Don’t you sometimes think that those poker tables on televised games seem almost luxurious? They appear so elegant, with the rich green fabric in the center and that thick, deeply padded rail around the edge. The light shines down on the table and players, while the rest of the world seems to disappear into the shadows behind them. This “poker party” and its players seems to be all that exists. There’s an unmistakable atmosphere to this setting.
Some of these poker tables are luxurious indeed, depending on where you find them. Those in an actual casino may have genuine leather padding around the edge, and often, in the center, the surface material will bear the logo of the casino itself. Home versions of these tables may come with legs that will fold flat, so the table can be stored along a wall somewhere. You might have a recreation room where a full-fledged table with sturdy, non-foldable legs can sit. Or you might have just a flat top to set over your own table during a game. For home games, this latter type is the most common and can easily be found at stores that sell poker supplies.
A professional poker table is oval-shaped, yet the ones for a home setting might be round or even octagonal. Those in an actual casino have an indentation on one side where the dealer sits, while those for home use do not provide a special spot for the dealer. The fabric in the center is often a type of felt called baize, or a cloth with an extra coating that helps the cards slide easily. The padding around the edge, or “rail,” is where players can relax their hands during the game, and occasionally there will be a wooden “race track” between that and the playing surface, to hold their chips. Some more elaborate tables might even have cup holders set into this area. A table like this can truly augment a home game.
There are many places where you can buy a table, and some websites even provide plans so you can build your own poker tables. A table like this would be a perfect finale to the process of customization if you are getting serious about the game and have already gone so far as to acquire your own custom poker chip set. This could be the obvious next step. If you want to play the game in as authentic an atmosphere as possible, then a poker table might add the touch that will make your game complete.
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When you’ve really gotten into poker and are now at the stage of buying your own accessories, chip cases can be everything from mere utilitarian carrying cases for your chips, cards and dice, to something resembling a status symbol. The variety seems to be endless. You can go as simple and plain as you like, or invest in something quite elaborate. And frankly, the luxury and appeal of some of these poker chip sets and cases is reminiscent of the prestige currently enjoyed when certain high-end sports shoes sell for astounding prices.
The most basic carrying case for your poker chips and accessories will be a common, sturdy aluminum style. It will do a fine job of transporting and protecting your chips, cards and other contents, but it’s going to feel a bit drab if you were hoping to create a bit of an atmosphere. If you’d prefer to make an actual occasion of your community charity game or home game, rather than just go in, heads down, to concentrate on the play alone, then certain chip cases and custom poker chips will definitely elevate the atmosphere.
Some seem to be almost intended as a conversation piece, as you look at the polished, lacquered wood and the velvet interior of the cases, where the clay chips, the cards, the dealer button are nestled. You can hardly imagine pulling out those cards and chips and actually playing a game with them. Others might come in black leather that can handle a little rough treatment, with rather plain but well-made chips, designed to be used. And other cases might get really elaborate, being heavy, two-tiered affairs with chips, cards and dice on a top tray that lifts out to reveal more chips on the lower level.
These days, recreating the smoky backroom atmosphere of an old poker game isn’t what the new generation of poker players really want. Even if you just want to put your head down and play the game, it’s still important to have decent chips and poker cards that won’t bend or tear, as well as a good poker table with good lighting. And after an enjoyable game, easy storage is possible with the many chip cases on the market.
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Casino chips aren’t your regular run-of-the-mill poker chips used in casual home games. These have a long history of development and design, usually responding to cheating or security issues as they arose. In the mid-19th century, in bars in the American Midwest and in the old river-boats, poker players would use anything from coins to gold nuggets as they gambled. But eventually, by the end of that century, the clay poker chips casino establishments use became the standardized monetary tokens used in these games.
These chips were first made of various materials such as wood or ivory, but the casino poker chips of a clay-based composition soon came to predominate. These were made in high-pressure compression-molding machines. In recent times, though clay-ceramic mixtures are still used to create some chips, the more usual production method involves injection-molded resin chips. And a recent innovation in the design of casino chips involves either a metal center with a plastic rim, or chips entirely of metal. The standardization makes chips easier to stack on a table, easier to keep track of, and easier to count (or weigh) when it comes time to cash in a player’s winnings.
One of the factors in the ongoing development and design of casino chips has been security. In early times, with every person and establishment having their own chips, it was easier to cheat, substituting some chips for others and coming out an apparent “winner.” But eventually, casinos created several different sets with custom designs, so they could keep close tabs. Each casino chip now has high resolution artwork and the custom colors of the individual casino. The chips might also have markings incorporated that will only show under ultraviolet light. And the latest security feature in some new chips is to have embedded radio frequency ID tags, making them easier to track and harder to counterfeit.
However, despite all the security improvements, it may be technology that spells the end for casino chips. Token-counting machines have already automated some of the process, taking in the chips and spitting out a receipt to take to the cash window. The next step, with which a few casinos are already experimenting, may be inevitable, which is to use a pre-paid money card and have a card reader installed right at the gaming table. If this catches on, then the casino poker chip might eventually disappear, leaving behind nothing but a long, and in some cases, an almost legendary history.
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If you want to learn to play poker, you can rely on a friend to teach you, or you can learn more systematically with poker books. Countless books have now come onto the market, written by people with a lot of expertise, as poker has experienced a surge of popularity in the last few years. Any search engine will bring up long lists for you, and every description of a book will tell you whether it’s for beginners or more advanced players. There is even a subset of these books written to teach people how to do chip tricks.
There are so many websites that offer books on poker, yet it would be impossible to list them all. But as an example of what’s out there, you might peek at www.thepokerbookstore.com, which specializes only in books that teach strategies for Texas Holdem. And www.tightpoker.com is perhaps a more extensive information site, but does regular, in-depth book reviews. These aren’t limited just to books that teach Holdem strategy, as the site covers what it considers to be the best available books for all games, at all levels.
The authors are as numerous as the websites that carry or review poker books. But one name that comes up quite often in any of these reviews is David Sklansky. For example, his book, “The Theory of Poker” is described by the www.tightpoker.com reviewer as “one of, if not the best book on poker ever written.” It doesn’t give a quick overview of poker rules, but instead covers theories and concepts, so a player can hone his or her skills and understanding. This same site also highly recommends “Winning Low Limit Hold’em” by Lee Jones, as an introduction to Texas Holdem strategies for a player just starting out.
All it takes is a web search, and you’ll find poker books and be able to look for the ones best suited for you. Check out both customer and professional reviews, to discern which ones address your skill level, and which ones do not. No matter what your skills or experience, someone has written a book. Once you’ve decided on the book you want, look for it in a poker supply store or website, or in a bookstore, and your skills and enjoyment of the game are bound to improve.
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If you’re looking to buy a poker chip set for playing the game at home or with friends, then there’s an almost infinite variety of chips and sets from which to choose. You can buy sets of 300 chips, 500, or even the rare set with 1000 chips, in solid or multi-colored form, of different weights and with many different designs. The sets come in handy carrying cases, usually of sturdy aluminum so the contents are protected, and are accompanied by such accessories as dice, decks of cards and a dealer button.
Before you decide how elaborate you want to get though, you need to calculate how many players, on average, will participate in your poker party. Sets of 300 chips are probably enough for six players, or perhaps five in a Texas Hold’Em game. If you go up to seven or more, it’s probably best to consider poker chip sets 500, and perhaps even more than that. Some people recommend up to 100 chips per player, to be on the safe side. (After all, it’s better to have too many than to run out, right?) Once you decide on something like a 500 or 700 piece chip set, your decision might affect what sort of chip design you want, since the price will be higher.
Poker supplies are like everything else; the more mass-produced they are, the lower the cost. For this reason, any set you buy that contains the common plastic type of chips will be less expensive than ones that comes with, for example, the heavier, more professional chips of clay. And any specialized design imprinted right into a chip will require the creation of a new mold. So a poker chip set containing chips that are more distinctive, and perhaps more personalized, will cost you extra.
From clay chips to those composites made with a metal core and molded resin overlay, your expense could increase by a considerable amount. The real goal for most people is to buy an affordable set that is attractive and yet durable at the same time. For this reason, too, you should try to factor in chips that are a bit on the heavy end of the spectrum, and some sets come with washable plastic playing cards, again for durability. Keeping all these variables in mind, it should be possible to get an attractive poker chip set that will last you and your friends for a very long time.
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As people play poker, of course the main use of a chip set is to place their bets during the game itself. But many players also enjoy becoming proficient at another entertaining activity connected to the game, which is doing tricks with the poker chips. You may think this is just a casual by-product of the game, something minor that people do to keep themselves interested during lulls in the play, but doing tricks with chips is becoming a gaming discipline all its own.
These tricks are something like coin tricks done by magicians, except that now and then other poker accessories are used to add dimensions that are particular to poker alone. Many of the tricks even have their own names, such as the “3-Fly,” “Drifter,” or “Grandma’s Shawl,” for example. Some involve twirling a chip around the fingers, the same way magicians make quarters roll over and over around their knuckles. Others are tricks of shuffling and re-shuffling. The “Grandma’s Shawl” uses Chinese-style chips, which involves threading something through the holes in their centers, and then managing to interchange them with chips that don’t have holes.
Not only do these poker chip tricks have their own names and special moves, but people write and illustrate books teaching novices how to do them, and people snap up these volumes as soon as they are published. The books are almost as popular as those that teach people how to play the game of poker itself. And with the advent of the internet and video tools, many trick experts have also created videos in which they can demonstrate the moves as well as teach the techniques. And some designers go so far as to create a special little chip set for particular tricks.
Those particular chip sets may contain chips that are notched or rigged (a practice known as “gaffing”) in order to perform specific tricks, but there’s a wide range of poker accessories that can cover every aspect of this entertaining part of the game. The number of resources available to the learner grows day by day, whether those involve illustrated books by experts, internet articles and video demonstrations, or even the acquisition of a special chip set containing chips specially designed for the more elaborate tricks.
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Movies have often portrayed glamorous poker games on the old steamships, the clay poker chips clinking on the table as players faced each other down, the sound of river water rippling in the background. But in fact, the casino poker chips as we know them today, really only developed late in the 19th century. So the early steamboat games, at least, were played with very different types of items, like gold nuggets or random coins, and there was no consistency at all. It wasn’t until the 1870s or 1880s that the standardized clay chip was introduced into the game of poker.
Some of the early chips were made of bone, wood or even ivory, but clay chips soon began to dominate the game. They were created with metal molds in which the clay was placed and put under high pressure, to take on the desired shape. However, users discovered early on that chips made entirely of clay tended to be brittle and could break easily. So eventually the manufacturers added ceramic materials to the clay, to make the mixture stronger and more durable. Since that time, all poker chip sets have really been made of this clay-ceramic composite.
Once the type of chip was standardized, casinos further developed clay poker chips to prevent forms of cheating. In the beginning, they did this partly using the shapes of the molds, and partly by means of the clay-ceramic formula used. Each casino developed a proprietary clay formula, so their chips could not be used (and cashed) at another casino. Molds were created for the same purpose, adding specialized indentations, engravings, spots and so on into the very shape of the chip itself, to make it easily distinguishable from others. Casino poker chips became completely individualized.
This tendency to individualization continued, but clay poker chips now have some significant rivals. They are gradually being superseded by more technologically advanced types of chips. This newer type of custom poker chip now has a metal core, with a hard, injection-molded resin overlay, and might come with ultraviolet markings or radio frequency ID tags. For games played in homes or among friends, the mass-produced plastic chip has become ubiquitous; anyone wanting a clay set will have to pay more for new molds. So it seems that both economics and technology have begun to squeeze out the original chips. It may be that clay chips have run their course, and are now in their twilight years.
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When you play your poker games at home with family or friends, it’s almost certain that you’re using poker chips that are very different from the ones seen in North American or European casinos. Home chips are mass-produced plastic versions, and are fairly inexpensive. They are basically imitations of the original clay pokerchips developed for casinos from the 1880s to the 1930s.
The clay chip sets that have been traditionally used, and which are still used in some places even now, weren’t made entirely of clay except at the very beginning. It was soon discovered that the clay-only chips broke too easily, so the makers began creating them from composites, of which the most common one now is a clay-ceramic mix. It’s very unlikely that you’ll find this type of chip in a home set, however; as these would most usually be casino poker chips.
A more recent version of poker chips might also be considered a composite, with a metal core called a “slug” that is covered with injection-molded plastic. Some all-metal chips have even been manufactured by using chemical or electronic methods, called “anodizing,” to create certain color effects. Between anodizing, stamping and the adding of patterns, many of these chips are hard to distinguish from a more traditional casino chip. And being more expensive than plastic chips, they’ll almost always be found in casinos rather than home games.
Among the various kinds of poker chips, the ones most common today are those made of cheap plastic that you’ll find in home sets, and the most widely used professional casino versions, which resemble the original clay composite chips, but tend now to be made with a hard, injection-molded resin. Both these and the clay composites are made with formulas that are often specific to an individual casino, and will usually come with several security features, including marks that show in UV light, or radio frequency ID tags. The plastic home versions may distantly resemble these, but the casino poker chips will always be the authentic deal.
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