About Poker Chips Value

Chips are one of the most important elements of the many games that are cumulatively referred to as “poker.” Poker chips generally represent money that is being gambled within the game, although they can also be used to simply keep score in non wagering poker matches. Despite the popularity of poker, though, very few people know much about poker chips or their standard denominations.

Types

1.  Some people play poker using such items as coins, buttons or other small things as their poker chips. In most instances, however, poker chips are standardized colored discs. The size, weight and material of these poker chips can vary, as can the color. The different colors are used to determine the denominations of each individual poker chip.

Function

2. Using differently valued chips, poker players can quickly and efficiently wager money without having to use cluttering currency. Each chip takes on a certain dollar value that is agreed upon by all of the players or is decided upon by the casino. During the poker game, the chips are played exactly as if they were money, and in fact during cash games the chips can be taken out of play between hands and exchanged for cash. During a tournament, however, the chips may not actually relate to the cash that was used to purchase them but instead simply indicate a player’s standing within the tournament.

History

3. Although the first gambling house was legalised in Venice in 1626, actual poker chips as we now know them were still not used for over two hundred more years. Back in the 19th century and prior, poker players seemed to use any small valuable object imaginable. Early poker players sometimes used jagged gold pieces, gold nuggets, gold dust, or coins as well as “chips” primarily made of ivory, bone, wood, paper and a composition made from clay and shellac. Several companies between the 1880s and the late 1930s made clay composition poker chips. There were over 1000 designs from which to choose. Most chips were white, red, blue and yellow but they could be made in almost any color desired.

The usage of chips or markers in place of actual currency while gambling has a much longer history than poker. Some believe that casinos popularized the concept of chips because it is psychologically easier for a person to gamble with chips than it is to gamble with real currency. The fast proliferation of chips, though, outside of casinos in private games, would indicate that gambling with chips is simply more attractive to players than gambling with currency.

Casino Tokens

4. Casino tokens (also known as chips, checks or cheques) are small discs used in lieu of currency in casinos. Colored metal, injection molded plastic or compression molded clay tokens of various denominations are used primarily in table games, as opposed to metal token coins, used primarily in slot machines. Casino tokens are also widely used as play money in casual or tournament games. Some casinos also use gaming plaques for high stakes table games ($25,000 and above). Plaques differ from chips in that they are larger, usually rectangular in shape and contain serial numbers.

Colors

5. Chip colors typically found in home sets include red, white, blue, and sometimes green and black; however, more recently a wide assortment of colors have become readily available, particularly in lower-cost ABS plastic chips. Common additional colors are pink, purple, yellow, orange and grey. Newer designs in home chips include “tri-color” designs where a three-step molding process creates a chip with unique base, secondary and detail colors. As chip sets are tailored to the buyer, the values of various colors vary widely, with less traditional colors either used as very high values ($500, $1000, $5000, etc., common in tournaments) or as special “in-between” values such as $2 or $.50 (common in low-limit games).

$20 chips are used mostly at Baccarat, Pai Gow tiles and Pai gow poker because a 5% commission charged for all winning banker wagers at Baccarat and winning Pai Gow wagers converts evenly (a $20 wager has a $1 commission). $20 bets are not uncommon in traditional table games such as Craps and Roulette; a $20 chip, for example, places a $5 bet on each of the “hard ways” in Craps and is preferable to passing a stack of chips or making change.

Misconceptions

6. Though many people believe that poker chips are standardized in denomination, this is untrue. Certain jurisdictions that allow gambling may legally regulate what color chips are used to denote certain amounts of money, but there is no one system that dictates chip values in all areas. In many areas, however, chip denominations are commonly as follows:

White: $1
Red: $5
Blue: $10
Green: $25
Black: $100
Purple: $500
Burgundy: $1,000
Light blue: $2,000
Brown: $5,000

Uniform chip colors used in some gaming jurisdictions are depicted in the following table:

In television

The first game show to use them, Duel, had a variation in which the contestants answer questions using oversized casino tokens. The World Series of Poker at one time actually used its casino tokens for the poker tournaments, but in more recent years has had special Paulson WSOP clay sets made for the tournaments.

Warning

7. In many legal jurisdictions, gambling is illegal, even in private poker games. While such laws vary in terms of enforcement, it is up to individuals to determine whether playing poker for money is legal in their jurisdiction. Comply with all local laws and take due caution.

Show me the chips!

Article courtesy: Geoffrey Weed | Wikipedia

Bookmark to:

The Poker Chip Value by Poker Games For Fun | Poker Games Rules, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.jokerpokerblog.com.