What To Look For While Buying Poker Chips

Poker chips have been used to play poker for many decades. If you are a poker enthusiast and enjoy the touch and clink of poker chips while playing, then it is only wise to own a set for your playgroup or playroom.

Before buying poker chips, here are a few things you’ll find interesting to learn.

Fun History of Poker Chips

In the 19th century, poker rooms allowed players to play with coins, gold nuggets and other valuable items. In the absence of a uniform unit, it was difficult to settle game balances.

With time, gaming saloons adopted the concept of poker chips. This standard unit made this game more mainstream. Back then, chips were usually made of clay, bone, ivory, etc., but card rooms had no unique designs to distinguish their chips from others’. These chips were often copied by notorious players and hence caused loses to poker rooms.

Eventually, casinos started producing unique chips made of clay. Hence came into being modern-day poker chips. These chips are commercially produced and are not easy to reproduce.

What to look for while buying poker chips

When you’re buying poker chips, you need to consider a few things:

1. How many chips to buy?

For this, you need to think about the number of players who’d be needing the chips. A good average per person is 60-70 chips. So, for let’s say 7-8 players, you can get about 600 chips.

2. How many colours or denominations?

Most poker rooms have four denominations in chipsets. Therefore, even we recommend that you go for four colours—White (1 unit), red (5 units), green (25 units) and black (100 units)

3. What design and material to get?

You can choose between clay, metal and plastic chips. Clay poker chips are definitely fancier and closer to the poker chips used in casinos.

A standard poker chip is 39 mm in diameter and weighs between 8 and 11.5 grams. You can customise the design of your chips to eliminate any chance of fake chips being used in the game.

Poker chip reviews

Here are a few top poker chip sets which we’d like to give a shoutout to:

1. Brybelly Ultimate Heavyweight

This set of 1000 chips is made of a mixture of clay. Each chip weighs 14 grams. The set includes 6 denominations—$1, $5, $25, $100, $500 and $1000, enabling various types of poker games. It is a good-quality set and can make a great addition to a poker room.

2. Claysmith Gaming Mint

This set comprises of 500 chips. Each chip is 13.5 gm. It includes the same 6 denominations as the Brybelly Ultimate Heavyweight set. This mid-sized poker chip set is of great quality and is recommended for poker enthusiasts who wish to own something stylish and more professional-looking.

3. Trademark Poker Dice Style

Trademark Poker Dice Style set has 500 chips. Each chip weighs about 11.5 gm, and they come in four colours or denominations.

4. Cardinal Industries 200 Piece

This small set of 200 chips is ideal for poker games at home or with a small group of friends. The set contains chips in four colours or denominations. The aluminium box also contains a deck of cards and other poker accessories.