Clay Poker Chips

Back in the "good old days" of saloon and casino gambling when the chips were on the table they were made of pure clay. While it was a good material for making these gaming markers, they were not very durable. Clay poker chips wore down quickly, were hard to clean and chipped and broke fairly easily. In the 1920's modern technology introduced poker chips made of ceramic tile or an 85% ceramic, 15% clay mixture. These new "clay" poker chips were very durable and easy to maintenance. Also, the material was easier to work and thus made the cost to manufacture poker chips cheap. With this new innovation it became easier to make custom clay poker chips at a discount price. While you can still buy pure clay poker chip sets, they are specialty collectors items and not intended for constant use because they are so easily broken. Therefore, when mentioning "clay" poker chips, remember they are the ceramic or composite poker chips we are discussing.

Casinos use these clay poker chips because they can be secured with special designs and embossing that makes them not only unique for each casino but hard or impossible to forge. This necessary precaution has to be taken because once you are inside the casino, the clay poker chip in your pocket is as much real money as the cash you traded for it. The clay poker chips of today usually weigh between 9 to 11.5 grams each depending on the casino you are playing at. There are standard colors to denote the denominations of the clay poker chips, white being usually the lowest denomination and green being the largest. But these are not set rules and the individual house may denote them differently. In the World Poker Tour games for instance, the largest denomination clay poker chips are black.

You can purchase clay poker chips wholesale at discount prices in sets ranging in size from 300 poker chip sets up to 1000 chips per poker chip set. Many casinos offer special designs for sale that advertise their establishment. You can purchase custom clay poker chips to promote your business logo or for personal use to identify them with your own name or design. For those whose budgets won't cover the $1.00 plus expense of clay poker chips, there are a wide variety of cheap plastic poker chips for beginners or for casual use.

So now when you are in a real tight poker game, you can toss your chips into the pot with the assurance that, when they make that familiar clinking sound, you won't have to worry that it may break apart from the impact.