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How to play poker without chips
Updated November 2026
You can play poker without chips by using coins, a second deck of cards, a sheet of paper or a phone app. Whichever you pick, decide what each unit is worth before the first hand and write down what everyone starts with, so the totals can be checked at the end.
| Use | Players | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Coins | 2 to 9 | Everyone knows the values |
| Second deck | 2 to 4 | Nothing to buy |
| Score sheet | 2 to 6 | Nothing to lose track of |
| Phone app | 2 to 9 | Counts the pot for you |
A stack that works
Write the buy-in down. The final counts must add up to players x buy-in.
What's the easiest thing to use instead of chips?
Coins, because everybody at the table already knows what each one is worth. Pennies, nickels and dimes give you values of 1, 5 and 10, and nobody has to remember that green means 25.
With blinds of 1 and 2, give each player 20 pennies, 16 nickels and 10 dimes. That's 20 + 80 + 100 = 200 points, or 100 big blinds, in 46 coins.
Six players need 276 coins in total, which is one jar of change worth $12 at face value. Outside the US, use your three smallest coins and the same plan works.
One player's stack
Can a second deck of cards work as chips?
Yes, for up to four players. Sort the spare deck into three piles: red number cards are worth 1, black number cards are worth 5, and the 16 face cards and aces are worth 25.
There are 18 number cards in each color, because 2 through 10 is nine ranks in two suits, so four players can each take 4 red, 4 black and 4 face cards with two of each number color left over.
Each player then starts with 4 + 20 + 100 = 124 points. Blinds of 1 and 2 give everyone 62 big blinds, which is plenty for a relaxed game. The weak spot is change: with only four small cards each, you'll be swapping with the pot a lot.
Four players, each holding
How do you keep score on paper?
Give one person a pen and a sheet with a column for each player. Everyone says their bets out loud, and after each hand the scorer adds one line: the winner goes up by what they took from the others and everyone else goes down by what they put in.
Each line has to add up to zero, so a mistake shows up straight away.
The hard part is tracking the pot while the hand is running. Have the scorer say the pot out loud after each betting round, the way a dealer would. Two or three people can do this easily. With six, a phone is easier.
One line of the score sheet
Can an app replace the chips?
Yes, and it's the least work for the people at the table. Chip-tracking apps hold each player's stack, work out the pot and show who owes whom at the end, while you still deal real cards.
Chip Runner, for example, lets each player use their own phone with a table code or pass one phone around, and it's free with ads that a $0.99 purchase removes.
Search your app store for "poker chip tracker" and look for two things before the game: whether everyone needs a phone, and whether it does the settling up at the end. Try it for ten minutes first, because a game that stops so four people can install something gets annoying fast.
Before you pick one
- One phone or one each?
- Does it settle up at the end?
- Free or paid?
How do you set the stakes when nothing is a chip?
Count in points and set the money last. Start everyone on 200 points with blinds of 1 and 2, so the game plays like a normal 100-big-blind game.
Then choose what a point is worth: at 5 cents a point the buy-in is $10 and the blinds are 5 and 10 cents, and at 1 cent a point the buy-in is $2.
If you're playing for nothing, use the same numbers anyway. A 200-point stack gives you room to make real decisions. A 20-point stack is only 10 big blinds, and everyone ends up all-in on almost every hand.
What a point is worth
How do you settle up at the end?
Count everyone's final total, add them up and compare that with what went in. Six players with 200 points each must finish with 1,200 between them. If they don't, recount before anyone pays, because a missing 20 is usually a coin on the floor or a line of the score sheet with a wrong sign.
What else can you use?
- Buttons or paper clipsFine if you have three sizes. With only one size, you'll need a lot of them.
- Matches or toothpicksCheap and easy to count. They work best when one match means one big blind.
- Dry beans or pastaTwo kinds make two values, and they stay where you put them.
- SweetsThey get eaten, which gets confusing around the third hand.
What goes wrong without chips?
- Nobody wrote the buy-in downWithout it you can't check the totals at the end.
- Values agreed after a handSet them before the first deal. Changing them mid-game starts arguments.
- One heap of everythingSort coins by size so bets can be counted at a glance.
- Everyone keeps their own scoreOne scorer writes every line, or the numbers drift apart.
Could you run a game with no chips?
Twelve spots in three rounds.
Questions players ask
What can I use instead of poker chips at home?
Coins are the simplest, then a second deck, a score sheet or a chip-tracking phone app. Anything with two or three sizes or colors can work.
Can you use playing cards as chips?
Yes. A spare deck sorted into red number cards, black number cards and face cards gives you three values, and it covers up to four players.
Do you need money to play poker at home?
No. You can play for points and keep track of who's ahead from one game to the next, and you still get every decision a real game gives you.
No chips and a free evening?
Send your friends the plan.