Table Of Contents
- Best Poker Chip Amounts Chip
- Best Poker Chip Denominations
- Best Poker Chip Value
- Best Poker Chip Amounts 2019
- Best Poker Chip Amounts List
The age-old saying goes something like this: 'The guy who invented gambling was brilliant, but the guy who invented chips was a genius.'
The reason behind this saying is that chips remove from gambling the real world of money.
- That means that chip accumulation is only important up to a certain point and the value of chips you keep in your stack raises tremendously. Near the bubble of a 50/50 Sit and Go with short-stacked players clinging to survival is one of the only times in poker you should consider dumping pocket Aces pre-flop.
- Poker chips are standard units for playing poker professionally, worldwide. Here's a quick guide to poker chip values. This will apprise of how much value each colour of poker chip holds.
1 The Best Poker Chips 500 of 2020 – Top Rated & Reviewed; 2 Top Rated Poker Chips 500 to Buy Now; 3 Poker Chips 500 Reviews on Twitter. 3.1 Why You Should Buy Best Poker Chips 500 from Amazon. If you are using your poker chips to play a home cash game, I recommend just following the traditional rules. White is $1, red is $5, blue is $10, green is $25. This will cover you for games up to $2/$5 blinds. If you want to play higher stakes, say $5/$10 or $10/$20, you will need black and possibly purple chips. Additionally, you can buy a readymade poker chip collection that typically give you 300 chips. For the average poker game with 5+ players, anywhere from 500 to 1,000 chips should be a sufficient.
Gamblers tend to have very short memories. Once they purchase chips, they easily forget their real world value, making losses on the green felt seem relatively painless — at least until they go to cash out.
Home poker has largely embraced this concept.
Games that used to be played with silver change and paper money are now often played with the best poker chips.
If you're hosting a home game, you may well be considering the purchase of a cool poker chip set.
The best poker chip sets contain:
- A set of 500 poker chips
- Poker chips in three or four colors for different denominations
- A deal button
- A Big Blind button
- A Small Blind button
- Two decks of French cards
A poker chip set for home like this should be enough for your typical game of one to two tables.
Finding the best poker chips for your home games depends on your tastes and your budget.
Here's a summary of what's out there to help you find just the right chips for your game. To get a really good sense of all of your options, I suggest that you check out the online stores that specialize in poker supplies.
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Play NowCheap Poker Chips: Plastic Chips
At the very lowest end of the chip market are the very lightweight, 2 gram or so, thin plastic poker chips that many of us played with as kids or in high school and college.
They are typically sold in packs of 100, often in red, white, and blue.
These are the chips available for purchase in nearly every large pharmacy and in groceries, right in the same area as the packs of playing cards.
They'll run you $2.50 to $3.95 or so. If you look around you might find a really inexpensive version of them in the dollar stores — selling for $1.00.
You can buy plastic poker chips online, too. In these case, these are your best options:
- 100 Poker Chips by RINCO(Red and Blue)
- 600 Poker Chips by U.S. Toy Co.(Red, White, Blue)
These cheap plastic poker chips are fine in a pinch, or with young or inexperienced players who have never been to a public poker room or casino.
But they feel and sound so much cheaper than what you'll find in a casino or other public poker room, that they may be inadequate for your more serious players.
Imitation Clay Poker Chips
One step up, and what I first purchased back in the early '90s when I started playing in casinos around the United States, are solidly colored, imitation clay poker chips.
These poker chips for home games are made of heavy plastic weighing 8 grams a chip or so.
Cool imitation clay poker chips for home games are generally marketed as 'super diamond chips.'
They can be purchased online for between $.06 and $.10 per chip, and sell in 'sleeves' of 25 single color chips.
These are the best poker chips of this kind:
These imitation clay poker chips are perfectly adequate for your home game, especially if you are running multi-table tournaments and want to be able to afford a lot of chips for a relatively little amount of money.
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Since they lack any striping, spotting or design, some players might not prefer them.
But I've used mine in large tournaments and in home games for 25 years and never had a complaint (at least not to my face).
Clay Composite Chips
Slightly more expensive, and by far the most common chips that are sold to poker players today, are the metal filled, clay composite chips, with a myriad of different designs, strips, and spots.
Clay poker chips are usually sold as part of chip set, including an inexpensive aluminium carrying case.
These can also be purchased in sleeves of 25 from some companies, but are more typically sold in units of 500 or 1,000 as part of a poker chip set for home games.
These clay composite chips come in a large range of prices.
The 500-chip sets, for example, can be purchased online for anywhere from $39 or so up to $300 (not including shipping), based on the quality, design, and weight of the chip. Each chip weighs anywhere from 11 to 14 grams.
If you are looking for the best poker chips and you want to top chip set for home games, pick one of these. You can't go wrong with any of them.
I've noticed that at the very bottom of that price range, the clay composite chips tend to be of unacceptably poor quality.
I once purchased a 1,000-chip set for $90 and paid $45 to ship them (they're heavy, and shipping is generally expensive). The chips arrived with 20 red chips equaling the height of only 19 white chips.
They had many other defects in them as well.
I had to send them back for a refund — and got stuck with one way of the shipping.
If you are ordering these metal-filled chips, then, I recommend you order no cheaper chip than the ones selling for about $150 for 1,000.
Customized Ceramic Poker Chips
The next step up are the Ceramic poker chips that sell for about $.40-$.75 or so each.
Nevada Jacks is the most popular brand of these chips. These also come in sets of 500 or 1,000.
A nice poker set of the best home poker chips in ceramic is known for their brilliant colors and sharp detail.
These are the best poker chips to buy. They are not metal filled, and they don't make the metal clanging sound when they bump together.
Players rave about them.
The most expensive, regularly produced variety of chips are the casino-quality clay chips made by the Paulson company, typified by the Top Hat and Cane design.
These chips cost roughly $1.25 a chip, or from $1,100 to $1,400 for a set of 1,000.
If you want your home poker chips to be just like those in a casino and you don't mind paying for them, these are the ones for you.
The best ceramic poker chips for home games are:
- Brybelly 500 Count Nevada Jack Poker Set - 10 Gram Premium Casino Grade Ceramic Chips with Aluminum Case
There is another option to consider.
Some chip manufacturers will customize your chips with your own design.
These can come as a 'hot stamped' imprint, as a printed label that is permanently affixed to the chip, or in the case ceramic chips the design can be built into the chip itself.
Prices for this option vary widely, so shop around if this interests you.
Poker Chip Cases
Keep in mind that you'll almost certainly want a case in which to store and transport your poker chip ser. There are a few options in this department as well.
The most common are these thin aluminium or vinyl attaché cases.
These are most frequently made with room for 500 chips, and a few extra spaces for cards. There are also chip cases that accommodate 250, 350, 750, and 1,000 chips.
They sell for between $20-$50 and can vary some in quality, though it's usually next to impossible to tell from the pictures which ones are more sturdily made. Look for reinforcements in the corners.
Also, the 1,000 capacity chip case, when filled with chips, will be too heavy for some to easily carry around.
You might be better off ordering two 500s instead. There is also, now, a 2,000-chip case that comes with wheels for easier transportation.
If you run tournaments or move your game from place to place, you might be tempted to get it, but I don't recommend it.
From everything I've read and heard, it is not built with sufficient sturdiness to survive much use. Tales of handles and wheels falling off upon first use are a legend.
There are a few other chip case options. One is a clear lucite chip case. It is built for 1,000 chips, stacked in chip racks of 100 each, and sells for about $50.
This is very useful if you run tournaments and want to easily have your chips organized for simple distribution to a large group of people.
It's also extremely sturdy, easy to stack, and doesn't dent, scratch, or otherwise deteriorate from regular use (unlike the aluminium and vinyl cases described above). It's what I use, and I recommend it highly.
Finally, for those who care about how your chip cases look, there are some very nice wooden storage boxes. They tend to be cube-shaped, come in a dark finish, and have shiny, small metal handles, one on each side of the box.
They aren't easy to carry, and so would be awkward and inappropriate if you transported your chips regularly.
But they do look nice sitting on a shelf. They sell for about $50 separately, but like all other chip cases, they are often included in the price of a chip set.
Other Recommendations
I would immediately rule out the very cheap plastic poker chips and the very cheapest of the metal filled chips.
Best Poker Chip Amounts Chip
Beyond that, however, I don't think there is really much of a difference in how your poker-playing guests will react to the chips.
I've played in home games with the best ceramic poker chips and with Paulson's. They were beautiful to behold.
But I noticed no one really seemed to care.
I've found that poker players are typically so completely engaged in how much they were up or down that the look of their chips was the last thing they cared about.
Best Poker Chip Denominations
That being said, you might care about that, and might take great pride in having a truly beautiful set or chips that remind you of what you play with at the nearest casino.
One last item to consider — there are very few brick-and-mortar stores that sell a wide variety of poker chips (The Gambler's General Store in Las Vegas is a great exception).
Amazon, Target, Walmart and a few other retail chains may have boxed sets for sale, but the chips themselves will still be hidden.
That means for the most part, you'll probably be looking online at an image of a chip — not the real thing — when you contemplate a purchase.
For that reason, I recommend that before you buy a complete set of chips, especially an expensive one, that you either purchase or ask the company to send you for free some sample chips.
Catalogs, computer screens, and the like don't really do a chip justice. For that you'll need to see, hold, and use the chip itself.
Sure, it may cost you $5 or $10 to get a small sample set of chips from the manufacturer. But that's a much less costly option than ordering chips you don't want and having to return them.
About the Author
Ashley Adams has been playing poker for 50 years and writing about it since 2000. He is the author of hundreds of articles as well as Winning 7-Card Stud (Kensington 2003). He is also the host of poker radio show House of Cards. See www.houseofcardsradio.com for broadcast times, stations, and podcasts.
Best Poker Chip Value
This article was originally written by Ashley Adams in August 2016. Last update: December 2019.
Photos: 'Ready for poker,' Laura, CC BY 2.0; 'Poker Chips,' Indi Samarajiva, CC BY 2.0; 'Poker XII,' Bastian Greshake, CC BY-SA 2.0; 'New custom ceramic chip set,' BigMikeSndTch, CC BY 2.0; 'Poker anyone?' uzi978, CC BY-SA 2.0;.
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Are you a fan of the game of poker? Awesome, but hold on just a second. Before you decide to head over to Las Vegas to simply enjoy a great poker night, think about your own professional poker chipset. You do not have to go to a famous casino if you have an amazing set of chips at home. After you get one of these, poker night with friends in the comfort of your home will be better than whatever your local casino has to offer. With this in mind, let us check some of the best sets currently available.
1. Chips and Games Custom Poker Chip Set
If you want the real deal for yourself or a poker lover in your life, this customizable set is what you will want. You can choose the foil colors of the chips, and get the initials stamped on them too! Other than this great visual detail, many other benefits come with the set. It is great for average-sized games of six people. The chips are of high quality and well designed. Their weight and feel are very similar to the casino ones. The rest of the equipment is also well made, and so is the case that protects everything.
2. Claysmith Gaming 'The Mint' Poker Chip Set
The actual structure of each different poker chip size is important, mainly because they are meant to be stacked together and pushed forward. You, therefore, need nearly flat chips to stack them without them constantly falling everywhere. The chips in this is what you need if this is your main concern. They also have markings on the edges, so it is easier to count them in a pile. The whole set is of good quality, especially the chips. The weight feels great since they are made from a clay composite. The sound they make while you deal them is satisfying and reminiscent of a real poker table at a casino. They truly make a statement with their style and design. The case also looks professional, and it is easy to carry and handle.
3. LANSCH Poker Set
Although it only has 300 chips, it is perfect for card games with less amount of people. This poker set still has everything you need for a wide variety of different casino card games. With the chips, you will get two card decks, dice, and blind and dealer buttons. If you travel a lot and play poker on the move, this is a perfect setting for you. One poker chip weighs just 11.5 grams, which is perfect. They are made from composite resin, and they truly resemble casino chips. As everything else in this set, the case is of high quality and strong, yet compact.
4. JP Commerce Monte Carlo Clay Poker Chips Set
Although metal and plastic last longer and are more durable, nothing beats the feeling of playing with true clay chips. This unique feeling and the awesome sound are essential to mimic the vibe of a real casino in your home. If you like aesthetics like these, look no further than this set. Each chip is 13.5 grams, somewhat heavier than average but more similar to the real casino chips than the rest. You get a total of 500 chips, enough for up to six people to participate. The case is stylish, strong and it looks professional, hard shell on the outside and soft sponge lining on the inside. It will protect these very well made chips anywhere you go.
Best Poker Chip Amounts 2019
5. Kovot Dice Style Poker Chip Set
Best Poker Chip Amounts List
If playing with only a handful of people is your desired way of having fun with poker, or if you often play on the move like when you travel, this set will do wonders for you. Since you get 300 chips, expect to host games of three to four players. These kinds of intimate games are often the most engaging. The overall size of the set is similarly compact and easy to carry. The chips in this set have a dice style pattern on, and look rather professional, while the weight is similar to the ones casinos use, and stands at 11.5 grams. The case will protect them nicely, as it is hardy yet lightweight.
