Buying the Perfect Poker Chips: Elevate Your Game!
Poker chips, tokens, or checks are used instead of cash in even the lowest-stakes home games. These small, easy-to-handle discs make the game flow at a faster rate. Most cardrooms no longer allow some money on the table except in higher stakes games where players can keep $100 bills alongside their chips.
Custom chips are a worthy expense that will not only reduce the liability of someone counterfeiting or ‘running chips into the game.’ Still, they will also improve the overall quality of any home game. There are several factors to consider when purchasing a set of poker chips.
Quantity of Poker Chips
Poker chips can be purchased in sets (100 up to 1000 are common) or per chip. Whether you buy set or individual chips, you need a general idea of how many chips to order. You want enough chips to cover the number of players. If you run tournaments, you will want to call what is equivalent to one chip stack per player up to the maximum number of players permitted, plus a few extra replacement stacks.
Here is a sample calculation:
Maximum 30-player tournament order of at least 33 stacks of chips. If that equates to 20 chips in various denominations per player, then 33 x 20 = 660 chips, so you know you want to go with no less than a 700 chipset. Remember, rebuy/add-on tournaments require additional stacks or higher denomination chips that can be “colored up.”
It would be best to overestimate a bit when calculating how many chips to buy for a live-action poker game. You never know if your competition will suddenly escalate to higher stakes one night. You do not want to run the risk of running out of chips, so it is better to overestimate the number of scraps you will need for your poker game. Ordering will be based on the stakes of the game and the number of poker players expected. On average, you should have at least 100 chips per player, with most of your poker chips comprising the two lowest denominations. I recommend purchasing 20 high-denomination chips to ensure you do not run out during a heated poker game.
Type of Poker Chips
There are four common types of chips: plastic, composite, ceramic, and clay.
Plastic Poker Chips
There are two types of common plastic poker chips available. The cheapest is the set commonly found in a round carrier. If you are playing friendly ‘kitchen table’ poker, these plastic chips, which can be purchased in any major chain store, will suffice. The second is Diamond chips, made of plastic but standard casino size and a bit heavier than the cheaper plastic chips. These chips are solid in color and perfect for friendly poker games.
Composite Poker Chips
This is the most common poker chip purchased and used in regular home games. They can also be found in chain stores and often come with a dealer button, a deck of cards, and a cut card. These chips are often adorned with dice, diamonds, or card suits on the edges of the chips. They are colored to match industry standards. They typically weigh 11.5 grams due to a metal insert. These chips work fine for a small-stakes poker game or tournament where the risk of someone ‘running in chips’ is minimal. The most common complaint about these chips is they are slippery.
Customized composite chips with metal inserts are common for serious home games. These are by far the most popular chips ordered on the internet. There are thousands of design options available for these chips. The designs can be put on label stickers, hot stamped, or engraved into the chip. The most popular weight is 11.5 grams. There is also a softer variation of this chip that does not have a metal insert for those players who do not like the ring of a metal-inserted chip.
Ceramic Poker Chips
These chips have a smooth porcelain feel and are used in many casinos. The biggest benefit to these chips is they can be graphically designed with detail you cannot reproduce on other types of chips. They are also highly durable and will stand the test of time. There is a higher cost for these beautifully decorated poker chips, but they’ll look great in any serious home game – so if you can afford them, then it’s probably worth the extra cost.
Clay Poker Chips
Clay chips, used mostly in casinos, are the most expensive and generally considered the best quality. These chips are made using a compression molding process where unique designs can be molded into the chip. Clay chips are easiest to handle, stack, and do chip tricks with, making the $1+ per chip price tag seem worthy. Contrary to the popular belief that the heaviest chips are the best quality, clay casino chips usually weigh between 8 and 9 grams.
Color of the Poker Chips
Try to maintain the industry standard when selecting the color of your chips. This helps reduce confusion among players who are used to betting five dollars when they toss a red chip into the pot and one hundred dollars when they bet a black scrap. You will need about four different colored chips to play in a standard poker game, and the two lowest-valued chips will compromise the largest percentage of your set.
- $1 White Chip
- $5 Red Chip
- $10 Blue Chip
- $25 Green Chip
- $100 Black Chip
- $500 Purple Chip
- $1000 Orange Chip
After selecting the dominant color of each chip, you will also have the option of choosing a secondary or tertiary accent color, which is usually around the edge of the chip. Each additional color adds to the price of the chip. Be sure to select accent colors that completely differ from those on the other chip denominations. Chip denominations can get easily mixed if the accent colors are too similar when stacking them.
Weight of the Poker Chips
If you decide against expensive clay chips, the weight of all other poker chips is one of the most important factors. Lightweight chips are typically cheaper, but heavier chips are more durable. If you plan on hosting regular poker games, you will be better off, in the long run investing money in chunks that will not need to be constantly replaced. In addition, players prefer to play with heavier chips which are easier to maneuver and riffle.
Common Poker Chip Weights:
- 7.5 grams
- 8.5 grams
- 9.0 grams
- 11.5 grams
- 13.0 grams
- 13.5 grams
- 14 grams
Poker Chip Design
There are various chip designs. Let’s examine your options.
Standard Designs
Chip manufacturers offer numerous designs that can be printed on the face of any poker chip. You can buy them pre-designed or, for a higher price, provide a picture or graphic artwork for customization.
Stickers
You can purchase round stickers in almost any design on your poker chips. You can even buy blank chip stickers and customize them on your computer. If you go this route, consider buying chips with a hollow center so the stickers are easier to place and harder for players to damage.
Chip stickers make it easy to replace a chip that has been battered on the face, but remember they are just stickers, so they will be easier to beat in the first place. If you use stickers to mark your chips, stick to the common color denominations rather than one chip color with different labels. Otherwise, someone could sneak chips out, replace the stickers with higher denominations, sneak them back later, and scam you out of money.
Gold or Silver Foil Stamping
Chips can be hot stamped with gold or silver lettering, usually only on chunks with a solid colored center. It is common to use initials or dollar denominations. Remember that if you choose to have the dollar value stamped on the face, you lose the flexibility to change the value of the chips. Also, be aware that the gold & silver sometimes flakes off the chip with wear, especially with low-quality manufacturing.
Engraved Poker Chips
Engraving your chips will make it less likely for someone to sneak chips into your game or counterfeit them. Manufacturers will allow you to etch anything on the chips for a set price per chip. It is common to have your name, initials, or place of business engraved on the face of the chip. You have to pay double if you want both sides engraved. If you want a customized chip that will make counterfeiting difficult, scan your signature and etch it on the chips.
There are a lot of factors to consider when ordering a poker chip set. After reviewing the above information, if you still cannot decide what fits your needs, request a sample set. Most reputable chip suppliers now offer a sample of one of each type of chip they provide for a price of less than $10.00. Clay chip samples run closer to $20 per sample set. This will allow you to feel each chip and closely inspect the design work on each style to find the perfect location for your game.
