Casino Chip of the Day

Quote: PokerGrinder

I don't know how people live like that, I am the exact opposite, I plan things insanely far in advance. I am a bit of a nut job when it comes to trip planning. I've already started planning where I want to go in Europe and for how long next year. This wouldn't be as insane if I didn't have a 3 week trip to the Yukon and a 3.5 month trip to Asia (both already booked) before I can even think about going to Europe lol. I will probably not be going to Europe until September of 2018 lol.

Prior to kids and owning a house I was very much like that. Even this trip we started planning the itinerary but life just gets in the way. I have a 3 hour plane ride here shortly so we are going to try and finish it. Flying delta so we should have Internet. That's about the only thing j like over flying spirit or frontier.

Ah I see. Gl with the gambling and the collecting.

Can someone tell me if these are worth anything?

Yes they are worth $1 each, except for the $5 ones, those are worth $5. The taj Mahal ones are worthless unless you get someone to buy them since the casino closed.

Quote: GWAE

Yes they are worth $1 each, except for the $5 ones, those are worth $5. The taj Mahal ones are worthless unless you get someone to buy them since the casino closed.

well I sold a cruise casino $1 chip for $10 on Ebay so I was wondering if anyone will pay more than it's face value for these chips.

Quote: alphastorm

well I sold a cruise casino $1 chip for $10 on Ebay so I was wondering if anyone will pay more than it's face value for these chips.

The Taj ones might be worth a couple bucks in a few years but the rest are all still in circulation so they are worth face value.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Ah I see. Gl with the gambling and the collecting.

It is funny to see people's reactions to our trips. We were gone for 6 days. Flew into boston, went to cheers, walked 6 miles on freedom trail, drove to carver rhode island island for casino, next day went to edavilLe in carver, MA. Next day drove to provincetown walked up pilgrim monument. Did some other things on the cape. Drove to salem to stay the night. Next day went to maine lobster festival and acadia national park. Stayed the night in bangor. Spent a few hours going to stephen king locations, then went to maine wildlife park stayed at a hotel next to oxford casino. Next day did a lobster fishing boat then went to salem and walked 8 miles on a salem walking tour. Flew home the next day. We drove 874 miles.

So anyways, I did collect 4 chips on the trip but they have all been recorded in this thread so boo to that. 1 thing I thought was weird is the main casinos had virtually no video poker. Hollywood in bangor had 9 machines and oxford casino had 4. I almost couldn't get the Hollywood one because there was a concert next to the casino and a carnival on the next block. Parking was $20 and we couldnt find a good spot to just drop me off. We ended up skipping it and came back in the morning.

Sounds like an awesome trip. Did you leave the kids at home?

Quote: PokerGrinder

Sounds like an awesome trip. Did you leave the kids at home?

Nope had a 3 and 5 year old with us.

Quote: GWAE

Nope had a 3 and 5 year old with us.

Wow that's a lot of driving with kids. Did they do well with it? I can't imagine taking a long road trips with young ones.

Re: picture hosting. I've been using tinypic.com for 4 years now with no issues. Sometimes you have to watch a 5 second capcha commercial to get a verification code, some times you don't. They're easy and I like them.


PB got too big for their britches. I'm particularly turned off by how they held people's uploads hostage to get fees. Ugh.

Does anyone have a pic of their entire chip collection? I'd like to see some of the more unique chips out there.

Quote: alphastorm

Does anyone have a pic of their entire chip collection?

Well, my photos of the "entire" collection seem to be four chips out of date. The collection is now 475 casinos strong, and my most recent post of the full-set photo was almost a year ago. That post is located here, but in case you don't want to read the full discussion (with instructions for seeing earlier photos), I'll repeat the 2016 photo below. As is usually the case with my photos, you can click on that image to get the larger version. With most browsers, I think you can click once again to get the full-size-but-a-bit-fuzzy version that you can scroll around.



Guess I need to take/post a newer photo some day.

I was actually looking at my chips after Alphastorm asked about collections and realized that this is the longest period of time that I've had every possible Nevada chip. Going on 4 months now, of the three times I've completed Nevada this is definitely the longest that there hasn't been a new chip to collect.

Quote: GWAE

Nope had a 3 and 5 year old with us.

Nice thing about this driving is I planned most stops 1-2 hours of driving. We had so much jammed into the days that they fell asleep in the car so it wasn't too bad.

thanks for showing me your chips Doc. What an awesome collection.

Opinions please. Going to vegas for 3 days next friday. I have been collecting since 2009. Some of my early collection came from Vegas so they are 18 years old. Should I pull out all of my vegas chips and match them up to chipguide to see if any of them have changed and I need to get? I mean obviously I should but I am struggling with time lately and I don't want to spend a few hours if nothing has really changed. Thoughts?

Quote: GWAE

Should I pull out all of my vegas chips and match them up to chipguide to see if any of them have changed and I need to get?

Just what do you try to collect? Every chip from every series issued by every casino? I would consider that an overwhelming and obsessive compulsion. One chip from each series issued by each casino? Still more than I would try myself, but not outlandish. For the most part, I just want one chip from each casino I can visit, without worrying about the different series, though I admit I am starting to replace the tokens in my collection with real chips. Whether you should check for new issues depends on your objectives.

Quote: Doc

Just what do you try to collect? Every chip from every series issued by every casino? I would consider that an overwhelming and obsessive compulsion. One chip from each series issued by each casino? Still more than I would try myself, but not outlandish. For the most part, I just want one chip from each casino I can visit, without worrying about the different series, though I admit I am starting to replace the tokens in my collection with real chips. Whether you should check for new issues depends on your objectives.

Ahh yes good point. I only have $1 chips. I usually get q of each design but I don't worry about the lc or the different uv markings. I tried that once but it was overwhelming.

Son guess the objective is to add chips that have changed design but I am not sure how often thst has happened.

There are many differences today vs. 18 years ago. There may have been places that opened and closed since you were last in town. My suggestion is that you pull out your collection and take some pictures of it with your phone. That way if you come across one that you like, and are not sure if you already have it or not, you have a point of reference. Have fun!

Quote: Ayecarumba

There are many differences today vs. 18 years ago. There may have been places that opened and closed since you were last in town. My suggestion is that you pull out your collection and take some pictures of it with your phone. That way if you come across one that you like, and are not sure if you already have it or not, you have a point of reference. Have fun!

Well the first one I looked at was golden nugget. It changed in 2013 so I need that one. I guess I need to find time to go through. If not I will just take some pictures.

I have been collecting the new ones through the years but I haven't revisited old sites. I have a list of 12 places that I have never been too.

Scoreboard Casino in Spring Creek, NV has taken out their BJ tables less than a year after bringing them back from the dead. I visited the casino in April and I'm glad I made my way there as it might be the last time that there would be an opportunity to collect there.

Quote: GWAE

Well the first one I looked at was golden nugget. It changed in 2013 so I need that one. I guess I need to find time to go through. If not I will just take some pictures.

I have been collecting the new ones through the years but I haven't revisited old sites. I have a list of 12 places that I have never been too.

well all that thinking and I never did look at my chips. Man life is flying by way to quickly. 2 kids and 2 jobs really screws with your brain. Leaving in 30 minutes for the airport to hopefully get some relaxing done by running around vegas trying to get coupons done.

I had mentioned a couple months ago that I was going to a poker series in the Yukon. We are we are leaving on Saturday. We are going more for fun than for a profitable tournament series, since sadly the expenses to get there will eat away at the EV of the extremely soft tournaments. What will be extremely profitable are the poker cash games that we will hit on the way there and back.

The game plan is to drive to Cold Lake, AB on Saturday and play sides to get a chip from Casino Dene that night since they don't have poker. The next day is a short (by my standards lol, only 4 hours) drive to Fort McMurray and we will grind there for the day. Then a drive to Edmonton while hitting a casino sort of on the way. We are staying in Edmonton for 2 nights, We will collect the two new chips available since my last time in Edmonton and again play some good poker games.

This is where the tough part comes, the drive to the Yukon. We will drive to Fort Nelson while stopping at two casinos to collect which will take 11-12 hours. The next day is a 12 hour drive to Whitehorse, Yukon. The following day is a shorter 7 hour drive to Dawson City, Yukon where we will stay for 5 nights while the tournaments are running. The cash games are supposed to be amazing as well. We will have time to do sightseeing and be tourists while we are there.

Then comes the fun part again, driving the opposite direction for a few days. We will drive back to Whitehorse the first day. The second day back to Fort Nelson. The third day is a 8.5 hour drive to Prince George (Wiz should remember Prince George from Spring Fling two years ago). There is a casino there and if I remember correctly a poker game. The next day is a 75 minute drive to Billy Barker casino before heading south 4.5 hours to Kamloops for the new casino there. I was there 3 years ago but they built a new casino and closed the old one. Then a 2.5 hour drive to Penticton where we are staying for the night. They also have closed their old casino and opened a new one since I last drove through there. I'm not sure if we will find a poker game there but we also might be too tired to play at that point.

We will make the drive to Vancouver (4 hours) the next day while stopping at the newly rebranded Surrey casino 30 minutes outside of Vancouver. I'm going to play the night in Vancouver after dropping Eric at the airport as he is flying to Cyprus for a series and then onto Morocco for a series.

The next day is when the mega chip collecting starts and poker will cease for 4-5 days. I will be stopping at 30 plus casinos over 2 days as most of them are within 10 minutes of each other. I will be staying in Seattle for 2 nights and will probably go see a Mariners game the second night. From there I will drive to Spokane over 2 days while collecting on the way. I plan on playing poker in Spokane. The next day is a drive to a casino in northern Montana where they have a poker game. The next day is the same at another Montana Casino. The last day of the trip is my drive back to central Canada.

I'm hoping to add around 50 chips on this trip, sadly I think I will be in Edmonton a month early for the new casino and the same for the new casino that is opening up in Vancouver. Also I will be about a month early for the new Spokane Tribe casino, bad timing lol. Oh well I will have to grab those next time that I'm in the area.

I will most likely post a daily TR as we go. Actually now that I've written this I might actually copy and paste this into a new thread for the TR.

Sounds like a great trip PG looking forward to your trip reports.

Quote: GWAE

well all that thinking and I never did look at my chips. Man life is flying by way to quickly. 2 kids and 2 jobs really screws with your brain. Leaving in 30 minutes for the airport to hopefully get some relaxing done by running around vegas trying to get coupons done.

Any new chips for you GWAE? How was the visit? Did you get rained on?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Any new chips for you GWAE? How was the visit? Did you get rained on?

ThanKS for asking. We did collect chips from 5 casinos and I now have the entire new England series until next year when the mass casinos open. All of the ones I got are already listed in here so nothing new to add.

As for rain. We got drenched on wednesday. We got to cheers around 11 and ate. We walked to the Swan boats and and took a nice ride. From there we started on the freedom trail. It is about 4 miles to the USS constitution and uss cassin. About 1.5 miles in it started to drizzle. We kept walking. Then about 20 minutes later it was a much harder rain. We decided to trek on. It was our only day in Boston so we had no choice. Well as we got to paul reveres house it came down hard. We made it inside before getting drenched. It rained really hard for about 40 minutes. So we basically hung out in paul reveres house for an hour. After it let up a little we continued on. By the time we got to the cassin it was actuslly really nice out and we were basically dry. The kids were really excited to go on a battle ship but fortunately when we got there it was closed. Sign said they close during rainy conditions. I ask that makes sense since it probably gets pretty slippery. Owell, kids were disappointed so we turned around and made the 4 mile walk back. A just as we got to paul reveres house again it poured again. We got absolutely drenched. We decided to take the subway back to our car at boston commons and call it a day. The rest of the time in new england was great and no more rain.

Yes, there are lots of mini-casinos, poker rooms, and tribal casinos in the Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham areas. Plan your travels so that you minimize time lost on traffic. It is pretty bad at many times. I am familiar with most places in this area, if I can help.

Quote: GeoducknCrab

Yes, there are lots of mini-casinos, poker rooms, and tribal casinos in the Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham areas. Plan your travels so that you minimize time lost on traffic. It is pretty bad at many times. I am familiar with most places in this area, if I can help.

Thanks GeoDuck! I am pretty OCD with my collecting schedule so I have google mapped it so that it is the most direct routes.

Doc awhile back I was debating whether to eventually make my way back to Tunica to collect a "new" chip from Ballys and didn't know if I considered the slight name change to warrant the collecting of a new chip. Well my problem has solved itself as Ballys is no longer. Ballys has changed its name to 1st Jackpot and chips are now available. It might be years before I return to Tunica but you seem to go quite often.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Ballys has changed its name to 1st Jackpot and chips are now available. It might be years before I return to Tunica but you seem to go quite often.

We usually get down there about once a year and made it early last spring. I'll add 1st Jackpot to my list for our next visit.

Tonight we are at Harvey's Lake Tahoe. We drove up from Las Vegas today by an indirect route. Tables weren't open at the Stagecoach when we got to Beatty, but I bought a $5 chip to replace the $1 token in my collection. Trying to replace those whenever I can. They are still using tokens instead of $1 chips. And yes, I threw away a dollar in a slot machine, so that I picked up the chip in a gaming session. Sorta.

Played blackjack at Paiute Palace for my $1 souvenir chip from there, then I played blackjack again at Topaz Lodge to get a $1 chip to replace the $1 token I got on my previous visit.

Unrelated to collecting, I also played craps at both Silverton and Rio yesterday and at Harveys tonight. Overall, I am down $11 in my gambling. My luck is usually much worse than that.

You will definitely get there before I will. I'm really surprised by the lack of information available about the change. I only found out because someone posted the chips for sale on MoGH. From there I went searching and eventually found a mention in a giant newsletter they put out, not much in the way of advertising.

Sounds like a solid trip so far Doc. How many new chips are you planning on collecting on this trip?

Quote: PokerGrinder

Sounds like a solid trip so far Doc. How many new chips are you planning on collecting on this trip?

Picked up two new chips today, both from casinos already covered in the thread. For the trip, that makes three completely-new casinos represented in my collection plus two chips to replace tokens.

Tomorrow, I expect to add two more new chips and two more token-replacement chips. There is a very outside chance that I could pick up one more new one, but I won't hold my breath. I'll just be nearby the place and will check out the possibility.

On Saturday, I expect to get two new chips with (once again) a very outside chance of getting another one. On Sunday, we will head back to Las Vegas, where I expect to gather two new chips and four token-replacements over the next few days.

So... when I eventually get back to Tunica, do you want me to pick up a chip for you, or is that a rule violation for you?

I appreciate the offer Doc but I only consider chips that I have personally collected to be part of my collection. Thank you though.

What are the two outside chance chips?

#1. Finding the Headquarters Bar (Fallon) blackjack table open or someone being willing to sell me a chip. It's only a mile from Stockman's, where I plan to be replacing a token with a chip.

#2. Being able to buy a chip at El Capitan. They re-opened their tables but closed them again before I could get there. I have to drive right through Hawthorne anyway on my way to Tonopah, so I thought I should stop and ask. What the heck -- maybe they opened the tables again last week.

I tried that at Headquarters, they have no table and they wouldn't sell me a chip. Also the door is heavy and gave me a giant bruise on my arm lol.

Didn't see your reply until just now, so I stopped by Headquarters this afternoon with the same lack of success. The lady behind the bar said they hadn't had a table for years. She also said they are owned by the Nugget casino, which is almost next door, and suggested that if chips still exist, they would be under control of the Nugget cage, so I should check there. I did, and the cashier said (1) she had never seen any and (2) the manager was not on premises for her to check further. No problem -- just a wasted 15 minutes.

Thanks for the update!

PG, any ETA on images from your recent Yukon adventure?

I'm going to try next week, I came back to some family health issues. My grandmother isnt doing great and my Aunty is having complications as a side effect from her chemotherapy. I'm thinking I'll have some time to do the write ups early next week. I want to do it while everything is still fresh in my head. I'm very forgetful.

No problem. Our best wishes to your grandmother and aunt.

Thanks Aye, much appreciated.

My plan for today was to collect a chip from Pioneer Crossing in Yerington, where the tables open at 6pm. We checked out of Harveys Tahoe, got a late breakfast, and decided to spend a few hours in Virginia City before heading down to Yerington.

Turned out that Sep. 27 - Oct. 1 is "Street Vibrations", a motorcycle rally/party/mob scene in Virginia City. Crowds were worse than Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and there was no car parking permitted in town, only bikes. We headed on down to Yerington, where we arrived at the casino four and a half hours before the tables opened. I just bought a chip, then we had lunch and headed on our way.

Weird when I visited there the first time back in 2014 they wouldn't sell me a chip so I returned either this year or last year I can't remember lol.

Whoops double post. Well I'll use this to say that there is a casino that just opened up in Lichtenstein for when you visit that country lol. Not a lot of cruises going there.

Obersee ... Walensee ... Bodensee ...
Nope, can't find a reasonable water route for any of my favorite cruise ships to get to Lichtenstein.

As anticipated, the El Capitan no longer has any chips at the cage. They claim that they operated the tables for a year and took them out the end of July. Bad timing on my part.

Lol I didn't see how you'd end up in Lichtenstein but I had a post to fill.

Ya I had a feeling you wouldn't be able to get a chip there. Too bad.

Although a significant element of my current trip around Nevada is the addition of new chips to my collection and the replacement of some old tokens with chips to represent the same casinos, I do not think this will result in any new Casino Chip of the Day posts. These places have all been covered previously. I may post some chip photos mostly to illustrate what shows up under UV light, since I don't think anyone else has been showing those features.

On the other hand, I thought I would relate two little stories of my recent experiences. Only one of them involved collecting a new chip, so I will cover that one in this post and follow later with the other. I'm doing that in this thread, because I am too lazy to document a full trip report as PG does.

This afternoon, my wife and I stopped by the Lucky Dragon to check it out, since this is our first visit to Las Vegas since it opened. I can concur with previous posts that the place is elegantly (garishly?) decorated and seems to be doing very little business. I think there were maybe six or seven tables in operation with two or three players at each.

I confess here, just as I did to a table games supervisor, that I understand that I am NOT part of the target demographic for the place, and I do not have any clue about most of the games that are offered. I do understand roulette, but I though that if I was in a casino with that many "strange" (to me) games, I should try one of them. I had tried reading the WoO pages about Pai Gow Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold'em, which I understood were sometimes available there, but I wound up taking my shot at a rather different game: Baccarat.

From what I have read, (1) unless you possess the superstitions of the Chinese, the game is as boring as flipping coins, (2) the statistically superior strategy is to bet on Banker each time, and (3) it is considered courteous to follow the betting lead of the largest player. I approached a table that had three players, two male and one female, and watched for a while. The only obviously-Asian player very rarely placed a bet on a hand. He did, however, meticulously record results, even though there was an elaborate electronic display that appeared to be tracking a gazillion aspects of the play history.

This was a game of Midi Baccarat, with the players mangling the heck out of the cards in the process of taking a peek, though only once did I see a player tear the card in half out of frustration. My understanding was that such games are normally offered at rather high stakes, but the electronic sign appeared to say that it was a $10 minimum game.

The players at the table were generally betting $50 to $300 per hand, so I was not at all sure about that minimum. I checked with the supervisor who confirmed it: $10. I told her that I knew nothing of the game and was unsure whether the other players would be miffed about a newcomer to the game sitting in at their table and betting just $10. She assured me that it would be fine, and they did indeed welcome me.

One thing I had not anticipated was that the players frequently asked the dealer to deal a "free" hand, with no one betting, apparently so they could magically get a sense of the flow of the cards. Strange, at least to me. In spite of the "superior strategy" quoted in #2 above, I followed the guidance of #3 and tried to bet the way the other players were.

After just a few hands of play (and more of the "free" hands), the red card appeared, and it was time for a shuffle. Of course, that meant brand new decks of cards. None of those players were willing to wait, and they all moved to a different table, just as a new player arrived to sit down. He seemed to be well known to the dealers/supervisors, and they told him I was trying to learn the game. He seemed to be delighted to have a new player at the table and said it was always a lucky sign, though it didn't really turn out that way.

He signed a marker and received $50,000 in chips. Yep, you read that number right, and he seemed to be delighted to be sitting next to a $10 bettor who did not understand the game. Very early in this play, he told the supervisor that he wanted a private table, but he was emphatic that he wanted it private for the two of us. A "reserved" sign appeared on the table almost immediately. I overheard the supervisor tell the dealer that this gentleman was allowed to wager $5,000 per hand, if he so wished.

He told me that it was an easy game and that I just had to read the monitor to see the patterns and know which way to place the wager. I did not say anything about my feelings on that. His usual wager while I was there was $500 or $1,000, but he asked for quite a few more "free" hands than the number he played. When he was ready to play, he would point to the monitor as if something was obvious, then put out his chips. I dutifully placed my two reds on the same wager and watched as he went through his ritual with the single-use cards.

I spent an hour at the table and managed to lose $100 of my $200 buy-in. I thanked my playing partner for his guidance and left to rejoin my wife. From the Lucky Dragon, we drove to Main Street Station, a place with which I am much more familiar. We had dinner at the 777 Brew Pub, after which I played $5 craps with a net win of $115, erasing my loss at the new Asian establishment. Overall, a very pleasant set of experiences for the afternoon and early evening.

Quote: Doc

...the Lucky Dragon...Baccarat....

Now that was uncommonly interesting, being about something that's always been so incomprehensible to me. Thank-you for taking the time and care to document your observations so well.

Thanks Doc! Very interesting. Was the big player tipping on wins?

Going back to Virginia City, I hope you didn't miss out on exploring Carson City in your push south. I thought the State museum there was very interesting, but Mrs. Carumba got a little claustrophobic in the mine.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Was the big player tipping on wins?

Not in my presence.

When I was ready to leave, I had $3.50 in spare chips and change from paying commissions on Banker bet wins. I gave that to the dealer. That was the only toke I saw while at the table. I have no idea what he might have toked as he left the table himself.