Poker Software: How to Bet in Poker
Findlings Poker - Find the Best Antiques and Collectibles

Poker Chips

Casino poker tokens (also known as chips, checks or cheques) are small discs used in lieu of currency in casinos. Colored metal 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.

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.

Although the first gambling house was legalised in Venice in 1626, actual poker chips as we know them now were still not used for over two hundred more years. Back in the 1800s 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.

Movies

Pictures


Casino chip collecting is the practice of intentionally taking casino chips from Casino premises or trading or collecting online, or in person, for the purpose of collection. Casino chip collecting is a variety of exonumia, or coin collecting. Before it became a more serious hobby, casino chip collecting was simply a case of people keeping them as souvenirs from a casino they may visit. The biggest boost to the hobby came with the creation of the online auction site eBay. Ebay has now become the most popular way to collect and trade casino chips with listings in the casino category regularly uncluding over 20,000 items for sale.

Casino chip collecting became increasingly popular beginning in 1988, with the establishment of the Casino Chips & Gaming Tokens Collectors Club (CC>CC). The club was formed after it was realised how popular the hobby had become and how many people were involved in it. The club held its first annual convention at the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in 1992. The convention still runs to this day and in 2008 will be held at the Riviera Hotel and Casino.

As the number of collectors grew, the demand for an official grading system grew and the club realised one would have to be agreed on as to determine the value of the chips. In 2003, members of the CC>CC agreed on a grading system that would be used worldwide. This also came with the publication of the club's book, The Official U.S. Casino Chip Price Guide, now in its 3rd edition. Some chips are considered high-value and some worth up to $50,000. The largest recorded sale for a casino chip to date is $39,000.

Online poker, along with televised poker, really propelled the game into its huge growth phase. Online poker sites are generally connected with one or more online poker payment services which can be used to fund player accounts with money with which to play poker.

Most online poker sites are members of poker networks. Although each site has their own poker room and often their own bonuses and promotions, all of the poker rooms are part of the same network. When a player logs into one poker room, he or she is actually playing with people who have logged in from any poker rooms on the network. This network sharing increases the number of active players on each poker room, giving the player more game selection at any time of the day.

Poker Chips on eBay
Poker Chip Collection
PokerOnline
 
Play it at PartyPoker!
PartyPoker.com was launched in 2001 and has since grown to be one of the largest online poker card rooms. At peak times, tens of thousands of players can be found playing on the site's virtual poker tables. The site is endorsed by Mike Sexton, the host of the World Poker Tour television show. Games include Texas Hold 'em (No Limit and Fixed Limit), Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-card Stud and Seven-card Stud Hi-Lo. Stakes range from 0.05/0.10 to 100/200 for limit games, and 0.02/0.04 to 25/50 for No-Limit/Pot-Limit games. Players can play for either real money or play money. All poker variants offered at real money tables are offered at play money tables. Party Poker offers a bad beat jackpot, which has at times grown to over $700,000 USD.