The four different types of poker chips

If you’re serious about your poker, you’ve got to have your own poker chips. Poker chips can be a significant investment, but making the right choice can provide you with years and years of durable play out of your set. There are four different types of poker chips, each with unique, defining features and a price point to meet every budget.

Clay Chips

Clay chips are not actually made of 100% clay. They are instead crafted from a complex combination of polymers that includes a specific amount of clay in each chip. Clay chips are the most expensive chips you can buy, but deliver that perfect weight and texture that just feels good in your hand.

Composite Metal Core Chips

Serious home players choose these chips because of their incredible durability and the ease in which a personal monogram or detail can be stamped on their center. Composite metal core chips are expensive, but they look amazing and deliver quality play for years whether you play every day or once a month.

Casino Chips

Sought after by chip collectors everywhere, casino chips are the real deal. For security purposes, only a handful of companies in the world make actual casino chips, and they must be licensed and bonded to prevent counterfeiting. If you want your own set of casino chips, well just go into a casino and lay your money down. They would be happy to sell them to you at face value!

Plastic Chips

If you’re on a tight budget, or the game itself means more to you than aesthetics, then head down to your local drugstore, look for the aisle with pipe tobacco and lighter fluid, and there you will find all the plastic goodness you can handle. Plastic chips do have their advantages, however, as they are waterproof and won’t cause you stress if they get lost in the couch.

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Jamie Gold: Not your average WSOP winner

When Jamie Gold took home the biggest prize in World Series of Poker history, an estimated $12 million dollars in 2006, there were a few things that made him a little bit different than past winners. For one thing, he was a high-powered talent agent living in Malibu, California with a roster of A-List clients like James Gandolfini, Jimmy Fallon and Lucy Liu.

Also, Gold may or not have been the inspiration for the character Ari Gold on the hit HBO show Entourage.

That debate is on-going, but it is 100% clear that Gold played the main event at the WSOP like nobody who has ever won the tournament. He aggressively pressed hard on his opponents, challenging them to go all-in whenever he held the positional advantage. And while the style annoyed many seasoned pros, it did the job, allowing Gold to walk away with a HUGE prize that fueled by the online poker boom and the high number of entrants it generated.

And speaking of online poker, Gold also became involved in a dispute over his winning with his quasi-sponsor Bodog.com. Bodog claimed that Gold had agreed to provide sponsored talent for the WSOP to play under their name. When he himself won, they claimed their cut. The two parties would eventually settle out of court, but not before the Hollywood media had plenty of fun at Gold’s expense.

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Variations on Draw Poker

From the pre-Hold ‘em archive comes these variations on the classic game of 5-card draw. Hey, it’s the first game you ever learned how to play…don’t you think it’s time for a facelift?

WARNING: The mere suggestion of some of these games may result in being shouted off of the table and sent out in the freezing cold for a beer run.

Baseball. Standard 5-card draw, where 3’s and 9’s are wild.

Night baseball. Same as Baseball, but 3’s, 7’s and 9’s are wild.

Double Draw. If you’re looking for bigger hands, give this one a spin by simply adding another draw and round of betting after the initial draw-bet sequence.

Triple Draw. Yeah, you guessed it: one more draw means super-colossal hands for all!

Lowball. It’s standard 5-card draw rules here, but the lowest hand wins the pot. (Lowest hands = 6-4-3-2-1, 6-5-4-3-1, etc.). For additional wackiness, throw in the double or triple draw rules into the Lowball game.

Jacks or Better. In this 5-card draw variation, you must have at least a pair of jacks in your hand to open. If nobody has the jacks or better, everyone tosses in their cards and the hand is re-dealt.

Jacks or Better, Trips to Win. Same as above, EXCEPT you will need to be holding at least a three-of-a-kind in order to bring home the money at the end of the hand. If nobody has trips at the end, those who did not fold are dealt into a new game (with the pot carrying over into the next hand).

For the best in poker equipment and accessories, no matter what your favorite game is, visit www.pokerchest.com for an incredible selection of chips, tables, cards and other must-have poker paraphernalia.

Clay Poker Chips - Composite Poker Chips

Clay Poker Chips - Composite Poker Chips