This situation occurred deep in the 2025 WSOP $600 NLH/PLO Deepstack. A floor person asked Tyler Brown to color up all the 25K chips that he had – and he had 3 million of them. Brown didn't want to do that and offered up 2 million. He claimed he wanted to keep some so he wouldn't have to keep asking for change.
That’s when chaos ensued, and an expletive from Brown cost him a one-round penalty. He was also subsequently threatened with disqualification from the event. Luckily calm heads prevailed, as Brown went on to win the tournament.
Brown detailed his version of the incident in a series of posts on X, shortly before the final table began.
Rule 106 in the 2025 WSOP rules states, "Floor people will control the number & denomination of chips in play and may color up at their discretion."
Coloring up is essential
First, let me say that I've gotten a reputation for having a very quick trigger to color people up during a tournament.
Many players dislike being colored up for various reasons. The same goes for many people who run live streams or televised events, as well as photographers, because they all think it looks cool.
I agree with that — it looks cool. It's exciting to have a lot of chips. It's nice to build these huge castles, but there's a big downside to it.
I’ve played in some tournaments this summer where the dealers couldn't even count a bet. Now you're asking them to count somebody's stack that has four racks of chips.
I've always been a person who believes that you don't need more than one rack of chips. I want it so that the dealers and other players can easily count what you have in front of you. And there's no doubt that the game is slow enough as it is, and having a lot of chips in front of you is just going to make it slower.
Tyler Brown with his new bracelet (and some artfully stacked chips).
Players have refused me
Similar situations have happened to me, with players refusing to color up, but not to the same extent as what happened at the WSOP above.
I’ve had a few disagreements with players, including David Baker. He doesn't like to have his chips colored up. Generally, he's playing a limit event, but in a no-limit event, especially, you have to be able to see what the other player across the table has in front of them. That’s not easy to do when you have three or four racks of chips out there.
But I always did it in a way where everybody had the same amount of chips in front of them.
I haven't threatened penalties because it's always come to the point where I've said, “I'm going to change the chips. I'm doing the same thing for everybody else."
I try to explain the reasons, and players seem to understand. But I've had arguments with Matt Clark and Donnie Peters.
They say they want to have all these chips on the table, that it looks so much better for TV, and that it's going to draw a lot of people in to watch the game.
I disagree with that. I think it's nonsense to believe that players will be attracted to the game because they see a lot of chips on the table. I continue to have the same disagreement with a lot of players.
Carlos Mortensen and one of his famous 'chip castles' at the WPT.Chip porn
I remember back in the day when Carlos Mortenson would make these huge chip castles.
I used to have this conversation with Carlos all the time during color ups. That is one of the reasons why we now have a rule in the TDA to have chip stacks of 20 in front of you.
That makes it easier for a player across the table to see. It's easy for a dealer just to break down one stack and see that they all match.
And once they do that, it's better for the game. The game is now trending towards action clocks and speeding up play. It’s going to make it a lot easier for everybody to have a full count of somebody else's chips.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. And send me stories and situations you've come up against on X. Your submission could be the next Savage Rules!
Matt Savage is the WPT Executive Tour Director, founder of the Tournament Directors Association, and a respected voice in poker. He’s a five-time GPI award winner and a nine-time nominee for the Poker Hall of Fame.
You can follow Matt on X. For more info, visit PokerTDA.com and WPT.com
Feature image and additional images courtesy of WPT.
