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The Butterfly

In my opinion, the butterfly is the best looking chip trick that one can learn to do, however; it is also the hardest one to do and do cleanly. There are all sorts of variations of the butterfly that can be done, but I will simply just teach you the basics. You will need four chips to do the butterfly chip trick and it helps a lot if you can already do the chip twirl.

*Performing “The Butterfly”*
The first thing you're going to need to do is get the proper position of your finger and the chips. This is one of the most important steps since in gives you a strong foundation to prevent slips and drops of the chip. You need to take all four chips and put them in a stack. Then hold the chips between your index and thumb so that those two fingertips are pinching the edge side of the chip. Now, take your ring finger (fourth finger) and bring it underneath your chip stack so the edges of the chips rest on the side of your finger. By now you should have a firm grasp of the chips with your index and ring finger so that you wouldn't need your thumb for support. This is an important step, and if you want to make the trick easier you can start of by placing the chip stack between your ring and index finger (this doesn't look as good though).


Grouping Into Two
Now that you have the position of the chips you need to know how to perform the proper movements to split the 4 chips into groups of two. To do this, take your thumb and by using your thumbtip push on the back two chips and slide your thumb up. This should split the chip stack into two groups of two chips with two chips being held between your ring and index finger and two chips being held between your thumb and index finger. This step with take a lot of practice to get down so stay patient! After completing this step, bring your pinky up and your four finger down so that the top of your pinky is now on the edge of the two chips. Slide your pinky so that the two chips are transferred from being gripped with your ring and index, to being gripped by your pinky and ring finger. This step is also very hard and will require time to learn.


Seperating The First Group
With the two chip stacks being held in their proper positions firmly, you can now try to separate each chip stack at the same time with your middle finger. Slowly slide your middle finger up so that the chip stacks are touching each side of your middle finger. Now use your thumb to split the two chips being held by your thumb and index. If done properly, the chips should be between your middle and index, and your thumb and index.


Seperating The Second Group
Now to split the other two chips you have to use your middle finger and you slide the chips apart. In the end, one chip should be gripped between your pinky and ring finger, your ring finger and middle finger, your index and middle finger, and your thumb and index finger. Keep practicing the separation since this trick takes awhile to get down.


Remember: It is important to do this as smooth as possible and to slide the chips apart at the same time in a quick motion.


Putting the Chips Back Together
I think of putting the chips back together as sort of an extra with the butterfly, but I think it makes the chip trick complete and look a lot better. To do this you will have to move your middle finger down, sliding the chips back into messy packs of two, and then move your index and thumb down to your ring finger. This seems hard at first, but it doesn't have to be done in any real specific way. Just experiment with it, and you should be able to do it after trying it a good amount of times.