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.

This is a strategy guide for The Gang focused on **rank‑only** chip selection. It offers play tips and simple repeatable conventions for mapping numbered chips to card ranks to help consistency and thus winning.

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.

Be willing to be wrong, and reconsider your situation. Everyone makes mistakes.

Always evaluate the current state, not how good it might still become.

Change your thinking from poker

• Its a team game! The goal is communication. You want everyone to feel permitted to take the chips they need, and be willing to work together to fix errors and improve! Try to follow consistent patterns so others can read you well. And of course you should never bluff!
• Ranking is only about the cards you hold. Base your chip choice exclusively on the two ranks in your hand, what you have already made on the board, and what others are showing. Do not consider suits, connected numbers, or draws that rely on future cards to make anything. Odds usually are that you won't hit them, so the pattern is to inform only when you do.
• You're not aiming for the best hand or to win the best chip. You only win when all the order is right. Your four of a kind or straight flush means nothing if others wind up out of order.
• Big attention on your partners. You may have a miserable or dominant hand, but paying attention to the other players' movements can help sort out problems in this hand or show patterns for future ones. And it'll probably improve your actual poker in the long run too!
• Conservative default. Your goal isn't to push people around like it can be in poker, but to legitimately understand where your cards sit in relation to the others. It can be easy to overvalue your cards. In the preflop stage, default to slightly conservative picks where you might have otherwise liked to push, and only escalate when very strong or when community cards materially change your actual hand strength. In an argument over a chip? Think about what option you may be missing, as you can't win by forcing them out like you can in poker.

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.
• Preflop: focus on differentiating the top card most. Differences in top card heavily decide hands. Then if rankings look very close, narrow down with signals to differentiate your kicker if necessary.
• Controlled chip theft. Taking another player’s chip is the only legal information signal—use it to show ranking, correct obvious misrankings, but never to bluff.
• Timing as a soft signal. Quickly taking a chip signals a stronger rank; taking time to pick a chip, or picking then returning a chip, signals a weaker rank.
• Watch for board damage. If you make two pairs, but the board makes another pair, lower pairs are lost. You can be ahead of others, then fall behind them without anyone hitting.
• Consider board options. If there are four clubs on the board, there may well be multiple flushes. Consider higher and lower straights. And use what is on the board to determine options for opponent cards.
• Common style: assume everyone missed: When a new card is revealed each individual player will on average be more likely to miss upgrading in any random situation. Yes, with a few players, someone may well have hit an improvement, but you don't know who. Therefore many BGA players tend to default to taking the chip they had prior to the reveal when they miss, and then wait until someone moves up from below to give way. However, some players do prefer to move down a chip to show they haven't hit. Though this tends to require more communication, and can lead to confusion if different players are using different styles. Either way, watch for players coming up, and give way to them (by going down a chip) if you didn't hit and should now be lower than their signaled improvement.

Simple pre-flop valuation mathematics

When suits are ignored, here is the rough statistical position all chips initially tend to mathematically wind up as:

• Treat any pocket pair as better than any other hand: 22>AK because it is already a pair.
• Suits have no value.
• Connectors (7&8) have no value.
• Don't put value on speculative hands.
• The median hand is around J8.

Chips	6 players	5 players	4 players	3 players
6	pairs / A
5	A / K	pairs / A
4	K / Q	K	pairs / A
3	J / T	Q / J	K / Q	pairs / A / K
2	9 / 8	T / 9 / 8	J / T / 9	Q / J / T
1	7	7	8 / 7	9 / 8 / 7

While this is average statistics, many on BGA instead use a different pattern to emphasize high card information. See the High card promesse heading below for hints on more typical BGA chip usage preflop.

When you play regularly with people, you may develop different chip standards. But this table and the one further below are general loose ideas for BGA players which haven't known where to roughly value cards before.

Pre-flop advice

This sets the information, so do try to get it right (especially higher cards that are more likely to count)

Start by giving the expected position of your cards (see the tables above and especially further below). Sort out chip clashes by further signals to narrow down within the ranges and for kickers if necessary. And then you may need to adjust if the entire hand is weak or strong (it's not impossible that like an 8-3 winds up with the 6 chip, or a K-Q winds up with the 1 chip!). Make room for those fighting on the end of you; you took the 2 because you have an 8... and then two players fight over the 1 chip? You are likely really the 3 because they are both so low.

If in a busy fight for chips, relook at each player's first choice. If someone started chip 3 and is fighting for 4, and everyone else started chip 4 or more, high chance the 3 should go lower, perhaps even ending up all the way down at the 1 chip if everyone else is desiring the 4 only.

Post-flop advice

When hitting a double pair or better fight for the highest token. After someone steals it 2 or 3 times from you re-evaluate the board to look for potential straight/flushes (note that many straights/flushes are impossible from the first chip choice). Then evaluate for the bottom double pair or top one.

When having a pocket hand pair pre flop higher than all value on the table, fight for the highest token a couple times, until it's clear someone has 2 pairs or something greater.

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 that into consideration for future rounds.

When hitting bottom pair, very slowly move up if low, and perhaps wait for others choices, putting yourself the lowest of those which improved. You may also need to weigh against the prior high chips that may have had pocket pairs. If you have moved up slowly it should be more apparent to them where they sit.

When hitting nothing, generally it is best to let lower chips declare their direction first, then give way to anyone showing a hit better than your cards. Some people automatically drop a token 1 or 2 below their first chip if nobody reacts, but many see this as confusing/overly complicated.

Generally it is best not to revalue your preflop cards versus someone else on the flop. There is already a lot of possible movement with three cards, and any shift can be seen as a hit or confusing. Usually people wait until the end to renegotiate their initial cards; trust the positions you established preflop during the middle of the game, even if you are suspicious, and then if the facts line up at the end, first take your location based on where the preflop position would put you... then try offering lower or higher a bit after the final hits have been signaled.

When 3+ players improved post flop and the chip to end up with isn't obvious, you should first make sure everyone understands which players improved. Then, pay attention to how much strength people showed in movements, and look at the approximate cards their preflop chip and movement back then suggested. If you hit on the flop and move up from a middle hand, and then the preflop 1 chip tries at all to be above you/someone else showing a hit, that should mean they have at least the middle pair. Come up with lowest pair very slowly.

Turn and river advice

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.

Finally at the River, the nuts (highest possible hand) should insist a lot for the highest token since there is nothing to lose. Knowing that, the second best hand can do the same. The third best hand can do the same but show weakness once after the fight while still showing they want the best token. Going lower than that is much trickier, especially for flushes board.

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.

Different ways of stealing a chip

Let's assume you may want the chip above you. You have a lot of ways to convey information when stealing a chip (from strongest to weakest):

- stealing the chip one above the one you want, put it back on the table, and steal the chip you want: this is often after you took too much time to react. this steal is even stronger that the default one, because you are showing that other player that you are on the higher side of that chip, and will often encourage a player to give way.

- stealing the chip: this is the default move, and tends to signal that you still have some belief in your strength, but allows the other player to push harder to reemphasize their situation.

- stealing the chip, putting it back to the table and waiting: this is the most neutral play. You show strength and encourage the other player to reconsider, but give the decision to the other player, assuming they have more information than you. Preflop, that's normally after a fight, and you give them one last chance to be below you, and then you take the lower one. At the end of the hand, after shifts from the new card, you can use it to encourage the player to look at the board and reanalyze where your had could fall. Alternatively, doing this can just mean that you want more time to think about the situation. If after a while, you take the lower or highest chip that's again some information (neutral+ or neutral-)

- stealing the chip, putting it back to the table, and immediately taking the lower one: this is the weakest method. Usually doing this you may be asking the other player to double-check what happened earlier/confirm they really want that token, but have limited confidence that you are above them. Alternatively, you could have seen that something isn't right, and want to show it to the other player, and let them decide to correct it or not. Sometimes it is also used if you have the lowest pair after the flop and are ranked behind other pairs correctly, but then the turn is a lower card than the table and another player takes your chip to show that they have now hit a pair and are trying to move up... so you take up the chip above your previous position then immediately go back to your initial position to show that you still have a higher pair than the new position, while trying not to show any extra strength to the player above you.

Other stealing uses:

• steal the token of two others players and then take back your own token if you think something isn't right between those two players
• after the flop, when a few people hit, take the tokens of everyone which hit because you want everyone to reconsider and choose again in the complex situation that you worry may be off
• if something is really not right (like you took the highest chip pre flop, and someone else who hit a pair is sure you hitted a pair, and don't let you be under them), you can pick some tokens completely out of place. Per example if you are fighting for 3/4/5, you can take the 1, put it back, and take the 3. That's an extremely strong sign you didn't hit that pair because you will make players with chips 1&2 being confused, so it's for emergency only.

You can also drop your chip to ensure the round doesn't end so people can reconsider their positions, if the Confirm All Rounds setting is not turned on, or when people may've already voted to move on but should maybe reconsider. Or to hold play if a specialist card should be used.

High card promesse

High card promesse is a powerful convention change from the basic pre-flop chip valuation statistics above, offering more information on the highest cards preflop, and is commonly the pattern used on BGA.

Because high pocket cards more end up following through to usage in the end (pocket 5-4 versus 5-2 versus 4-3 will often up be completely wiped out by higher board cards, especially the kickers... whereas A-9, A-7, K-Q will fairly often all matter), this method typically leads to more victories by helping narrow down top-end situations more precisely:

Chips	6 players	5 players	4 players	3 players
6	pairs / A
5	K	pairs / A
4	Q	K	pairs / A
3	J / T	Q / J	K / Q	pairs / A / K
2	9 / 8	T / 9 / 8	J / T / 9	Q / J / T
1	7	7	8 / 7	9 / 8 / 7

In this convention every player first chip pick should typically be in this range.

Then you quickly have information on what cards all players have. And can then settle closer differences and shift upward or downward if the table's cards are weaker or stronger. (A 9 can still even wind up being the top chip if everyone else shows very low cards. But you cannot know that or move that way until early signaling makes that clear)

Final valuation hints

Board hands: lowest value

If the best five card set between you and the board don't include your cards at all, your hand is the lowest possible value.

For example if you had 6-2, and the board comes A-A-9-3-3, there is no possible hand weaker than yours. You can take the 1 chip even if you highly suspect someone else has lower than you, because both of your hands are A-A-9-3-3. This often winds up resolving problems at the bottom of the chips.

When there are two pairs on the table and you hit nothing: only your highest card matters

For example with a board JJ447, and you have A6, the 6 will not matter, your hand is the same as A2 and AK. So any earlier fights where you believe you both had aces no longer matter. Just ensure you don't give way to a king-high hand, and certainly all pairs and higher should be above you.

This means a huge thing for pocket pairs. If you have 5-5, and the board starts 2-7-7-9, while your hand was probably the best one pre flop (chip 6), was still pretty good post-flop and after the turn (only falling behind someone with a 7 or 9), if another 2 comes, it will suddenly became the worst hand after the river because you can't use triple pairs... your best hand is 2-2-7-7-9, the worst possible hand. That mean that an 8-2 hand, which probably took the 1 or 2 chip pre-flop is now beating you. And so you should fight for the 1 chip and insist a lot since it's often not obvious for others players.

If you're unsure, take your best 5 cards to create your hand. That mean that AJ99752 has the same value than AJ99743: they both use AJ997 to make their best hand. Keep rechecking the indicator notice of what you have next to your cards, it will help you notice when you've made a mistake.

4 cards of a suit on the board: reanalyze heavily

When 3 diamonds show up there is a small chance that one or perhaps two players have a flush, and they will be aggressive. But when a 4th diamond lands, it means many flushes may be made. If your flush is with the bottom card, you may need to work your way backwards behind those with higher diamonds. The pre-flop chips can offer a little hint, but sometimes it's the kicker that made the flush, sometimes it isn't. 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.

Likewise if you had two diamonds and so were likely near the top with your flush, suddenly your lower diamond doesn't matter, and others may have shifted ahead of you. Still, if you have a middle or low diamond, a person that signaled the flush hit when 3 were on the board is reasonably likely to have a higher diamond.

Use the pre-flop chips and movement to gauge top possibility. A player that immediately took the 1 chip before the start shouldn't have a 10 or higher. The 6 chip could have an ace in the flush... or their 3 kicker as their flush... or their pocket pair 2 as their flush. Be open to each possibility.

Remember, full house beats regular flushes and straights

So watch for the board pairing up to reduce your otherwise strong position. And even with only one pair on the board, someone could match that and another. Or have a pocket pair matching the board. So even with such a strong hand early, watch for that coming from below.

Two pairs on the board? Be very ready to step back to anyone moving up to those pairs.

Specialist and challenge cards

Overcoming the challenger cards:

• Blackout (forget chips): Generally one of the hardest. Try to remember your position, and keep a rough note of movements and those around you. But often may need to verify situations a lot later on because even if you remember everything, others may not. Best to aim to try to move the game quicker, making less chip switches and rechecks. Try to be forgiving of mistakes, it's complicated. Some players use a method of everyone taking their prior chip to start the round, just to remind everyone. However, if not everyone does it, this too can add confusion.
• Security Cameras (3 pocket cards): Everything is gets a lot more complicated. Consider that crazier options now exist (someone could have 3 or 4 of a kind after a quiet flop... someone could have 3 cards for a straight or flush and hit early). Generally you want to devalue on preflop chips just slightly (perhaps take the top chip with an ace high, but immediately give it back, even if A-Q-9, where you'd probably hold it with A-9 initially). Play conservative always, odds of every increase is greater with a third card. The odds of pocket pairs are also much higher, so watch more for them. And don't forget a third pair (or a second triple) doesn't matter!
• Laser Tripwires/Motion Detector (one players get new cards after flop): Seems to often be overlooked by other players; often good to announce in chat that you (or another) has new cards. It can be very hard to re-find position, especially if many hit (and including the new cards). The player with the new cards may not have closely watched the position battles in other zones, so may need information extra times.
• Quick Access/Hasty Getaway (skip chips for a round): Quick Access can be tough if similar pocket cards and busy flop. But Hasty Getaway especially still has more limited possibilities... just weigh all possibilities. Use slow/quicker advancing for low/high pair and double hits similar to the flop. Again in general the theme is to aim to be a little conservative as others are more likely to have improved in both.
• Noise Sensors/Ventilation Shaft (lock a chip value): Don't take quick at all unless you're very strong (Ventilation) or weak (Noise). Huddle around the next chip. Perhaps repeatedly pick up and put down the neighboring chip quickly to emphasize you are fairly near the special chip (if you have like 6-3 you could take the 2 repeatedly in Noise Sensors, if you have like A-K or 4-4 you could take the second-highest chip repeatedly in Ventilation Shaft)
• Retina Scan/Fingerprint Scan (need extra group vote to pass): Try to be more watchful of movements as the game goes on, even in other parts of order, especially as the game goes on. For Retina Scan (guess a player's card value) watch how hit pairs move in relation to each other. The chips nearest the pre-flop position of the final top chip may have extra information, so use them. Pocket pairs (especially when a player stays top chip) and flushes can be absolutely brutal, do the best you can to narrow it down from the board and the player's speed in each round. For Fingerprint Scan (guess the player's result) look for the typical moves (2 regular increases suggests 2 pair or 3 of a kind [depending on whether the board already had the card]... a strong rapid jump up and aggression on the chip may show a straight or flush). Again watch for the pocket pair possibility for the top preflop chips. One helpful move can be to repeatedly take the top chip quickly on a turn where you hit something bigger. So someone already the 6 chip preflop may hammer the 6 to show 3 of a kind on a quiet flop. Or someone leading may hammer the 6 to show they've moved to a straight or flush.

Using the specialist cards:

• Informant/Getaway Driver/Mastermind (one player reveals info): Save it for the end, as early disputes may resolve, and new ones occur. For card reveals, try to show what others may need most (if it seems clear you hit the same pair as someone, it may be best to show your kicker [if applicable] instead) Generally show your top flush card. When voting, consider who can give the most information... if 3 players need resolving that all suggest to have either the same or uncertain pair orders, or similar preflop cards, the player in the middle could be more useful in revealing a card. Often the less experienced player may be the one to ensure. Always use the card, you'll be surprised at how often it winds up useful when you didn't think it would be!
• Muscle (win grouping ties): Usually worth playing. But watch out for other players with the same hand. Pocket aces cruise along as chip 6 in a 2-4-7-10-J had with only little moves up. Playing muscle to separate uncertain middle pairs suddenly knocks them off the throne, so both the player with the top chip and the player moving up need to be mindful of that.
• Investor/Math Whiz (preflop info for all): Take advantage of it, and consider options! Someone has 14 in Math Whiz? If they're taking high preflop, they have 7-7. If they jump to top quick at flop with 6-8-J, they have 6-8. If they move up decent on a flop of 2-8-K after being a happy 2 chip, they probably have 4-8 and so middle pair (they could be overplaying a pair of 2s, but can't have a king). Use the info to doublecheck moves later (sometimes it'll rule out pairs or triples and instead point to things like flushes and straights). Remember an ace or 10 is not a pocket card (investor), and 10/J/Q/K all count as 10 while aces count as 11 in Math Whiz. And remember to look out for pocket pairs!
• Coordinator/Con Artist (forced card change at start): Limited in use. Occasionally can help you know what another player has (since you saw card(s)), especially in games with less players. May be useful for newer/weaker players to give up middle cards (like 9-Q) that can often be complicated in hopes of an easier hand at the top or bottom end.
• Jack/Hacker (other card alterations): Rarely used by most groups. Hacker could be helpful to use preflop to resolve a bitter battle over a chip. Jack can occasionally settle a debate at end of the hand, though in most circumstances confuses things more. Probably best not to change your chip in expectation of the jack token until you actually have it, especially in regular movement times, as that can lead players to misunderstand your cards or widespread confusion. A jack may give you a straight? That may feel great. But is it actually useful to ordering the ranks of everyone's cards? Usually not.