Tips thegang

The following tips aren’t set-in-stone rules, but are meant to give you an idea of how communication works in this game. As a group, figure out for yourselves how you’d like to communicate best without discussing your hand.

Do not be afraid to take chips away from other players. This is exactly how you communicate the quality of your own hand and help others to categorize you. The more the chips move, the more communication takes place.

Always evaluate the current state, not how good it might still become.
1st Phase: Having a pair from the start: take a high number (and higher than your first chip), otherwise evaluate the rank of your High Card.
From 2nd Phase: If something was revealed in this phase that increases your rating, take a higher (or at least equally high) chip than in the previous round. This allows fellow players to draw conclusions about your specific card values.
Conversely: If nothing fitting your hand was revealed, take a chip that is 1 lower. If then no one wants to indicate a hit with a higher chip, you can return to the evaluation of the previous round.

Introduction

This is a concise pre‑flop strategy guide for The Gang focused on **rank‑only** pre‑flop chip selection. It defines a simple, repeatable convention for mapping numbered chips to rank percentiles, explains why the convention helps, clarifies how Ace‑high hands should be placed so both charts work smoothly, and provides two separate, actionable mapping options you can adopt at the table.

Core conventions to adopt

• Establish a ranking convention. Map each chip number to a clear percentile bucket so everyone interprets chip choices the same way.
• Conservative default. On the pre‑flop stage, default to slightly conservative picks and only escalate when community cards materially change the actual hand strength.
• Controlled chip theft. Taking another player’s chip is the only legal private signal—use it to correct obvious misrankings, not to bluff.
• Do not consider suits at this stage. Pre‑flop picks are based on ranks only; suitedness and flush/straight potential are ignored for the initial ranking.
• Timing as a soft signal. Picking a chip quickly signals a stronger rank; taking time to pick a chip, or picking then returning a chip, signals a weaker rank.
• Ranking is only about the cards you hold. Base your pre‑flop chip choice exclusively on the two ranks in your hand.

Why a percentile convention helps

• Reduces ambiguity. Percentiles let players interpret rankings consistently.
• Makes steals informative. A chip take becomes a clear corrective statement about percentile.
• Improves planning.
  • Schedule Specialists and Challenges deliberately because you know which percentile buckets are likely to win or lose across rounds.
  • Budget risk by tracking how many top‑bucket rank outcomes remain and deciding when to spend a Specialist or accept a Challenge.
  • Assign informal roles based on predictable chip distributions.
  • Make corrective plays efficient: a chip take can reallocate risk and reduce disputes.

Pre‑flop decision rules (rank‑only)

• Pairs are one group. Treat any pocket pair as a single pre‑flop signal category for the initial chip pick.
• Do not consider suits at this stage.
• Ranking is only about the cards you hold.
• Timing as a soft signal. Picking quickly = stronger; taking time = weaker.
• No talk; use takes to correct.
• Conservative default for speculative hands.
• The median hand is exactly J7.

Simple interpertation pre flop for 5 players:

When suits are ignored, here is what all chips sinitially have (you have the exact hand at the middle of the page):

Chips	Group
5	Pairs / A high
4	K / Q high
3	Q low / J high
2	10/9/8 high
1	7 high

Post flop advices

When hitting a double pair or better fight for the highest token. After someone steal it twice/thrice from you re-evaluate the chop to look for potential straight/flushes (note that some straight are impossible from the first chip choice). Then evaluate for the bottom double pair or high one.

When having a pocket hand pair pre flop higher than all value on the table, fight for the highest token.

When hitting top pair (the pair from the highest value on the table) take the highest token. You could insist once depending of first chip choice.

When hitting middle pair, take the second highest token if that's an increase from the first round. If it's the same value or below, wait for others choices. Note that it's possible that you took the highest token twice. On that case, others doesn't know you hit a pair, and you should take in consideration for future rounds.

When hitting bottom pair, wait for others choices, and then put yourself the lowest between those which improved.

When hitting nothing take the 1/2 token or one or two below your first chip.

River and Turn advices

That card start to be really situationnal.

If that new card open straight and flushes, nearly any hand could goes for the highest chip immediately. Even if you got a double pair you should be careful about fighting for this highest token. Take into consideration how many straight and flushes there is. If it's really few (1 or 2) then the player which hit those should insist a lot for the highest token. That mean with a slightly weaker hand (like double pair) you could try to insist for 6. On the contrary if there is lots of straight and flushes (4 or 9+), take a lower chip more easily.

If that new card is above all others cards a new pair most likely put yourself as the best or second best hand, so take a really high chip.

If that new card is around the same value of others, take an higher chip, and let others decide where they put yourself. They know which pair you got but you don't know which pair they got.

If that new card is below all others cards, put yourself as the higher chip between those which never improved.

Note that pocket pairs can rank weirdly.

Correcting mistakes

If you or someone else made a mistake that can easily be confusing.

It can be corrected naturally by someone hitting a pair, or even rarely with two pockets pairs by someone else hitting a pair.

If it's obvious what is happening you could try to correct it immediately (post flop), especially if there was some fight pre flop.

But I would advise you to let everything goes as planned, and in the final turn, still take your normal chip if the river can be confusing, and after everyone is happy with their chip, fight for the potential mistake which happened earlier. That's because when doing that, it look like to others that you hit a pair, which is extremely confusing.

Full range and average hand pre-flop

This cheat sheet map recommended pre‑flop chips depending of the number of players. Use this at the table as a compact reference. Pairs are above all. All picks are rank‑only (no suits). Connector (7&8 of diamond) has no value.

Note that even if the numbers are mathematiquely coherent, since pairs can often more easily be differenciated from A high, you could want to lower slightly the highest range. And I'm unsure the range should be uniform, maybe the range from the outside should be bigger.

How to read this sheet

• 5 = top, 1 = bottom.
• Timing cues: Quick pick = stronger; taking time or returning a chip = weaker. Use timing as secondary confirmation only.
• Use chip takes to correct misorders rather than arguing.

3 players		2 cards hand	3 cards hand
0%	lowest possible hand	3/2	4/3/2
16.67%	median 1 hand	7/5	10/4/2
33.33%	between 1/2 chips	9/8	J/10/5
50%	median 2 hand	J/7	K/6/3
66.67%	between 2/3 chips	K/2	A/7/2
83.33%	median 3 hand	A/5	2/2/7
100%	highest possible hand	A/A	A/A/A

4 players		2 cards hand	3 cards hand
0%	lowest possible hand	3/2	4/3/2
12,5%	median 1 hand	7/2	10/5/5
25%	between 1/2 chips	8/7	J/4/3
37.5%	median 2 hand	10/5	Q/6/5
50%	between 2/3 chips	J/7	K/6/3
62,5%	median 3 hand	Q/8	K/Q/7
75%	between 3/4 chips	K/9	A/J/4
87,5%	median 4 hand	A/8	5/5/10
100%	highest possible hand	A/A	A/A/A

5 players		2 cards hand	3 cards hand
0%	lowest possible hand	3/2	4/3/2
10%	median 1 hand	6/4	8/7/6
20%	between 1/2 chips	8/3	10/7/5
30%	median 2 hand	9/5	J/8/6
40%	between 2/3 chips	10/7	Q/8/5
50%	median 3 hand	J/7	K/6/3
60%	between 3/4 chips	Q/6	K/J/8
70%	median 4 hand	K/5	A/9/2
80%	between 4/5 chips	A/2	A/K/3
90%	median 5 hand	A/10	7/7/9
100%	highest possible hand	A/A	A/A/A

6 players		2 cards hand	3 cards hand
0%	lowest possible hand	3/2	4/3/2
8,33%	median 1 hand	6/2	8/6/4
16,67%	between 1/2 chips	7/5	10/4/2
25%	median 2 hand	8/7	J/4/3
33,33%	between 2/3 chips	9/8	J/10/5
41,67%	median 3 hand	10/8	Q/9/4
50%	between 3/4 chips	J/7	K/6/3
58,33%	median 4 hand	Q/5	K/J/2
66,67%	between 4/5 chips	K/2	A/7/2
75%	median 5 hand	K/9	A/J/4
83,33%	between 5/6 chips	A/5	2/2/7
91,67%	median 6 hand	A/J	8/8/Q
100%	highest possible hand	A/A	A/A/A

Double pairs on the table

When there is two pairs on the table, and you hit nothing, only your highest card count.

That mean per example with a board JJ447, and you having A6, you can play that hand as if it was A2. That mean that if there was a fight earlier and you suspect someone else having better than you, you can play your hand as if it was A2 instead of A6. If that player got A8 or KQ, they could react differently.

In that same example if you got 62, you can take the lowest chip even if you highly suspect someone else has lower than you, because your hand will be JJ447 anyway.

But the most important thing is pocket pairs. If you got 22, and the second 4 arrived in the river, then while your hand was probably the best one pre flop, still was good post flop and after the turn, it became the worst one after the river because you don't have a triple pair, you have the lowest possible hand: JJ447. That mean that an 82 which probably took 1 or 2 pre flop is now beating you. And so you should fight for the 1 and insist a lot since it's often not obvious for others players.

4 cards of the same color on the table

'Obviously' on that kind of board, what you should be doing shift completely. Per example with 4 diamonds, we now ask you to rank yourself from the highest diamond card to the lowest diamond card. A hand with an Ace of spade and a 2 of diamond is now weaker than a 4 of spade and a 3 of diamond.

You first should put attention to which player potentially have 2 diamonds on their hand, it's more likely than their highest diamond card is high.

And then pay attention to potential flush house and straight, and good luck, it's like a situational pre flop situation.

If you hit nothing, don't hesitate to goes really low.

Pre‑flop Cheat Sheet

This cheat sheet maps common two‑rank examples to recommended pre‑flop chips for a 5‑player baseline, with quick adjustment rules for 4 and 6 player games. Use this at the table as a compact reference. All picks are rank‑only (no suits).

How to read this sheet

• Chip scale (5‑player baseline): 5 = top, 1 = bottom.
• Adjust for player count: For 4 players, move each recommended chip up one step (e.g., 4 → 5). For 6 players, move each recommended chip down one step (e.g., 3 → 2).
• Pairs: All pocket pairs map to the pair bucket pre‑flop.
• Timing cues: Quick pick = stronger; taking time or returning a chip = weaker. Use timing as secondary confirmation only.
• Use chip takes to correct misorders rather than arguing.

Example hand	bucket (pairs separate)	chip (5‑player)	Quick note / guidance
AA, KK, QQ	Pairs	5	All pairs start in the pair bucket; treat uniformly pre‑flop.
AK (unsuited)	A/K high	4	Strong A‑high; Chart 1 maps to chip 4, Chart 2 places in top bucket.
AQ	A/K high	4	Strong A‑high; treat like AK for baseline mapping.
AJ, AT	A/K high	3	Lower A‑highs; Chart 1 places lower than AK/AQ.
A9–A5	A/K high	3	Weak A‑highs; Chart 1 keeps them in second/third chip range.
KQ, KJ, KT	A/K high	3	Strong K‑high hands; Chart 2 groups them with K/Q.
QJ, QT	Q/J high	3	Q‑J range; Chart 2 groups with K/Q for a tighter mid bucket.
JT, T9	Q/J high	2	Connectors and high singletons; mid/low mid buckets.
T8, 98, 87	10/9/8 high	2	Lower connectors and middling singletons; default to lower chips.
76, 65, 54, 43, 32	7 high or lower	1	Bottom ranks; speculative only pre‑flop.