Poker Chips
Poker / gambling chips (also known as tokens, checks, or cheques) are used to represent a fixed amount of money and are used when playing various forms of poker and other casino games.
The most common denominations of chips are 10, 25, 50, 100 and 500.
Poker Chip Construction and Design
Poker chips are designed to be difficult to counterfeit/fake using complicated patterns and designs. Poker chips are typically constructed using high-pressure molding machines. Casino poker chip construction is a very well protected trade secret.
It is often assumed that poker chips are clay based. Although clay is used in the construction, this is only used for added texture and weight. Poker chips are mainly made from a ceramic material which is not as breakable as the older clay chips designed in the 1960's and 1970's (these are no longer made).
Poker Chip Colours and Denominations
Poker chips vary in colour from casino to casino and country to country so there are no standard rules for determining the color and denomination of poker chips.
The most common colors and an example of their corresponding values / denominations are:
Poker Chip Colours Values Chart
Chip Security
Every casino has a unique set of chips that distinguishes its chips from that of another casino. In many cases, casinos are not allowed to honour the face value of another casino's chips (though this is not usually the case in Vegas). There are many complex casino chip security features. The edge patterns are often distinctly different colors to help distinguish them from another casino. The artwork on the chip is also very clear, almost photographic in quality. In some cases, certain chips will incorporate RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology. With casino chips using these new technologies with higher levels of security, counterfeit chips are rare.
Casino Poker Chip Colors and Denominations
When you sit down for some poker action at a brick-and-mortar casino, or even in a home game with friends, you'll likely use rather than dollar bills and coins. Because they're a uniform size and shape, chips make it easy to bet, call, and raise without fumbling around. The most common denominations of casino chips have the same colorings at most live cardrooms although you will find some variation from place to place. You can learn all about standard casino chip colors by continuing to read our breakdown of poker chip color values.
Familiar, Everyday Chip Colors
As you might expect, the most prevalent chip colors tend to also be the less-pricey ones. These standard Vegas chip colors are probably the tokens you'll be dealing with at least until you graduate to playing against Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Daniel Jungleman Cates and their ilk.
It doesn't matter whether you're playing at the Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, Aria, Wynn or some other casino establishment because there are certain commonalities in their casino chip colors.
White Chip
From Excalibur in LV
$1 White Chip
The lowest-value chip in mainstream circulation, it's no surprise that this one is white, the simplest color. You'll see these used in low-stakes poker games. Light blue is a variant color that represents $1 at some casinos. Even when playing a bigger game, it's pretty useful to keep a few white chips around so that you can easily tip the dealer or cocktail waitress.
Pink Chip
From Hilton in AC
$2.50 Pink Chip
You'll probably encounter these chips floating around the casino, but there might not be any poker tables in the establishment that use them. Their most common application is at the blackjack tables when someone gets a natural 21 and thus earns a 3:2 reward. People who bet $15 will receive $22.50, and a $25 wager earns a $37.50 payout, so there is a demand for pink chips in this casino table game.
Red Chip
From Bellagio in LV
$5 Red Chip
A staple of casinos and home games everywhere, the $5 chip is almost always red. A rack of red is thus $500, more than enough to buy in and reload a couple of times at a $1/$2 No Limit or $4/$8 Limit table. We have heard of mythical $50 red chips in use before, but have never once seen an example of them!
Green Chip
From Caesar's Palace in LV
$25 Green Chip
It's pretty rare to find any other color besides green for the $25 chip in a casino setting, but some cheap poker sets for home use have only have white, red, and blue chips. By tradition, the blue chip is the highest-value one, so it is sometimes worth $25. This is where the expression blue-chip stock came from.
Black Chip
From Foxwoods in CT
$100 Black Chip
If you're fortunate enough to amass a stack of black chips, then you probably had a good evening at the tables or you're playing for pretty sizeable stakes. Pretty much everyone knows that a black casino token is worth $100 despite the fact that there are a few gambling houses that use white $100 chips instead.
Unusual Chip Colors
There are many other non-standard chip colors to be found especially for low values, like $2, $3, $10, and even a few sub-dollar amounts. Their hues vary greatly except that blue $10 chips are fairly common. At the other end of the spectrum, there are high-denomination chips that most regular players are unlikely to ever use. There are plenty of differences in their coloration too, but the following seem to be somewhat standard:
$100,000 Chip
From Paris Casino in LV
- $500 - purple
- $1,000 - yellow or orange
- $5,000 - brown or gray
As we go beyond the $5,000 level, the poker chip colors in use are basically up to the discretion of casino management. High-end casinos, like the Aria and Bellagio in Las Vegas, even have high-value casino chips worth $100,000 apiece. They are usually used in exclusive baccarat games.
Casino Plaques
As the stakes climb into the stratosphere, some participants don't want to have to deal with mountains of chips. With the introduction of the casino plaque, gaming managers hit upon a solution. These plaques are rectangular and about the size of a playing card. Casino plaques are a mainstay of some of the top European and Asian casinos, but they have appeared in North America on occasion. The now-shuttered London Club at the Aladdin in Vegas actually created a plaque with a face value of $10,000,000.
Chip Construction
While professional-grade casino tokens are often referred to as clay chips, they actually contain other ingredients too to make them more durable. Once the mixture of differently colored substances for the poker chip denomination in question is arranged appropriately, the chip is heated up and pressurized. Any printed graphics and text that appear on the token are applied prior to the pressurization process. This makes them stick to the chip so that they can't be illicitly altered or replaced later on. Each casino orders its own branded chips with distinct features so that the possibility of counterfeiting is reduced. Some even go so far as to embed RFID tags into their chips. Most chips are around 10 grams in weight.
Tournament Chips
Tourney Chip
From Sahara in LV
When you watch a major live tournament on TV, like the World Series of Poker Main Event, you may see people with millions in front of them. It's important that you realize that these chips are basically just for playing purposes and don't correspond to their face value in actual dollars. They're almost always distinct from the regular casino chips used for other games, and they tend to be of poorer quality.
Chip Collections
There are countless styles of chip for pretty much every denomination, and those depicted above are just typical representations of what you're likely to encounter for casino chip colors. If you wish to take a look through other chips from various venues around the world, then check out our photos of chip collections below. Click on a thumbnail to bring up the full-sized image in a new browser tab.
How to Distribute Chips for a Home Game
You don t have to worry anymore! This article will address all your confusion at once and make it easier for you to set up your game. Now, let s dive in!
The most common chip color denominations for home use
In a Texas Hold'em home game, what denomination is each color chip? The answer is.
This is the distribution method that everyone is more accustomed to. But of course, you can change it slightly according to your own game type and level. Next, I will explain how to optimize your family bureau to the greatest extent and surprise everyone with your professionalism.
If it is a regular game, it is relatively simple to set up the buy-in. The face value of the chips often matches with the same amount of money. Additionally, there is no need to specially design the prize pool. This is also the most common form of game among poker enthusiasts, because there is no need to worry about a tournament timer or raising blinds.
How do I set up the poker chip value?
If you have your own poker chip set, I suggest you follow the previous chip color matching distribution.
White represents $1, red represents $5, blue represents $10, and green represents $25. Such a chip distribution is completely sufficient to support all blind levels below $2/$5 in your game.
However, if you want to simulate a high stakes game such as $5/$10 or $10/$20, you will need to use black or purple chips. If your chip set does not contain black and purple, you can switch white to represent $100 and red to $500.
How many chips do I need?
Generally speaking, it is reasonable for each player to have about 50 chips to start with.
A standard chip set usually contains about 300 chips, which come with 4 color variations: 100 pieces for white, 50 pieces for each of the other colors. This type of set is basically enough for 5-6 players to play comfortably.
However, if there are more than 6 players, it would be better for you to buy a 500-piece poker set.
How do I divide the chips? How much should the buy-in be?
In this type of game, players can bring in as much as they want. But usually the host needs to specify a minimum and maximum amount of buy-in. The common set-up is 20bb for the minimum and 100bb for the maximum.
The following chart shows the common chip distribution for each buy-in amount:
One of the benefits of playing home tournaments is that everyone will lose at most one ticket. It is not as easy to lose control as a regular poker game, but it can still bring tension to the table. The winner can also receive relatively generous rewards.
As the host for a home tournament, the set-up is slightly more complicated than regular poker game. You ll need to:
- Set up and plan the prizes
- Assign and continuously raise the blind levels
- As the game progresses, you might have to change the denomination of chips
Chip Value in Home Tournament
If you want to set up the game with 5-6 blind levels, then you would need at least four colors of chips. Now most chip sets provide at least four colors of red, white, green and black.
Here is a simple and flexible chip distribution plan, which is good for up to 30 players:
When the game progresses to the point where you need $5,000 or $10,000 chips, you can color up the chips, which is the exchanging of lower denomination chips for higher denomination chips. For example, take back the $25 chips and switch them to higher denominations accordingly. Or, you have spare chips of the fifth color, usually black or pink, just assign them to be $5000 or $10,000 for use.
How many chips do I need?
In home tournaments, each player needs fewer chips, but the value of each chip is higher. Even so, the most common set of 300 chips is sufficient for a small group of 6 players. However, if you have up to 9 participants, then you will need at least a 500-chip set.
What if the set I bought contains only three colors of chips?
Generally speaking, if you only have three colors of chips, it is not recommended to host a home tournament, unless it is a heads-up game.
This situation can very easily turn chaotic. On the other hand, frequent changes in the face value of the chips will greatly affect your game experience. Our recommendation is to add on more color to your table.
How do I divide the chips?
For most home tournaments, the easier way to divide the chips is to let each player start with $3000 face value of chips. You could distribute the chips this way:
In this situation, each player will have 60 big blinds to start with. It has a great balance between what each player can play with and how long the entire game runs.
What if my friends want to play a deep stacked game?
If you have adequate chips on hand and want to play a deeper stack, I suggest setting the starting chip amount to $10,000 and distribution the chips according to the following ratio:
How do I set up the progression of blinds?
Based on the chip distribution suggestions above, you can plan the blind levels as follows:
Tips: If you want to play a deep stacked game but don't have too many chips on hand, just use the standard $3000 starting chips distribution, and control the game time for each level to be a little longer. The general rhythm is 15-20 minutes for each level. In this situation, you can extend it to 30-45 minutes each.
How fast should the blinds increase?
For most home games, each blind level should not exceed 20 minutes. 15 minutes is the most reasonable length. According to this time setting, even if there is only one table, the entire tournament could run for several hours.
If you want to host a quick game, then set each level to last 10 minutes. In offline games, you can't do much in 5 minutes. Basically, you can only play one or two hands.
As the game progresses, how do I color up the chips?
Refer to the table below. It demonstrates how to exchange small denomination chips for larger denominations to re-invest in the game as the blind level increases:
How to set up a reasonable prize pool?
For friendly and happy home tournaments, I suggest spreading out the wealth as it is shown below. In this way, 1/3 of the participants can receive some rewards. Here is how you can set up the prize pool:
What does shortstack mean?
Short stack generally means that in a poker game, the total number of chips held by a player is fewer than 40 big blinds. When a player holds 50-100 big blinds, we generally think that he is a mid-stack player. When a player holds more than 100 big blinds, he is a deep stack player.
What shape of poker table is more suitable for playing at home?
It depends on how many people are playing. At the same time, consider the overall layout and decor of your place. A safe plan is to buy a poker mat, which is more flexible.
At this point, you have all the information you need to host a poker game at home. Leave us a comment and tell us about your home game experience. We would love to hear about it!
If you want to learn more about how to improve your poker skills, check out our other blog posts. In addition, don t forget to prep your home game with professional Texas Hold em equipment. They will definitely improve your gaming experience and surprise your player friends. Enjoy and win big!
Poker Chip Values | Your Definitive Guide
Whether you
At the poker tables, the players chips represent the players money. The chips always come in different colors and denominations based on the stakes, but this will also vary from one place to the next.
In this guide, we dive into the concept of poker chips in order to help you know how to use them at cash games or to help you set up a great home poker game.
We will take a look at the following:
Standard Poker Chip Values
It is important to note that there are currently no official rules that govern the way chip values are assigned. This lack of official gaming chip color and denomination standards could possibly lead to a bit of confusion for some people. Poker rooms are free to select their own chip colors and assign their corresponding chip values to them.
However, this is usually not always the case. Most poker rooms often stick to some commonly used colors and standard poker chip values in order to make it easier for players to enjoy the games. The same applies to so many home poker games where the organizers often use standard poker chip values to avoid any sort of confusion.
Some of the poker chip color values that you are most likely to come across at most of the poker tables you will play at are list in the value chart below:
| Chip Color | Chip Value |
|---|---|
| White | $1 |
| Red | $5 |
| Orange | $10 |
| Yellow | $20 |
| Green | $25 |
| Black | $100 |
| Purple | $500 |
| Maroon | $1,000 |
Again, these values and colors do not necessarily represent what you will come across at all of the casinos or poker games you will go to. They, however, offer a great idea of the typical denominations that you are more likely to find both at casinos and home poker games. Maroon which is the highest value poker chip color, for instance, can be very hard to find in casual gaming tables since only extra high rollers will be willing to bet that much.
Tournament Chip Colors and Values
Naturally, just like in standard casino poker games, poker chips used in poker tournaments are colored differently in order to represent different values. As a matter of fact, tournament poker chips are even sized differently due to the higher levels of play that are usually involved.
Now, even though tournaments may involve players having up to millions in poker chips in front of them, these chips do not represent their face value in actual money. They are only used for playing purposes since, obviously, playing with millions in actual cash can be very difficult.
Now, in most cases, tournaments start with players receiving the standard number of chips which they will use to play towards increasing their values. As the blinds and the antes increase, larger chip values are added to the tournament while the smaller valued chips are colored up then set aside.
When speaking of poker tournaments, perhaps the first one that comes to mind is the World Series of Poker (WSOP). During WSOP tournaments, the players start with green and black whose values are 25 and 100 respectively. As the tournament progresses, the more high-value and differently-colored chips are added.
To give you a glimpse of this, here is a values chart for the WSOP tournament poker chips:
| WSOP Tournament Chip Color | WSOP Tournament Chip Value |
|---|---|
| Green | $25 |
| Black | $100 |
| Light Blue | $500 |
| Yellow | $1000 |
| Orange | $5000 |
| Dark Green | $25,000 |
| Lavender | $100,000 |
| Beige | $250,000 |
| Red (Oversized) | $500,000 |
| Yellow (Oversized) | $1,000,000 |
| Purple Oversized | $5,000,000 |
As you will come to find out sooner or later, none of this is cast in stone. The poker chip color values and sizes are subject to change based on a number of factors.
Poker Chip Values at Home
Poker is a fun and engaging game but not everyone will enjoy the atmosphere that casinos have. Besides, sometimes you may just want to dive into a bit of poker action in the company of your friends and family. The best way to go about this would be by setting up your own poker game. This is incredibly easy considering all of the resources that are readily available in that regard. Playing at home essentially gives you more control of the game compared to playing at a casino.
When it comes to the poker chips, there is really no limit as to how you should assign the values. However, it is very important to ensure that everyone participating in your home poker games fully understands how the values have been assigned. You can even draw up a values chart to help make things easier.
Perhaps the most convenient thing to do would be to use the standard poker chip values that are typically used all over the world.
These standard values are as follows:
| Home Chip Colors | Value |
|---|---|
| White | $1 |
| Red | $5 |
| Blue | $10 |
| Green | $25 |
| Black | $100 |
If your home poker game grows any further, there is always the option of adjusting the starting stacks and chip values appropriately. You can also switch up the colors if that is a preference. Just make sure that you keep every player in the loop to avoid any confusion.
Is there a difference in Poker Chip Values around the world?
Poker games are pretty similar across the globe. The United States and the United Kingdom are two of the most expansive poker markets on the planet. As such, they have been known to influence the poker culture in different ways.
In the United States, most casinos use multi-colored poker chips for both cash games and tournaments, something that was mostly popularized by Las Vegas-based casinos. These chips have distinct differentiating factors for security purposes.
In the United Kingdom and most of Europe, the use of multi-colored chips is a also big part of the poker culture.
However, the biggest difference lies in the fact that casinos in the region often opt for colored rectangular plaques when it comes to representing higher denominations.
Plaques are quite popular and their uses extend to major tournaments.
Why Are Poker Chips So Important?
Poker chips are not just simply substituting for real money during poker games. They are a key aspect of the poker culture and this is what makes them such an important piece. For your casino gaming and tournament adventures, the poker chips you will find are definitely going to be of very high quality. The same goes for home poker games since there so many great options available in as far as chipsets are concerned.
Find one that tickles your fancy and see just how much ambiance they add to your poker gaming experience.
Poker Chip Values FAQ
Poker chip values are simply the unit of money or currency that the poker chip represents.
In most poker games where huge sums of money are involved, chips offer a more uniform option that is easier to tally compared to notes or coins.
Different colored poker chips will correspond to different sums of money and even though this may vary from one poker table to the next, most people tend to stick to the standard poker chip values stated earlier in this article.
In most of the popular poker tournaments, each of the participating players will start off with between 50 and 75 poker chips with different values.
The most common types of poker chips available today are plastic, clay, ceramic and composite chips.
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