The terms "Casino Grade Chips" and "Poker Chips" have different meanings in the Gaming Industry. Essentially, there are two classes of chips to be considered. The premier chip is the true casino grade chip and the other alternative is the low cost 'home game' chip.

Casino Grade chips are further divided into 2 categories; clay and clay composite. Both generally weigh between 9 and 10.5 grams.

The discerning or professional player considers clay chips the most desirous chips. These compression-molded chips are the standard for the vast majority of casinos worldwide. Both the composition of clay chips and their manufacturing process are highly guarded industry secrets.  In addition, they are a very labor-intensive product.  Both of these factors contribute to their higher cost.  Clay chips are generally priced in excess of $1 per chip.  But not at PokerShowroom.com!

Home Poker Chips - From Left to Right - Full Clay Poker Chip, A Clay Composite Chip, 13 Gram 'Casino' Chip, 11.5 Gram 'Dice' Chip

The second casino grade chip is the clay composite chip. These chips are injection molded. Chipco and Kardwell are the two primary manufactures of this style chip and both firms manufacture their chips in the USA. NJ utilizes a 'natural' feeling substance, giving their chip a clay sound and feel while Chipco's chip is a more 'cold' ceramic material. The major advantage these chips have over their clay counterpart is their ability to accept full-face graphics.

Although the clay chip has been the industry standard for decades, the composite chip's popularity and use has grown significantly in the past few years. While there is no tangible difference in the quality of a clay chip versus a casino grade composite chip, the lower cost and graphic capability of the composite chip has seen its popularity grow within the casinos worldwide. NJ offers a "production line" chip to the public for the purpose of creating an affordable quality chip for the home user and is releasing a second more traditional "casino line" soon.

There is a third type of chip available for the home user. This is a composite chip manufactured in China. These low cost, multi-colored chips are made of PVC injected plastic over a metal slug and are produced specifically for the inexperienced and novice market. Cleverly marketed as "the heaviest (11.5 - 13 gram) casino chips on the market", these chips are not casino grade. It is their metal core that makes them heavier than a casino grade product. Their mass production makes them widely available throughout the world at sometimes extremely low prices. This doesn't make them better. just heavier and cheaper and therefore not casino grade. This type of chip, although never recommended over a casino grade product, may be appropriate for the occasional player.

Whilst the clay chips and clay composite chips are generally more expensive (often 3 to 4 times more) I would suggest any regular poker player invest in a quality set as acquiring poker chips should be a once in a lifetime purchase. The cheaper Chinese chips are quite slippery, making them difficult to create high stacks and perform some chip tricks. From our experience casino grade quality (clay or clay composite) is the way to go!

There are several factors to consider before buying your set of poker chips. The composition of your poker chip set will depend on the type of poker that you will be hosting, such as hold'em, stud, or even non-tournament cash games, and the amount of your buyin (starting chips). Tournaments with a 100 chip buyin will use different colored chips than a tournament with a 10,000 chip buyin. The chips that you will need for a limit game differ slightly from the chips that you will need for a no-limit game. This page assumes that you are playing a no-limit Texas Hold'em poker tournament.

In general, you should own about 500 poker chips, in three or four different colors, to host a 10-player poker tournament and you should own about 1000 chips, in four or five different colors, to host a 20 to 30-player tournament.

Keep in mind that allowing players to rebuy means that you will need even more poker chips than what was initially issued to each player at the start of the tournament. The good news about rebuys is that you can usually just issue a couple high-denomination chips (2x$500) to the player who is rebuying and request that they make change from other players at the table to obtain smaller-denomination chips. You will also need some large-denomination chips ($500, $1000) to assist in issuing rebuys and for performing a chip color-up.

In general, your denominations (1, 5, 25, 100, 500, 1000, etc.) should increase in increments of four or five. If your lowest valued chip is $1, your next denomination should be $5, then $25, then $100, then $500, etc.. Having chip denominations that are too close together does not make good use of your poker chip set - a player can easily use two $5 chips instead of one $10 chip.

Your chip denominations must match the buyin and blinds schedule that you use for your tournament. If you host a tournament where each player starts with 100 chips (T100) - your chip denominations should probably be 1, 2, 5, and 25. If you host a tournament where each player starts with 1000 chips - your chip denominations should probably be 5, 25, 100, and 500. If you host a T10,000 tournament - your chip denominations should probably be 25, 100, 500, and 1000.

You must issue each player enough chips so that they are not constantly making change from other players or from the dealer. Each player should start the tournament with stacks of about 30 to 50 chips. This will also give your players the feeling of being a 'player' with a 'huge stack' of chips. You can stack and restack your chips, you can shuffle them, spin them, twirl them, and intimidate your opponents with them! It's fun to play with a huge stack!

If players begin a tournament with $10,000 in chips but are issued only one $5000 chip and five $1000 chips, they will feel almost broke! They've got a measly six poker chips in front of them! If there are only a few chips in front of a player, there seems to be a psychological barrier to releasing chips into the pot. Having numerous chips seems to make a player more willing to gamble. You want your players to start the tournament with a mountain of chips in front of them. A player who has fifty $100 chips seems more willing to bet a couple hundred chips than a player who has only five $1000 chips sitting in front of them.

In general, you should issue each player the same 4/3/2/1/ ratio of chips that you should use to purchase your entire poker chip set.

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