LAS VEGAS POKER CHIPS???
The other day, my friend Jack was about to make an online purchase of a decent set of poker chips, and asked me if I had any particular brand, make, or vendor to suggest. He stressed that the guys in his weekly home poker game were goading him to upgrade from his current cache of cheap plastic chips to something more professional. Jack said he completed a comprehensive search and review of the poker chip market on the internet and decided to equip his table with nothing less than what are used at professional casinos and poker rooms in Las Vegas. "Clay chips weighing 11.5 grams!", he stated emphatically. My friend had read ads using such verbage as "Quality Clay", "Professional Las Vegas Casino look & feel", "Heavy Weight", "Casino Style", "Deluxe", and something called "ABS Casino Quality Chips". All these chips, he was informed, were "clay" and weighed 11.5 grams..."just like the casinos and poker rooms in Vegas and Atlantic City". Yes, Jack was going to go 1st Class, professional level, and purchase a set of LAS VEGAS quality poker chips.
He had the right idea in stocking up with casino grade chips. This type of chip has a nice sound when they clink against each other, or when they are pushed into the pot. Clay chips at 11.5 grams are also an ideal weight to perform poker chip tricks and flourishes (shuffling, flips, twirls, rolls, etc.). Yes, casino grade chips will serve him well.
However, all is not as he thinks. First of all, the "clay" chips he was about to purchase were really "acrylic composite chips". Many chips are sold as "clay" but are actually an acrylic (or similar) composite. They look and feel like clay, and I'm not sure I can tell one from another. It's a minor point to me whether the chips are made of an acrylic composite or clay. I understand that the acrylic composite chips can expect a longer lifespan than the pure clay chips (which tend to break).
Jack read on multiple sites that the "The Standard" weight of the poker chip used in Las Vegas casinos was 11.5 grams. He just happened to be talking with the right guy, at the right time, regarding the weight of Vegas (and other) casino poker room chips.
During the last year, I started taking out of play (and keeping) a $1 chip from every casino and poker room I had played in. I now have 56, from across the country, with 34 coming from Las Vegas.
I had weighed each chip on my hi-tech, Ohaus scientific triple-beam scale. Before you say, "Who brings poker chips home...and weighs them?!!", poker chips are part of my business. I'm a Magician and use poker chips in my close-up act. I also produced an instructional DVD on performing poker chip tricks and flourishes. Part of my research was determining the best chip-weight for doing such table acrobatics. 11.5 grams was the winner. The heaviest weighted chip I tried was 13.5 grams which seemed, well...a little heavy. I also found that I need at least 8 grams of weight to perform the shuffles, flips, twirls, and rolls with the profiency I'm accustomed to.
Here's the surpise of this story...only two of the 56 casino and poker room chips reached the weight of 11.5 grams. All were "clay" or more likely acrylic composite chips. The two chips that met the 11.5 gram so called "Standard Professional Casino Grade" weight as claimed on the internet was found at a harness racing track in Pompano Beach, Florida, and at The Stardust in Las Vegas. The Stardust was the only casino/poker room with a metal insert in their $1 chip.
It is true that I only had one chip from each casino and it might not be representative of the average chip of that casino, but it probably is. All the chips I weighed were of average looking quality for that particular establishment, with no defects. With that said, below are some interesting statistics.
Weight of a cheap plastic chip: 1.5 grams
Weight of an inexpensive "clay" acrylic composite chip: 8 grams
The following weights are of $1 denomination poker chips taken out of play from corresponding casino/poker rooms during 2005.
LAS VEGAS:
Circus Circus 10.7 grams
Sahara 9.3
The Mirage 8.9
Plaza 9.3
Bellagio 9.2
The Sands 9.7
Luxor 10.5
Gold Coast 9.8
The Palms 10
Imperial Palace 10.7
Harrah's 9.6
Orleans 10
Aladdin 9.5
Monte Carlo 9.7
The Stardust 12
Sam's Town 10.5
Boulder Station 10.9
The Flamingo 9.8
Golden Nugget 8.3
El Cortez 8.0
Excalibur 9.5
Rio 8.9
Binion's Horseshoe 9.5
Mandalay Bay 9.7
Riviera 10.5
Wynn 9.7
Stratosphere 9.8
Palace Station 9
MGM 8.2
Paris 10.8
Bally's 10.8
Tropicana 10
Hilton 8.5
Tuscany 8.8
ATLANTIC CITY:
Borgata 11.1
Trump Taj Mahal 10.9
Sands 9.8
Tropicana 9.8
Bally's 9.7
FLORIDA:
Seminole Hard Rock Casino, Hollywood 10.7
Seminole Indian Casino, Coconut Creek 10.4
Seminole Indian Casino, Hollywood 10.5
Miccosukee Gaming, Miami 10.6
St. Tropez Cruise Ship, Port Everglades 10.4
Calder Race Course, Miami 10.8
Pompano Park, Pompano Beach 12.1
Hollywood Greyhound Track, Hollywood 10.5
Miami Jai-alai, Miami 10.0
Dania Jai-alai, Dania 10.0
Palm Beach Kennel Club 10.8
Flagler Dog Track 10.5
CONNECTICUT:
Foxwoods 9.2
MISSOURI:
Harrah's, St. Louis 9.0
MISSISSIPPI:
Grand Casino, Biloxi 10.4
Palace Casino, Biloxi 9.8
Grand Casino, Gulfport 9.8
Tom Golabek is a veteran poker player, and award winning magician. He offers an instructional DVD/VHS entitled, "Poker Chip Tricks & Other Fancy Flourishes at the Card Table", and invites you to visit his website at
www.pokerchipsvideo.com.
