Consumer Guide to Poker Chips

Reprinted from PokerChipLounge

Consumer Guide to Poker Chips

Understanding what you're buying is important with any purchase you make, and this goes for poker chips as well. The following tutorial will help explain the different poker chips available today, and more importantly, show you how to spot quality poker supplies.

There are many websites out there selling cheaply manufactured poker chips and poker chip cases, while trying to lure you with too good to be true prices. For legal reasons, we cannot disclose the names of these websites, but after reading the information below, you'll be an informed consumer and know how to spot a quality poker chip.

Poker Chip Composition

There are three different classifications of poker chips available today:

Plastic Chips - Composed entirely of plastic, these are the ones you've probably played with at one time in your life.

Also known as "Supermarket Poker Chips", they weigh only a few grams, and are for those who are on a tight budget. Since these can be found in almost any store, we do not carry this grade of poker chip.

Composite Chips - Can be composed of a range of different materials, but most composite chips are made of a material called ABS (high impact strength plastic).

Composite chips contain a metal insert that adds weight to the chip, and also gives it the ability to be custom hot stamped. This is the type of chip you see on most gaming supply websites.

Many times you'll hear unscrupulous internet retailers refer to an ABS composite poker chip as "clay composite", when they know it has no clay content at all. We emailed a company who was calling their chips clay composite, when we knew for afact the particular line of chips they were selling was ABS, with no clay content whatsoever. Here was their response:

Dear David,
All of our chips are ABS composite (plastic). The word “Clay Composite” wascoined by many on the internet over a year ago for ABS composite (plastic)chips and everybody went along. Most internet merchants call them claycomposite with or without knowing that the chips actually have little of no clay inthem. It is just a buzzword that has been created and now everybody wantsclay composite, so we are just following along. Hope this explains it.

Sincerely,
(name kept anonymous for legal reasons)

This is an example of what's going on out there, so be careful when you see a chip called clay composite! It probably has no clay content at all. Just know that most of the chips you see online are ABS composite chips.

ABS Composite chips have certain advantages. The first is price. ABS is a less expensive material than clay. So a composite chip is always going to be lower in price than a chip with actual clay content.

Secondly, composite chips can yield sharper, more detailed designs than aclay chip can (ABS plastic used in composites is harder than clay, and this hardness creates sharper designs). Composite chips also have more durability and lifespan. Poker chips with clay content can easily chip and wear down much faster than ABS composite chips.

You may hear or have read a variety of complaints about composite chips. One that we have heard is that it has a metal insert. We really don't see a problem with a metal insert in a poker chip.

It gives the chip weight and ability to be hot stamped without cracking as much. Some players don't like the pinging sound it makes when dropped into a pile of chips, while others actually like the sound. So it's a matter of preference.

PAY ATTENTION TO THE QUALITY OF THE POKER CHIP

Important! Our recommendation when shopping for any chip is to pay attention to quality! There are a lot of low quality ABS composite chips out there. Many are illegal knock off versions of copyrighted designs.

All poker chips sold at Pokerchiplounge.com are from the manufacturer that holds the original US copyright for that chip design. This ensures you are getting only the best quality.

Clay Composite Chips - Composed of clay plus some other material. Sometimes metal inserts are added for extra weight and hot stamping ability.

There is no such thing as 100% pure clay poker chips. A pure clay chip would be so weak and brittle you would be able to snap it in half. That means that any clay chip is a clay composite, even a real Las Vegas casino chip, which is usually a clay-ceramic composite.

Certain players prefer clay composite because the chips have a duller texture and different feel than that of an ABS composite chip. One advantage to the dull surface of a clay composite poker chip is its better stacking ability. ABS composite chips have a slicker surface, and do not stack on top of each other as well as clay composite does. Based on customer feedback, stacking ability is more of an issue to professional and frequent players than it is to the average player.

A second advantage is one of nostalgia. For some players, just knowing that they are playing with clay in their chips, the same material that original poker chips were composed of, is important. Also since clay composites are used in casinos, knowing you're playing with the same type of chip as they do in Las Vegas may mean something to you.

Owning a set of clay composite poker chips does have its disadvantages as well. Most importantly is the fact that they simply have less durability than that of ABS composite. A clay composite chip is more fragile than an ABS composite, it can chip and will show scuff marks much easier. Because they are clay composite, real casino chips get beat up quite easily. But for those who really prefer clay, this is accepted and actually adds character to the chip.

Price is another factor when considering a clay composite poker chip set. Clay is a much more expensive material than ABS, and the price of the chip will reflect that. Clay chips also have different sound when splashed against the pot than ABS chips. The clay gives it more of a "thud" than the "ping" you get with a composite chip.

Pokerchiplounge.com clearly defines the difference between clay composite vs. standard composite. In other words, if it has clay in it, it will be simply identified as clay composite. Now within the clay composite chip selections, different chips use varying amounts of clay. Generally speaking, the more clay in a chip, the more you'll pay for the set.

We have put together a fantastic selection of high quality clay composite poker chips thatare affordable in price.

Summary

Composite Poker Chip Advantages: Affordability, Sharper Detail, Better Durability

Clay Composite Poker Chips Advantages: Better Stacking, Nostalgic, Different Sound

Once you have decided which type of chip best fits what you're looking for, the next very important step is finding a quality poker chip. There are hundreds of composite and supposed clay poker chips found on online and at various department stores, many are low in quality.

Reprinted from PokerChipLounge