Chip leader is a term in poker used to describe the player with the biggest number of chips at the table or in the tournament in the current moment.

The term 'Chipleader' is mostly applied for the tournament poker where the chip leader has an advantage and is able to put some pressure on the opponents thanks to the big stack.

On the early stages of the tournament chip leading doesn’t mean much and also doesn’t give much advantage to the player. During the first several hours of the tournaments this 'title' usually often goes from one player to the other. As the tournament progresses to the final table and the number of participants decreases, chip leader has more advantages, especially if the gap in chips is quite big.

Example of the usage of chip leader term in poker: 'I used to be a chip leader in that tournament for several hours but after two bad hands I finished only in the sixth place'.