The game of poker is one of the most popular casino games played both in brick-and-mortar casinos as well as online. While there isn’t any one universal factor that explains the popularity of poker, what we can say is that there are two factors which certainly lead the line.
First, there is the issue of profitability. For those that have mastered poker skills and winning strategy, poker is one of the most lucrative casino games out there. Just to put this into perspective, a poker tournament like the World Series of Poker (WSOP) can have winners who walk away with millions! Second, poker is a game of skill. This, therefore, makes it perfect for players who love demonstrating their prowess for the chance to grab big wins as well as bragging rights when playing with familiar faces or even friends.
Our focus today, however, isn’t on the reasons why poker is popular. Rather, we want to explore more on poker chips – those things that make the game tick. In this comprehensive poker chips guide, we are going to explain in detail what poker chips are and, from there, explore some fascinating facts about poker chips.
What are Poker Chips
If you have ever walked inside a brick-and-mortar casino and passed by a gambling table or if you have seen a gambling ad online or on TV where some different coloured circular icons appear, then we want to inform you that you have seen poker chips. Poker chips are coin-like icons – which are slightly bigger in size than your average coin – which come in different colours. They are predominantly used in casinos. They are largely used for games played on tables which include, of course, poker. Poker chips can also be referred to as casino tokens, gaming chips, checks or cheques.
When it comes to the technical aspect, poker chips represent casino currency. This, in essence, means when inside a casino, especially for table and card games, anything that players want to do which involves using money/monetary value, they use poker chips. Just to put this into perspective, those who want to place their bets on the gambling table don’t use hard cash from their wallets, but rather, they use poker chips.
As poker chips are a representation of casino currency, they do represent different currency denominations. Some represent a penny, and those that represent large sums of money. Below is a rundown of the various poker chips by colour and the monetary value they represent.
| Poker Chips by Colour | Monetary Value |
| White chip | $1 |
| Red chip | $5 |
| Orange, Brown, Blue chip | $10 |
| Green chip | $25 |
| Black chip | $100 |
| Purple chip | $500 |
| Gray, Orange, and Yellow chip | $1,000 |
| Red/White/Blue or Gray, Orange | $5,000 |
| Dark Blue, Brown or Dark Green | $25,000 |
| Light Blue or Gray | $100,000 |
*Note that this is the standard valuation of poker chips by colour at most gambling establishments. It’s, however, possible for some gambling establishments to have slightly different poker chip valuations by colour.
How to Get Poker Chips
In case you are wondering how you can get poker chips when you visit your favourite casino. The thing is, this isn’t difficult at all. Below are three ways in which you can get poker chips.
- If you visit a brick-and-mortar casino, you can simply head over to the cash booth (or ask for directions from casino staff if you don’t see it). From there, you can exchange hard cash for poker chips.
- Alternatively, if you are at a brick-and-mortar casino, you can head over to a table of your choice, and before the gaming action gets going, you ask the dealer to exchange your hard cash for poker chips. It’s important to note, however, that this works at some casinos and not all. Others simply restrict you from grabbing your chips at the cash booth.
- When playing online, all you need to do is load your casino account with conventional currency of your choice and proceed to place a wager you desire. Once you do, you automatically receive poker chips which correspond to the amount you wagered.
Fascinating Facts About Poker Chips
- Gold bars, nuggets, and gold dust preceded standard poker chips: Poker is a game that’s been enjoyed for many years. Since the heydays, the game has had low roller variants and high roller variants. For the latter, the earliest players used to wager using gold bars, nuggets and gold dust. However, when it became more and more difficult to assign value to these, poker chips emerged. The earliest poker chips were made from bone, wood, ivory and clay.
- The first online poker chips were used on January 1, 1998: On January 1, 1998, the very first real money game of online poker was played. This inadvertently ushered in the very first online poker chips. The game was played on the ‘Planet Poker’ website.
- Poker regulations stipulate that chips should be ‘disk-shaped’: Earlier on, when describing poker chips, we said that they are ‘circular’. Well, the circular shape of poker chips is not something that poker chips developers do out of their thinking. Rather, they design chips in a circular manner because there are laid down rules that chips should be ‘disk shaped’.
- Poker chips encourage more gambling: It’s an unwritten rule that you can not use cash at the poker table. Only poker chips can be used as casino currency. This emanates from the fact that casinos believe that using chips encourages players to gamble more than when using cash.
- Poker chips differ from one casino to the other: Perhaps you somehow left your favourite casino with some poker chips, and you are thinking of using them at a different casino. Or perhaps you found some very cheap poker chips being sold online. The thing is, no matter how cheap they are or how readily you can access chips from one casino, you can not use them at a different casino. Modern poker chips come with a unique design which make them function only at a specified casino.
- 120-day redeem window period: Casinos do have a 120-day redemption window period. What this means is that if you exchange your hard cash for poker chips and win poker chips during your gambling adventure, you have 12w0 days to redeem them for cash. Failure to do so means you forfeit your cash, as casinos will turn off the chips’ RFID technology which contains each chip’s unique identifier.
- Covid-19 necessitated the cleaning of poker chips: Before the advent of Covid-19, some casinos had gone for years without cleaning their poker chips. However, this all changed with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Round Up
Everyone who has ever visited a land-based casino or even the very best poker sites will know that there is a close correlation between gambling and the sound of clicking chips. This makes chips a mainstay of gambling and hence the reason they are very important.
