefish]

I just use pen and paper to keep track of total in play. Usually halfway through the night I will audit the bank, count cash and chips in play to make sure everything adds up.

 

[Andrew Marks]

We make everyone buy in for a more than enough than they will need (e.g., $2K for a $10/20 limit game) and then use a spreadsheet to enter how much they have and what they are +/- when they cash out. Might not work as well for a NL game or if you have people leaving at different times. Spreadsheet calculates the total of all nets and if for some reason it is not zero, we make everyone recount chips.

 

[CraigT78]

So many folks doing it much harder than it needs to be.

 

[Marius L]

In our friendly cash game where we all know each other, we simply write down buyins on a sheet of paper and square up at the end of the night. Just say a number, I'll write it down and get you your chips.

No one uses cash over here, so requiring that would just be a major hassle for everyone involved.

At the end of the night we count how much everyone has and make a quick calculation as to who sends who money by using a venmo-like app. Super easy and convenient.

 

[aggie]

So many folks doing it much harder than it needs to be.

Agree, this is actually kind of wild.

 

[tabletalker7]

So many folks doing it much harder than it needs to be.

Agree, this is actually kind of wild.

I won't lie. I just built the cash register just to see if I could build a cash register. Once it was working I was just like "why not?"

 

[philhut]

That cash register set up is primo! I just have a cash box but I like to swap cash for chips as fast as possible. Like Disney and the real Casino it is so much easier to play the chips/points out of your pocket than real bills and you can set limits if need be/wanted.

A couple of times I have used $20 and $50 chips as buy in chips at the beginning of the night. Players would buy a certain number of chips and could also buy more later of course but wow was that easy. Thus players would put out cash and get $20's to use as buy in chips for the cash game and either 20's or 50's for tournaments. Thus for the most part after the initial handling of cash and a small number of chips then the cash box stayed closed until near tourney ends or cash game buy outs/late rebuys. Initially it allows for the dividing of energy where 1 person can collect cash and hand out a small number of chips quickly, while another person can count out chip stacks for a tournament if that is how the night begins. The only bad thing was I lost a few $20's assuming players forgot them in their pockets. I bought alternative $100 HSI's as buy in chips of cash game alternates if I play the primaries in a tournament. Overall I really like getting rid of cash as fast as possible at the beginning of the night and just using chips for the rest of the night until final cash out. I do not record players buy in's/out's as when I play it is a home game and I do not believe in writing down gambler information. The only record associated with anyone's name that is ever kept is a high hand ranking which is required to actually play the bonus. If you record anything just keep track of the amount of chips in play....this can also generally be accounted for by counting at the end of the night and if you are over, then you must order customs lol.

 

[rjbf65]

For tournaments I feel the best practice is to have a list of players and write the name down or put a check mark next to a name when they pay. I've seen it happen at tournaments when a game gets started where the pot is a buy-in short because everyone is "pretty sure" they paid up already but people don't remember for sure.

Cash games I don't think there needs to be a record. The banker takes the cash and exchanges the chips and everyone double checks each other at buy in and cash out.

 

[lewan]

SPREADSHEET!

 

[TonZaga]

We made the move to Venmo only last year and have never looked back. Don't need to keep a bunch of change on hand playing $0.25/0.50 and can track everything through the list of transactions.

 

[VulgarrViking]

I don't track anything. They give me $100. I give them $100 in chips. No need to count everything up mid game unless you think you have a thief somewhere in the mix

That's what I do.
You give me your buy-in, I give you equal value in chips.
When you leave you give me back chips, I give you equal value in money.

 

[bsdunbar1]

For tournaments I feel the best practice is ......

Tournament Director
Tracks everything you want to know regarding tournaments

 

[Trihonda]

Wow, a lot of complicated (over complicated) techniques. I echo the sentiments of keeping it simple. People give me cash, I’ll give them chips. People give me chips, I’ll give them cash. When I buy someone in I place their money spread out on the table, I retrieve chips and placed those next to the money. After an eyeball I slide chips to the player in pocket the cash in my bank.

I wouldn’t want anyone tracking my gambling, so I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to be writing down or tracking what people buying for.

As for tournaments, I am playing the tournament and want to have fun, thus I do not run rebuy tournaments. I track players and buyins using software, and when I collect money for the entry, I check a box on their tournament registration that says they are paid, which then inserts them into the seating queue. If there are any secondary price pools, I set a friend to handle collecting secondary prize pool money and having people sign up on a separate sheet.

As for payouts, I always have spreadsheets already set up with the payouts based on the number of entries and tournaments finish place. I try to set up systems that make my job easier during the game . It always annoys me when I’m playing a tournament, and I get down to the final table and people start figuring out what the pay outs should be. The payouts always seem to change based on the decision makers situation in the tournament. I’ve had hosts who are massive chip leaders decide that it should be a top-heavy payout structure, but when they are short stacked, suddenly they want more places paid?

In short, the more systems I put in place in advance, makes my job during a game easier. However for cash games, I certainly don’t want to over complicate things by counting peoples money or the bank in the middle of the game, or worrying about how much someone has bought in for. I also don’t deal in credit. I have enough to worry about and enough interested players that people come with the money they want to gamble, or they can Venmo another player to give them cash. I don’t get in the business of doing that, since it adds more complexity then I should have to worry about when I am already spending time hosting, preparing food, cleaning up before hand, etc.