Brian ask: I still don't understand why this makes the RED chips HARDER to get. If the chip counts are closely guarded by the tournament director when chips are raced off, then I would suspect they would keep track of ALL denominations. Eventually the green is raced off and those would be counted... And finally at the end of the tournament, I'm sure the higher denominations are all accounted for as well. In this case, I would suspect all chips in those tournaments would be trouble for you to acquired.

The reason is that at the beginning of the tournament it is possible that no players have been eliminated from your table when racing off. Later on, when racing off (say at the second level,) chances are that players have both exited and entered your table. No one can prove who is taking the chips. some players have probably even left the casino.