Casino Chip of the Day

I think it is PokerGrinder who has declared he only collects chips from the casinos where he has played. I had to modify that policy when I encountered all those casinos in the Caribbean where they don't seem to care whose chips they use. From those places, I collected and posted chips from a number of casinos I have never visited.

My rule is that I only consider a chip to be part of my collection if I got it in play or bought it at a casino where I played. A very few of those cases have involved buying a chip and playing slots because the table games were not open.

I have also posted gift chips that are not part of my collection.

Quote: Doc

I think it is PokerGrinder who has declared he only collects chips from the casinos where he has played. I had to modify that policy when I encountered all those casinos in the Caribbean where they don't seem to care whose chips they use. From those places, I collected and posted chips from a number of casinos I have never visited.

My rule is that I only consider a chip to be part of my collection if I got it in play or bought it at a casino where I played. A very few of those cases have involved buying a chip and playing slots because the table games were not open.

I have also posted gift chips that are not part of my collection.

Gotcha yes, that rings a bell.

Doc mentioned a descrepancy in the number of passengers on a cruise ship vs official capacity. Capacity is posted based on double occupancy in the cabins. Throw a couple extra kids in 500 of those cabins and you get another 1000 passengers in a hurry. I have been on a couple cruises where they posted a 'passenger count' well in excess of the published capacity for the ship. Made me wonder too.

<edit> made the buffet damn crowded too...

Well, that helps explain "capacity" a little better. I suppose they might make some adjustments to that to account for suites with multiple bedrooms, though there usually aren't very many of those on a ship.

I was surprised by the number of school-age children on our Victory cruise in January. I had expected pre-schoolers and some number of home-schooled kids -- a cruise could make a nice combination of vacation and educational experience, if handled properly. However, there were just too many for me to think they were all home schooled. I finally decided that many of them might be from South America and on their summer break. Any other suggestions?

Category: Cruise Ships
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Spirit

Somehow, I just let yesterday slip by and didn’t compose an entry for this thread. Having gotten out of the habit of writing a chip post every day, I can’t seem to get back into a routine. And yes, today’s Casino Chip of the Day is once again from a casino that I have never been in – this is just another chip from a Carnival Ship I have never sailed on (and won’t), and I received it in play at the South China Sea Club on the Carnival Victory.

Once again, I am recklessly relying on internet sources for info about the ship. According to those reliable folks, the Carnival Spirit was built by Kvaemer Masa Yards in Helsinki, Finland at a cost of $375 Million. It was launched in 2001 as part of what Carnival calls the Spirit-class ships, even though it was the second one in the class to sail, following the Atlantica of Costa Cruises. The ship is rated at 85,900 Gross Tons, is 963 feet long, features 12 decks, and has a rated capacity of 2,124 passengers and a crew of 961.

The ship was reconfigured in 2012 to add a waterpark, like many ships now have, but with this one claiming to have “the steepest waterslide at sea.” In August of last year, the ship went into dry dock in Singapore for a $44 refurbishment (Edit: Ooops! Make that $44 million.), including addition of several new bars. It came out of dry dock late, impacting the sailing schedule, and Carnival had to compensate passengers for the disruption.

Since then, I am not completely clear as to what is going on with the ship. I checked the Carnival web site this morning, to take a look at the deck plans and verify the name of the casino on board, but the ship does not show up as one of their offerings! Wikipedia says that it has been sailing out of Australia, but on the Carnival web site, I cannot find any mentions of any South Pacific or Asian sailings. Maybe that is all at a different web site.

I was eventually able to find this web site that will tell you the (alleged) current location of most any cruise ship, with this particular page being for the Spirit. It does, indeed, show the ship as currently sailing to islands to the northeast of Australia, and that page has ads that appear to be able to sell a cruise on the ship, but none of those pages make any pretense of being from Carnival Cruise Lines.

I was eventually able to find the deck plans through that site and searched through the layouts to Deck 2 Promenade. I found what I am certain is the casino area between the shore excursions desk and the Champions’ Sports Bar. However, the name of the casino is completely blurred out, and there is no indication on the plan that the ship even has a casino.

Is it plausible that Australia prohibits cruise ships from operating the casinos? I didn’t think so, and I eventually found a paragraph under the title “Entertainment” that says, “Adults have the large action-packed Louis XIV Casino.” That’s what I was looking for, confirmation of the name!

The $5 chip shown below is a red RHC Paulson, with eight edge inserts, four each in yellow and blue. This is one of three very similar designs shown on the MoGH site, each with the same face side showing the ship (or some Carnival ship), the denomination, and the name of the ship. The three chips shown at MoGH all have reverse sides showing something with the Louis XIV name, and I saw two of those designs on chips in play on the Victory. The one I kept has what appears to be a 3-D fleur de lis.

While the red really is a bit light, I admit it is not so orange as it appears in the image, and the blue edge inserts are perhaps a little darker than they appear. The center inlay on the reverse side is definitely more olive than the orange that shows up here.

UV light reveals the Paulson hat and cane logo in the center of each of the oversized center inlays. The yellow edge inserts and even the base red clay seem to fluoresce, but the blue edge inserts turn such a dark blue that it is almost black.

When we did our cruise last year there was a carnival ship that followed our NCL one. We ran into people from that ship at every excision we did. Not a single one had a good thing to see. One such port, I believe it was belieze or Costa Maya they were unable to get off the ship because the captain said it was too windy to dock. However the other 6 ships had no problems unloading. The day before the same ship was 3 hours getting to port and most people missed their excusrion.

We had the best time of our lives on NCL Dawn even though we were probably the youngest pepole on the ship

Quote: Doc

In August of last year, the ship went into dry dock in Singapore for a $44 refurbishment, including addition of several new bars.

Really spreading the money around if they did a whole refurbishment including multiple new bars for only $44. Imagine what they could have done if they had splurged and spent $100 :)

Oh. Did I leave out the word "million"? Guess I should correct that oversight.

;-)

Category: Cruise Ships
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Legend

Today, we have the last of four souvenir chips that I kept from the casino aboard the Carnival Victory, and no, I have never been aboard the Carnival Legend. Early on the cruise, I saw a chip from the Carnival Glory, but I didn’t grab it that evening, and I never saw another one. Some other forum member will have to present the Glory in this thread. Along the line of that thought: wezvidz, have at it tomorrow with your Chip of the Day.

Once again relying on info from the internet, the Legend is from the Spirit class of ships and was built by Kvaerner Masa Yards in Helsinki at a cost of $375 million. It was launched in December 2001 and began service the following August. It is rated at 88,500 Gross Tons, is 963 feet long, with 12 decks, and has a rated capacity of 2,124 passengers with 930 crew. That’s the same number of rated passengers as reported for the Spirit but staffed with 31 (3.22%) fewer crew members, so maybe in late 2001 or early 2002, Carnival found more ways to cut guest services and save money.

The Wikipedia page for this ship says that the ship underwent refurbishment in February 2014 and then moved to Australia. Apparently the Aussies sent this ship back, because the Carnival web site now lists it as cruising to Alaska and Hawaii, with base ports in Honolulu, Seattle, and Vancouver.

That Wiki page also reports a series of incidents. The most amusing of those is this one:

Quote: Wikipedia

On August 21, 2002, during the christening ceremony, Judi Dench took three attempts to smash the bottle against the ship's hull, aided by ship's captain Claudio Cupisci. The third attempt successfully smashed the bottle but the force sent the flowing champagne all over her. She took the soaking in good spirits and announced, "I am godmother to 13 godchildren and a god-dog - now I'm godmother to a great ship."

The other six incidents reported on that page are much more disconcerting, including severe listing during a turn, an unexplained engine room “overheating”, a passenger jumping overboard and being presumed dead, a collision with another ship, and a couple of mechanical problems that prevented the ship from maintaining its itinerary. Check them out for yourself, if you like.

The $5 Legend chip shown below is a red, plastic injection molded chip with four triple edge “inserts”, each with a blue insert surrounded by two yellow ones. The face side of the chip shows the ship, its name, and the denomination. The center inlay shows significant wear, with the image of the ship quite deteriorated. The reverse side of the chip is worn almost as badly and shows the casino name “Club Merlin”, King Arthur’s sword in the stone, and the denomination presented twice, as perhaps there was some uncertainty as to the value of a red chip.

This is one of three Legend chip designs shown in the MoGH catalog. Their chip is in much better condition than mine. The other two designs that MoGH presents have the same front side as this one, with the two reverse sides having images of King Arthur and Merlin himself. Those only show the denomination once on each face, so maybe the uncertainty eventually got cleared up.

Perhaps surprisingly, MoGH does not declare this plastic injection molded chip to be from Bud Jones, as they usually do. They list no manufacturer at all. It looks a lot like an Ikon chip design to me, but I cannot see any logo anywhere. Nothing on this chip is clearly fluorescing under UV light. There are a couple of specks that appear to maybe fluoresce right in the middle of that very worn spot where the sword is gleaming. The gleaming spot is there on the undamaged MoGH image too, but I really cannot tell whether my chip has spurious fluorescing spots or has worn off almost the entirety of a fluorescing logo. There is not enough there for me to even bother trying to photograph it under UV light.

They have cool looking chips on these cruises. I wonder how so many different cruise ships chips ended up on one cruise ship. Are people carrying them from ship to ship as a joke/prank when they take each new cruise?

State: Arizona
City: Flagstaff
Casino: Twin Arrows

Sorry about the iPhone quality pic and no blacklight. This is the only chip I have to contribute from my trip.



I laugh thinking this is a year late coming. I googled info on Twin Arrows and found my post from January 2015 in this thread when I had a AZ trip planned. Missed my flight to PHX due to traffic into FLL, ended up booking a flight to Vegas that night and skipping AZ altogether.

This trip I flew into PHX, hit Casino Arizona/Wildhorse Pass then spent the night at Harrahs. Drove up to Flagstaff the next day. Flagstaff to Tucson the next day then flew home from Tucson early.

Harrahs: small casino (comp room) but had fun at the bartops (9/5 DDB, not terrible) in front of the music stage (washboard!) and played UTH since no craps in AZ. Very fun session. Found out Diamonds get 4 drink tickets/day at the player's club, so four Crown/7s on the house.





The drive from PHX to Flagstaff was a 7000 foot elevation change and a high temp of 75 in PHX to 40 in Flagstaff. Crazy. Reminded me of the drive from Denver to Blackhawk with the winding majestic mountain views and then snow on the ground as I approached my destination.

Twin Arrows is unremarkable in itself. A Navajo casino in the middle of nowhere, it has pretty nice rooms with big bathrooms/double vanity/walk in shower.







The casino is mostly slots.. had a band playing in one corner but no bartop VP nearby. Pretty quiet place overall. Had an epic run on UTH being down a few hundred and rallying/pressing my bets to 25/25/100 from 5/5/20 min and winning a few to cashout up a few hundred.

Driving south to Tucson from Flagstaff, Via an old post from rdw:
"I visited Payson on my way from Prescott to Pinetop. As I mentioned yesterday, that is an incredibly beautiful drive. Almost to the point where concentration is difficult to maintain on the winding and hilly roads through the national forest."

It was somewhat scary in a 2016 world where my cell was "No Service" for 100 miles through a no man's land of national forest and more mountains. Gorgeous drive though.

Got to Casino Del Sol in time to watch the entire Superbowl. Had an amazing DDB session, best of my life, where I hit 2 quad As (no kicker, but no complaints) drawing 3 each time.





Chips collected on this trip:
Apache Gold (San Carlos)
Bucky's (Prescott)
Casino Arizona (Scottsdale)
Casino Del Sol (Tucson)
Cliff Castle (Camp Verde)
Desert Diamond (Tucson)
Fort McDowell (Fountain Hills)
Harrah's Ak-Chin (Phoenix)
Mazatzal (Payson)
Twin Arrows (Flagstaff)
Wildhorse Pass (Chandler)

29 chips away from filling my 4th 99 chip frame, which will put me at 396 total. Have some trips through Minnesota, Ohio/Kentucky, Southern Michigan and northern FL this year that should complete it. Frame #5 is going to take a while.

Nice addition to the thread, wezvidz! Twin Arrows is on my list of chips to get; it wasn't yet open the last time I was in Arizona.

I'm posting from my phone now, but I will add this one to the index when I get to my computer.

The chip looks like an Ikon, and I think that's an Ikon logo to the right of the denomination mark. Hard to tell from the small image on my phone.

Really enjoyed the post Wezvidz, nice additions to your collection. I need to get back out that way sometime, I think I only have 2 chips from AZ and 2 from NM.

Thanks for the post Wezvids! I thought I saw dice in ads for other Arizona casino / resorts. Have they banned roulette too? I always wonder where the customers for these places "in the middle of nowhere" come from. Do they bus them in from a population center a few hours away for day trips?, or did they build it just off a highway between places where folks travel and usually wouldn't stop?

Is it odd that the two quads have the same rank kicker? Were both hits on the same machine?

Twin Arrows is right off I-40, maybe 25 miles from Flagstaff, though I don't know whether you would choose to call that a population center. It's out toward Winslow, the town perhaps best known for that Eagles' song "Take it Easy." I don't think I have ever been to Flagstaff other than when headed to the Grand Canyon. I rather expect the tribes tend to build casinos out in the boonies because that's where the powers that be allocated reservations.

Came across a link to an article with a gaming timeline for AZ. No dice, no roulette as of 2014... On the other hand, the state didn't allow table games until the 21st century (2002).

Quote: Doc

Nice addition to the thread, wezvidz! Twin Arrows is on my list of chips to get; it wasn't yet open the last time I was in Arizona.

I'm posting from my phone now, but I will add this one to the index when I get to my computer.

The chip looks like an Ikon, and I think that's an Ikon logo to the right of the denomination mark. Hard to tell from the small image on my phone.

Here is a link to a bigger image of a $5 chip from Twin Arrows. The logo looks like the old Interstate Bank's. Is that ICON?

Doh! I keep confusing the spelling of Icon and Ikon. The chip manufacturer is Icon. Their logo is a simple capital "I" outlined on a block. It is clearly presented on the Cromwell chip in this thread.

I don't know about Interstate bank, but you yourself gave us some info about Icon in this post, and I never followed up on that.

Here's an image with the bank's logo

Pretty close, no?

Agreed.

What's a good way to clean a couple souvenir chips? One red and one white. Windex? Just thought Id ask.

Quote: rushdl

What's a good way to clean a couple souvenir chips? One red and one white. Windex? Just thought Id ask.

Paging Doc and RDW...

Acetone cleans very well, but is drying & may discolor the chip. Also, it requires ventilation.

Gentle soap and warm water can work well. just don't soak the chip too long if the center inlay is a sticker (it'll warp/bubble)

My issue with windex was that I needed a lot of liquid to remove gunk, and windex leaves sort of a sticky residue if you're using more than a little of it.

In any case, you're going to want a clean, dry, white rag (white makes it easier to visually verify your success rate) and a small tool to clean out detail areas of the chip. a dentist's pick works well, so does one of those carbide golfclub groove cleaning tools.

Quote: rushdl

What's a good way to clean a couple souvenir chips? One red and one white. Windex? Just thought Id ask.

I used to just use a warm water cloth but recently started using windex which works really well to get the gunk off. I still use a cloth to get the windex off after cleaning each chip cause as rdw said windex leaves residue. I find this is the best combo to both clean the chip really well and not damage the inlay or the colour of the chip.

Quote: Doc

As I stated in my post from May 2010, I was there on a Tuesday at 5:15 pm. Last I heard, the Silver Saddle was still open, and they even had clay $1 chips instead of the tokens like I collected. No, I haven't been back to get a replacement.

Was just reading this old post of yours from November 6th, 2013 and laughed because at the upcoming spring fling I will be venturing/risking my life to collect one of these clay chips from Silver Saddle. To be honest their website makes the place look pretty safe.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Was just reading this old post of yours from November 6th, 2013 and laughed because at the upcoming spring fling I will be venturing/risking my life to collect one of these clay chips from Silver Saddle. To be honest their website makes the place look pretty safe.

Security is provided by uniformed police on podiums. How much more safety do you need?!? :-)

Quote: rdw4potus

Security is provided by uniformed police on podiums. How much more safety do you need?!? :-)

Is that your way of assuring me I have nothing to worry about or your way of telling me how unsafe it is that they NEED uniformed cops lol?

Quote: PokerGrinder

Is that your way of assuring me I have nothing to worry about or your way of telling me how unsafe it is that they NEED uniformed cops lol?

Yes.

Quote: rdw4potus

Yes.

Haha thanks. Maybe I can convince Doc to come with me to get the new clay chips after spring fling on the Friday night. He has the token from before they had real chips.

I think that for such an adventure we would need, at a minimum, to have rdw4potus providing private security. Maybe DJTeddyBear, too.

Quote: Doc

I think that for such an adventure we would need, at a minimum, to have rdw4potus providing private security. Maybe DJTeddyBear, too.

Sounds like a fun outing. Are you interested in replacing your token Doc?

I won't claim that I would never consider that, but remaining alive and married are much higher priorities.

Quote: Doc

I won't claim that I would never consider that, but remaining alive and married are much higher priorities.

Nobody lives forever.
I say go for it, put together a posse, and go get that chip!
It'll prolly be fine....

<edit> I think I heard that chip calling your name ;-)

<2nd edit > oooh, oooh! Just remembered. I saw you posting chips from a cruise on Carnival (sorry you didn't have the best of times, I think Carnival is OK, or I used to think Carnival was OK. They have stopped offering me free balcony cruises with free cash, why is that? ;-)..)
What I got is a royal blue $1 chip from from the Carnival Miracle (Alaska cruise 2014). I just looked at it again, I think the damn thing is plastic, but I'm not sure. How do you tell? Heat it and see if it melts? Got no black light ( not for many years now ;-). But when the thread runs out of chips, I would be willing to try to post a pic, I would have to figure out how to post Pics first, but it is an honest offer. I don't know how to get to your index to see if this chip has been posted before. Think newbie, or dummy....

<3rd edit> come to think of it, I also have 3, yes 3, red generic $5 Carnival chips, don't know why ( prolly dummy factor again )( maybe I was secretly pocketing $5 chips at a $1 table) to offer. And 1 light blue 'Explorer Of The Seas' $1 chip from Royal Caribbean as well. Aside from a couple $1 Harrah's Cherokee chips, that summarizes my collection ;-) Except for a couple mil of generic Internet purchased practice chips, of course.
Wrong again, there's a pinkish $2.50 (two fiddy) Harrahs Cherokee sitting there in the chip tray staring at me too..

<8th or 9th edit> Damnation! There's also a $1 chip from the 'Victory' cruise boat out of Port Canaveral that was hiding wid dem Cherokee chips. Haven't sailed out of JAX so dis got to be Canaveral.....

Quote: TwoFeathersATL

I don't know how to get to your index to see if this chip has been posted before.

That's the easy part -- just go to the top or bottom of any page of this thread, find the block where the recent page numbers are listed, then click just to the left where it says "First". Then scroll down to the latter part of the first post and all of the second post.

Quote: Doc

I won't claim that I would never consider that, but remaining alive and married are much higher priorities.

Haha I'm pretty sure with all the chip collecting trips Mrs. Doc has agreed to go on that a casino 20 minutes away probably won't upset her.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Haha I'm pretty sure with all the chip collecting trips Mrs. Doc has agreed to go on that a casino 20 minutes away probably won't upset her.

In this case, it's the alive part that is the biggest challenge.

Quote: rdw4potus

In this case, it's the alive part that is the biggest challenge.

I would be worried and think about not going but I'm an addict, no way I won't venture there and collect my chip. This whole thing started as a hobby but somewhere around the 300th chip I think I realized that it was an addiction lol, and that was almost 200 chips ago!

Quote: Doc

That's the easy part -- just go to the top or bottom of any page of this thread, find the block where the recent page numbers are listed, then click just to the left where it says "First". Then scroll down to the latter part of the first post and all of the second post.

OK, I can follow simple instructions. I went to the index, WOW, you da man! Seems I have an entry or two to add, when the time is right. Not sure how to do it, but I'm game, I'm almost always game, this isn't gonna cost me is it? ;-)
What a thread, what an index, I'm impressed, and I don't impress that easily, at least not with guys that is...

I will look into how to post pics on this forum ( hint: help me out here) and will stand in line to post whatever has not been posted before ( to go beyond what mankind has ever...stole that from some old movie or newscast ).
I admire the work you've done, and others have added to. I am NOT a collector, but if I could add something/anything to your thread, well, then I think my nipples would get very hard! Just sayin'.

TwoFeathers, there have been a few discussions in the past about how to post pictures in the forum, but I haven't searched for where they are.

The biggest issue is that this forum does not provide storage for images. You have to store the photos somewhere else on the internet -- some place that is publicly accessible, not password protected -- and then you provide the appropriate link to those images as part of your post.

If you go to one of the posts that includes an image and click on "Quote", you can see the format for posting the image and the details of the link. I have my own web domain, so I just store images there. Other people have commonly used the Photobucket site to host their images. PokerGrinder uses imgur.com, with which I am not familiar. Others here can probably suggest alternatives you can consider.

If you can get your images stored in an appropriate site, I can help you as you need in getting them included in a post here.

Quote: TwoFeathersATL

OK, I can follow simple instructions. I went to the index, WOW, you da man! Seems I have an entry or two to add, when the time is right. Not sure how to do it, but I'm game, I'm almost always game, this isn't gonna cost me is it? ;-)
What a thread, what an index, I'm impressed, and I don't impress that easily, at least not with guys that is...

I will look into how to post pics on this forum ( hint: help me out here) and will stand in line to post whatever has not been posted before ( to go beyond what mankind has ever...stole that from some old movie or newscast ).
I admire the work you've done, and others have added to. I am NOT a collector, but if I could add something/anything to your thread, well, then I think my nipples would get very hard! Just sayin'.

2F I have to say I really enjoy your posts, you always have me laughing. You write/talk like my dad and that is a compliment! I look forward to your chip posts.

Quote: Doc

TwoFeathers, there have been a few discussions in the past about how to post pictures in the forum, but I haven't searched for where they are.

The biggest issue is that this forum does not provide storage for images. You have to store the photos somewhere else on the internet -- some place that is publicly accessible, not password protected -- and then you provide the appropriate link to those images as part of your post.

If you go to one of the posts that includes an image and click on "Quote", you can see the format for posting the image and the details of the link. I have my on web domain, so I just store images there. Other people have commonly used the Photobucket site to host their images. PokerGrinder uses imgur.com, with which I am not familiar. Others here can probably suggest alternatives you can consider.

If you can get your images stored in an appropriate site, I can help you as you need in getting them included in a post here.

Imgur.com is made to be extremely user friendly (which is how I figured it out :) that would be my suggestion).

Quote: PokerGrinder

2F I have to say I really enjoy your posts, you always have me laughing. You write/talk like my dad and that is a compliment! I look forward to your chip posts.

You see that jhit right there? It was a compliment. I set off a mortar round in celebration. Now the HOA is trying to track me down, again...;-)

Quote: TwoFeathersATL

You see that jhit right there? It was a compliment. I set off a mortar round in celebration. Now the HOA is trying to track me down, again...;-)

Lol don't let it go to your head :)
Btw collectors I saw that they are changing the name of Greektown in Detroit as well as the planned renamings of the Cleveland and Cincinnati casinos. I will have to make my way back there and probably again in two years since I think they will change the names again in 2-4 years. I think Jack's is a really silly/stupid name choice. I've never seen a casino with a persons name in the title where the name isn't for a real person. Thoughts?

State: Washington
City: Anacortes
Casino: Swinomish Casino & Lodge

A few months back I mentioned I was possibly making a trip to the northwest. I did make the trip in early November and collected a total of 9 chips from Washington and Vancouver BC casinos. However, I was busy and lazy so I never posted it. Seeing as it is no longer a "chip of the day" thread anymore due to the lack of new material, I figure I will sneak in a post here and there when time permits (an excuse for my procrastinating character). I have 3 other chips that have not yet been posted, so eventually including todays, I will add 4 new chips to the thread. Also, I can't find the notes I took anymore, so I will try to describe the location and game to my best recollection.

I think I arrived at the Swinomish casino on a weekday late afternoon on the way back from Canada. I remember it being quite smoky, and probably losing $1-200 on craps. It was a $5 table with what must have been 345x odds. If you google the casino you can see the inside.

As for the chip, the 2 sides are different as you can see. One side has a totem pole and the other side has what appears to be a wing.

A new chip of the day!!!

Good post Konbu, I really like the totem pole on the chip, very neat looking. Doc will be pleased with this chip as he loves chips with the names molded into outer part of the chip. Since you say that you were in Vancouver and this part of Washington I think I have a good idea of the other chips that you are going to present based on my own trip plans from that area. I can't wait to see your other posts.

Thanks for the chip post, Konbu. I've added this chip/casino to the index as number 911 for the thread.

Yes, we've been having some difficulty keeping up with the "of the Day" part of this thread concept. It had been almost two weeks since wezvidz posted the last previous new chip to the thread. Of course, TwoFeathersATL has promised some chip posts once he figures out the mechanics of that, so you might as well treat us as soon as possible to more chips from the Northwest.

Quote: Konbu

... and probably losing $1-200 on craps.

This part of your post reminded me of a baseball game I was watching decades ago when the commentators were discussing players' salaries in the multi-millions of dollars. One of the TV crew (Harry "Skip" Caray, Jr., I think) made the comment, "Well, I myself get paid somewhere between two and three million dollars a year." After an extended silence, his partner asked, "That's somewhere between 'two dollars' and 'three million dollars', I take it?" To which he got an affirmative answer.

State: California
City: Gardena
Casino: Chinese New Year Commemorative - Normandie Casino
Year: 2016 (Monkey)

It's leap day, so it seems appropriate to post an unusual find.

This is a "limited edition" $8 Chinese New Year chip from the Normandie Casino, a card club/casino in Gardena, California. It is a fairly bright red, almost orange, with a large yellow center insert. As you can see, the most distinctive thing about it, is that it is an octagon. The two faces are identical, with seven sets of "plier" edge inserts, each with a white box in the center. The eighth edge has an overflow of the center insert, with the casino's logo and "Limited Edition" in yellow on a matching red bar. A "watermark" fleur-de-lis, appears behind the logo, and I am pretty sure is part of it. The image of a crouching monkey with, what appears to be "$8" written in crayon is in the center of the image. Circling around the the top of the monkey image are Chinese characters and "2016" in larger font, with "Year of the Fire Monkey" in a smaller, what looks like Times Roman font, below it. On the edge of the rim, "Normandie", a blank edge rim, and "Casino" followed by another blank edge rim, printed in yellow in what appears to be Arial Bold font, appears twice. The rim edge printing is all the same direction, so the chip actually has a "top" when the printing on the rim edge is right side up.

The chip is bigger than the standard <$100 chips at the Normandie. It is 43mm across from flat edge to flat edge, and 46mm from corner to corner across the middle. Note that for some reason, the $100 chips at the Normandie are also larger in diameter than the sub-$100 denominations, so I think these octagon chips still fit in those racks. When I got this chip from the cage (I didn't see it in play on the floor, but I didn't check out all the tables either), they had several racks full on a counter behind the cashiers, and the lady helping me was kind enough to inspect the one she pulled carefully before presenting it to me in exchange for my $8.

Very cool chip Ayecarumba, you forgot the headings for the chip of the day. Doc is going to yell at you :)

I am assuming he will file this one under the Chinese New Year chips that the Wizard posted a couple years ago.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Very cool chip Ayecarumba, you forgot the headings for the chip of the day. Doc is going to yell at you :)

I am assuming he will file this one under the Chinese New Year chips that the Wizard posted a couple years ago.

Thanks PG! Doc is certainly not the yelling type. I am not even sure he has a caps lock... hehe

I went back and added a header. I wasn't sure where to put the CNY info. If Doc let's me know, I am happy to move it around (or remove it altogether).

Headings?
What stinking headings?
I don't know the rules, don't know how to post pics, only have a couple chips in my possession.
But I really like reading here, I might be addicted....;-)