I tried taking stacks and it was OK except that 3 years later I still had some left. So now I take 7 to 10 chips and don't have a huge number of duplicates after trading with my usual crew. The secret is to be at a busy table (busy is number of chips in play vs number of players) and to cash out as soon as the dealer removes the marker from the board after paying everyone. That means you get to leave before he sorts all of the chips. I normally manage to duck behind a bank of slot machines so the dealer doesn't see me after I leave (I have been called back to the table twice to explain why I still have chips ) Another secret is to leave the table as soon as they change dealers. The new dealer doesn't know how many chips were in each stack before he got there.