Casino Chip of the Day

State: Texas
City: Austin
Casino: Oaks

Today’s chip of the day is from Oaks Poker Club in Austin, Texas. The Oaks Poker Club opened in August of last year in the SW area of Austin. The club has 4 public tables and 2 private rooms each with their own poker table. I visited this club after attempting to pick up my date in downtown Austin but as I wrote earlier that didn’t happen and it was for the better I think lol. I headed to Oaks where there was a short handed game of 1/2 running and a private party playing a 1 table tournament. Based on the sad game I was playing I figured I would play 1 hour, grab my chip and move on. Then the private party ended and the players started joining the game and then it got crazy. Turns out the guys were mostly drunk and had wads of 100’s burning a hole in their pockets. We played ROE (half Holdem/half omaha) until I suggested we play all Omaha as they were really bad at the game but they all preferred to play it. By the time the game ended there was about 20k on the table and it was 2 am. I ended up making about 1100 in the game. This old guy god ran the last hour and turned 2k into 13k in a hour, must be nice.

The chip is white with 4 grey edge inserts that look like boomerangs. The centre inlay is white with (taking a wild guess) an oak tree. The club name and the denom are black.

I just got back from a quick 3 day trip to Vegas which is the excuse I’m going to use if asked why I didn’t post any chips during that time. The only chip I collected was from Resorts World which was posted with a $5 chip a while back. I got a $1 chip during my visit. The casino was honestly very underwhelming, nothing stuck out and I wouldn’t run back anytime soon.

Quote: PokerGrinder

The casino was honestly very underwhelming, nothing stuck out and I wouldn’t run back anytime soon.

link to original post

PG, did you eat anything at the food court? I'll be staying there next weekend — mostly for the food and drink!

After all these years of collecting what do you consider your most beautiful/artistic chip?

And I am curious how the Palms chips changed and if no demonetization notice are old chips still in use or can be used?

Quote: smoothgrh

Quote: PokerGrinder

The casino was honestly very underwhelming, nothing stuck out and I wouldn’t run back anytime soon.

link to original post

PG, did you eat anything at the food court? I'll be staying there next weekend — mostly for the food and drink!
link to original post

I didn’t eat there as I had just had lunch with local friends at Table Thai which I highly recommend. It’s better than Lotus of Siam in my opinion.

Quote: AlanMendelson

After all these years of collecting what do you consider your most beautiful/artistic chip?

And I am curious how the Palms chips changed and if no demonetization notice are old chips still in use or can be used?
link to original post

I’d have to look through my collection as my memory sucks but a few come to mind. First The Artesian from Oklahoma I think is a beautiful chip, simple but elegant. Wynn Palace Macau has a beautiful design and is everything I’d expect from a Wynn property. Marina Bay Sands went cheap on their $1 chips but $5 and up chips have a gorgeous design. Hippodrome in England has very nice chips as well. This is the best I can do without having my collection handy, there are definitely others that would be in my favourite category. I have atriums 1050 chips now so it’s hard to remember everything.

Would it be too much trouble to post a couple of photos?

As a coin collector I've always thought that the Oregon Trail Commemorative Half Dollar was our most beautiful coin.

https://images.app.goo.gl/chpdLugZ1dZkxaFQ9

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/off-topic/off-topic/37144-casino-chip-of-the-day-index/

That link is to the index of every chip ever posted in this thread.

State: Texas
City: Houston
Casino: Red Star

Today’s chip of the day is from Red Star Poker Room in Houston, Texas. This poker room has nothing to do with the Red Star I already posted from Austin. Sadly this was a very nice looking club that had a lot of money put into that sadly will be closed within the year in my opinion. The owner moved from Florida and opened this room with no prior experience running a room. He along with a lady that seemed like she didn’t know up from down are in charge of bringing players in. They recruited a guy who used to run the largest poker room in Houston who has since backed away from the business because he thinks the pair are an absolute joke and don’t know what they are doing. The lady constantly lies to people telling them games are going to run when she has no players coming apparently. This isn’t far from what I got from her. I showed up at 6 when they opened, they said come back for the game at 7 and then at 7 we sat around until 8 when we started short handed. The only reason that a game even started was that they had someone renting out the private room to run his own poker game and we asked if we could play in his game since the owners were clearly not getting a game going.

The lady said they rake (which is illegal) instead of taking time. Not only that but instead of reasonable rake they want to rake a 1/2 game $15 a hand which would kill the game within the hour. We talked them down to $10 a hour but honestly I didn’t care, I was only staying in this rinky dink poker room long enough to collect a chip. Even at $10 a hand the game can’t survive that but that’s not my problem, I tried to explain that. It’s too bad because they put a ton of effort into the room and it looks amazing but clearly they have wasted a lot of money if games never run. The 3rd partner is an older man who loves music and he decorated the room with great memorabilia.

The chip is white with two turquoise edge inserts. The denom and location are listed in black and the poker room name is black with a spade in place of the “O” in Poker and a red/black star in place of the “A”in star.

I had mentioned a while back I’m taking a free 12 day cruise through Carnival.

Day 1: London (Dover) depart 5:00 PM
Day 2: Fun Day At Sea
Day 3: Copenhagen arrive 8:00 AM - depart 5:00 PM
Day 4: Berlin (Warnemunde) arrive 7:30 AM - depart 11:00 PM
Day 5: Fun Day At Sea
Day 6: Tallinn arrive 9:00 AM - depart 6:00 PM
Day 7: Helsinki arrive 7:00 AM - depart 4:00 PM
Day 8: Stockholm (Nynäshamn) arrive 8:00 AM - depart 6:00 PM
Day 9: Fun Day At Sea
Day 10: Kiel (Hamburg) arrive 7:00 AM - depart 4:00 PM
Day 11: Gothenburg arrive 8:00 AM - depart 6:00 PM
Day 12: Fun Day At Sea
Day 13: London (Dover) arrive 5:00 AM

The cruise was originally supposed to include two days in St. Petersburg, Russia but for obvious reasons that was changed.

I just finished booking all my flights and accommodations for before the cruise. Flying to Edinburgh on July 28 and arrive July 29.

July 29 - August 2 Edinburgh
August 2 - 5 Glasgow
August 5 - 7 Belfast, Ireland
August 7 - 11 Dublin
August 11-14 Galway
August 14 - 18 Amsterdam
August 18 - 21 London
August 21 - September 2 cruise

After the cruise I don’t have a flight home and will probably visit a friend in Germany and possibly go back to Italy with a friend and his family as they are from Sicily and I didn’t make it there last time I was in Italy.

State: Texas
City: Houston
Casino: 101 Poker Richmond

Today’s chip of the day is from 101 Poker Richmond (sort of) in Houston, Texas. I visited this club last year when it was 52 Social before it was sold to a group with Johnny Chan as the face of the group. They renamed it Johnny Chan’s 88 Social and the club went downhill very quickly. Turns out the money behind the purchase didn’t actually have any money and very quickly they had trouble cashing out players. In early December they started limiting cash outs to $2000 a day which for obvious reasons made people stop wanting to play in a place with cash flow issues. Later that month after only 5 months as Johnny Chan’s they closed. A couple months later a man who was a regular at the 101 Poker in Katy (20 minutes away) bought Johnny’s and reopened it February 25 as 101 Poker Richmond. They are not connected but I assume he got the ok from 101 Katy’s owner to use the name. The club is on Richmond Ave thus the name.

When I went to 101 Richmond they had one game running and 40 or so empty tables, it was so sad. Apparently they have been struggling to get any traction in the “new” club. They hadn’t gotten their new chips yet (I wonder if they will bother) so I kept one from Johnny’s that they are still currently using. My plan is to use this as my 101 chip until I go back and grab a new chip but I honestly doubt I ever do. It will probably be a year before I’m back and I highly doubt that they will last that long.

The chip is one of the nicest and best quality, they really went all out. The chip is blue with 12 white edge inserts and 4 white lines between each set of 3 inserts. The centre inlay is shiny gold and black with “88” all over the background. The club name is in gold over the black and the rest is red and black over the gold in the centre. The denom is in the black section on the bottom in white.



Edit: I returned in 2023 and collected the 101 Richmond chip.

Last edited by: PokerGrinder on Mar 3, 2023

You can shear a sheep a hundred times, but you can skin it only once. — Amarillo Slim Preston

State: Texas
City: Houston
Casino: Legends

Today’s chip of the day is from Legends Poker Room in Houston, Texas. Legends was opened by one of the previous owners of 52 Social and it was opened in the parking lot half a block away from the old poker room. Apparently as soon as the owners of Johnny Chan’s stopped making payments they said eff it and opened Legends right next door and all their old players came running back to them. The dealer when I was at Legends joked that when the now 101 Richmond goes under they can buy back the property and move back across the parking lot into the bigger and better building they used to inhabit. I played for two hours, I can’t say I was impressed by the new room but it sure was busy.

The chip is blue with 3 small white edge inserts. The centre inlay is white with gold writing. There is a poker chip with the club name splitting it in half. The full club name and incorrect location are around the edge of the inlay. The denom is listed in black on the gold chip. I can’t find any reference to Legends Poker in Dallas but all of their chips except for the tip chip list Dallas and the tip chip doesn’t list a location. I didn’t realize the incorrect city until I had left Houston so I wasn’t able to ask anybody at the club.

State: Texas
City: Houston
Casino: All In

Today’s chip of the day is from All In Poker Club in Houston, Texas. All In was formerly Mint Poker which I visited last year right after it reopened. Mint would close for good in September 2021 and on October 7 All In opened. The club has the same layout inside but a completely different vibe. They are going for a cool hip hop club vibe with loud music, low lights and hot girls serving drinks. When I got to All In there were two games, 1/3 Holdem and 5/5 plo, I sat at the 1/3 as a seat was open. As soon as I sat down a few players pointed to the other game and said do you know who that is? I said no, they informed me it was Adrian Peterson one of the best running backs of all time who is from a hour north of Houston. I probably wouldn’t have noticed him had it not been pointed out and honestly I didn’t care as I’m not a celeb person. I played for a few hours and lost about $800 before cashing out. The first thing the cashier said to me as I was cashing out is, do you know who that is over there? Apparently he comes in a few times a week and apparently they like to use that as advertising for their club. All is fair I guess if Adrian doesn’t mind.

The chip is blue a mess of colours, red, blue, white and black. The chip has the same vibe as the club with the hooded player in the middle of the chip giving off the “cool” vibes. The club name is black on the logo and the location and denom are in white.

State: Texas
City: Cypress
Casino: Doghouse

Today’s chip of the day is from Doghouse Poker Club in Cypress, Texas. Cypress is a suburb in the northwest of Houston. The club has 12 tables and runs illegally on a rake system. They take $5 at $50 and $5 more at $100 so not only is the rake high but they take 10% instead of 5%. They don’t have a daily membership, only monthly and yearly options. I said I was a one time visitor from out of town so could I buy a one day membership and the lady talked to the owner who waived the membership fee for me. Winning! There were two tables running, my game was quite boring so I got moved to the other game where guys were sitting really deep. I ended up building up a $2500 buy in to almost $5500 in a “1/2” game that was nowhere near a real 1/2 game. The game kept going until either 8 or 9 am when it finally broke. I got coolered for a 4k pot so I only ended up cashing out +$500. Normally I don’t like playing for 12 hours but the game was amazing and I couldn’t bring myself to leave, wish I had left about 2 grand earlier lol.

The chip is cream coloured with 8 edge inserts, 4 brown and 4 white. The centre inlay is a grey and silver starburst with a grey bulldog (correct me if I’m wrong) and the denom written out in white. The other side of the chip has the club name and denom around the centre inlay and the denom again in the middle of the inlay.

State: Texas
City: Katy
Casino: Empire

Today’s chip of the day is from Empire Poker Club in Katy, Texas. I had a little bit of trouble finding this spot as it was “hidden” on the side of the strip mall and it was dark out, mostly I’m just bad at navigating. I played for 1 hour here late at night as I was getting into the Houston area just to check a chip of the collection list. There was one game running and they illegally charge rake per hand of I believe $10. This was actually a very nice looking club with around 12 tables and comfy high end chairs. Not much to say about this club due to how short a visit i made. I think I lost $150-$200 in the hour I was there.

The chip is white with 8 grey edge inserts. The centre inlay is white with a giant red “E” slanted in the background with the denom in black on top of it. The club name has 4 playing cards with it, one of each suit. The location is in black along the side of the inlay.

This is the last poker room chip I have to post. Tomorrow I’ll start on the 10+ chips I have from actual casinos that Doc will be much more interested in lol.

State: Louisiana
City: Shreveport
Casino: Bally’s

Today’s chip of the day is from Bally’s Casino in Shreveport, Louisiana. I stopped in here on a very roundabout trip to New Orleans, honestly it added over 4 hours of driving but I’ve never claimed to be sane when it comes to collecting. I stayed at the Horseshoe on a comp but first I went to check out Bally’s. The casino changed their name from Eldorado to Bally’s on November 3rd of last year. The casino has 1408 slots and 60 table games. I played poker only when I was at Bally’s. They had a 5/5 game running and even though I was exhausted I couldn’t say no to the bigger game. I don’t remember exactly how much I made in the game but I remember winning. I played until the game broke around 2 am and then headed to the Horseshoe for some much needed sleep.

The chip is white RHC with 3 edge inserts in blue, green and orange. The centre inlay is turquoise with a white ring. The casino name is red across a dark green background. The location looks is black and the denom is red.

State: Mississippi
City: Vicksburg
Casino: Bally’s

Today’s chip of the day is from Bally’s in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Bally’s is the latest name for this casino that has now changed names twice in less than two years. The first time that I visited the casino was called Lady Luck until it was sold and renamed Casino Vicksburg as a placeholder name. The company that bought it was in the process of creating the “Bally’s” brand so I had a feeling that Casino Vicksburg and Casino KC wouldn’t last long and I wanted to get those chips in the short time I thought that they would be available. I was right and 13 months after becoming Casino Vicksburg it became Bally’s. I visited a few months back and the casino looks exactly the same as last year. I played BJ and ran hot winning a ton of hands in a row and cashing out up $300.

The chip is white RHC with two lavender edge inserts. The oversized centre inlay is white with a large “B” in the background. The casino name and location are black and the denom is white with a black border.

Quote: PokerGrinder

... Bally’s is the latest name for this casino that has now changed names twice in less than two years....

Jeez! All of these "Bally's" name changes not only confuse me, but they make it even more of a nuisance in trying to index this thread! I had already modified posts for Mississippi casino chips years ago (see here and here) trying to clarify the Bally's name for the casino in Tunica.

Well there are more coming lol. The weird part to me is that the new Bally’s casinos have nothing to do with the Bally’s casinos owned by Caesars.

PG do you ever ponder that you may hold the world record for playing poker in the most venues?

And do you have any generalizations about the quality of poker players by location? Such as Nevada players are good and Texas players seem bad or anything you can come up with?

That's because they're Bally's casinos owned by Bally's, not Caesar's! (Yay for corporate pretzels!)

I'm pretty sure there's at least five major companies/businesses that all use the Bally's logo and name that aren't affiliated with the "mainline" Bally's corporation that got absorbed by, and then renaming, Twin River.

Quote: Johnzimbo

PG do you ever ponder that you may hold the world record for playing poker in the most venues?

And do you have any generalizations about the quality of poker players by location? Such as Nevada players are good and Texas players seem bad or anything you can come up with?
link to original post

John I haven’t played poker in the most places as I know someone who has played in more but I do think that I have collected more chips from different casinos in person than any other person in the world. All the records that are public are from people who collect by buying and trading while I have collected from around 1050 different casinos/card rooms at this point.

State: Indiana
City: Evansville
Casino: Bally’s

Today’s chip of the day is from Bally’s in Evansville, Indiana. Bally’s was formerly the Tropicana until 10/13/2021 when it changed names. I can’t tell you if the place looks the same as pre name change as I collected my chip from Tropicana 5+ years ago. I played a few quick hands of Pai Gow to collect this chip after vulturing some slots. I ate at the sandwich shop in the casino and was pleasantly surprised at the quality. Weird glitch, the sandwich shop is outside of security where they check your ID so you have to get rechecked by security after eating.

The chip is a white RHC with 3 teal edge inserts. The centre inlay is light blue with the casino name in red, the location in black and the denom in green.

State: Iowa
City: Marquette
Casino: Casino Queen

Today’s chip of the day is from Casino Queen in Marquette, Iowa. The Lady Luck Casino was sold and had it’s name changed to Casino Queen on March 1, 2017. The riverboat casino has 503 slot machines and 9 table games although Covid cut that number down quite a bit. I actually attempted to collect this chip last year and dumbly didn’t check the table games hours so when I arrived the tables were closed as they were only open Friday and Saturday. This time around I checked the table times and still almost screwed it up. I got there and at about 10:20 they had already called last 3 hands even though the tables are supposed to close at 11. I was able to buy in and play the last couple of hands. I won about $60 and happily took my chip as I didn’t want to come back a third time.

The chip is a white RHC with 2 red/peach edge inserts. The centre inlay is red, orange and yellow with some decorative designs. The casino name is white on a red backdrop with gold decoration around it. The location is black and the denom is white with a red border.

Quote: PokerGrinder

... I actually attempted to collect this chip last year and dumbly didn’t check the table games hours so when I arrived the tables were closed as they were only open Friday and Saturday. This time around I checked the table times and still almost screwed it up.
link to original post

My wife and I have recently returned home from a 10-day driving trip to Florida, during which we visited both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. PG's quoted comment in his post of the Casino Queen chip (above) reminded me of an experience I had during that trip, and I will tell that boring tale after a perhaps-even-more boring ramble.

Before leaving home, I had exchanged a few PMs with PG in which I mentioned that we had high hopes that while we were in Florida we might be able to meet up with another forum member. Unfortunately, we couldn't ever get that worked out. I also told him that while we were on the Gulf side of the state, I hoped to be able to collect a souvenir chip from the Tropical Breeze casino boat out of Port Richey.

The predecessor casino boat from that location was the "Sun Cruz", and in June 2014, wezvidz had posted his souvenir chip from that boat here. As wezvidz reported, that casino was operated as an anchored boat that gamblers were ferried to and from without the casino itself having to be brought back to shore after each partial-day gambling cruise. The casino was renamed the Tropical Breeze, though I don't really know when, and I don't even know whether they kept the same casino boat or changed to another. Their web site both before and after has been portricheycasino.com.

The continued operations included the Tropical Lady serving as the passenger ferry. In January 2018, there was a fire on board that ferry, leading to one death and numerous injuries. There are multiple videos available, should you care to search. A December 2018 article about the NTSB's report of the fire is provided here.

PG had sailed on the Tropical Breeze after it was no longer operating with the ferry. He posted his souvenir chip here last fall, calling the chip a disaster because of how faded the chip graphics were.

All of the reports that I have read about casino boats operating out of Port Richey had made it sound like an unpleasant experience, but my collecting compulsion still made me want to give it a shot. Their web site stated that they operated their craps table on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and since that is my favorite casino game, I made plans to go out on Friday.

Normal boarding charge is advertised as $8, though PG reported that he and a friend each paid $10. I don't know the details on any changes. We were staying at a motel that had some kind of link to the casino boat, which supposedly gave us a discounted room rate plus two free passes on the boat for each night we stayed in the motel. I picked up four passes in case I was able to convince friends to join us. Turns out there was no such interest, not even from my wife, who had heard the unfavorable reports of the boat and stayed ashore with our friends while I set sail for a little fun.

The check-in process at the dock included signing up on a roster and indicating your gaming preference: slots or table games, including your preferred game. I think they used that info to help decide which tables to staff. I passed my three extra free-boarding passes to the local in line behind me so that they shouldn't be wasted.

Turned out that only two passengers for that sailing had expressed interest in craps, so they didn't open the table the entire trip. Since I was scheduled to go home the next day, I decided to go ahead on the ship in order to get my souvenir chip, but I was definitely one unhappy camper. I grumbled (mostly to myself) and developed such a snit that I wasn't even going to buy in at any of their games -- why put money at risk at a casino that won't even open my favorite game on the day they advertised it?

Other than not getting to play craps, most everything went extremely well. The weather forecast had been for thunderstorms most of the afternoon, but we had clear skies and smooth water the entire day, except for a 30-second shower while reentering the port. The boarding fee (free for me) included some free food (nice burger, fries, and non-alcoholic beverage) and some free play: a coupon card for either $10 in slot play or a $10 match-bet for a table game. I noticed a sign in the slots area that said the machines only accepted cash and only paid out with tickets redeemable at the cashier -- you couldn't even cash-out from one machine and take the ticket to another machine without converting the ticket to currency at the cashier.

So how did I handle that? Well (as if it isn't obvious), the guy having a snit took his free-play coupon to the cashier, got a $10 bill they expected to have go into a machine right away, took the ten bucks to a blackjack table, bought in for two $5 chips, put one of them in my pocket and made one (losing) $5 bet at the blackjack table. Summary: free smooth boat ride spent mostly on the nice open-air (covered) deck, free meal, and free souvenir chip. Yes, the chip looks even worse than the one that PG posted. Even knowing the name of the casino, I have great difficulty seeing that on the chip. I was hopeful that there might be something fluorescing under UV light, but no such luck.

So what's to complain about (other than a non-readable souvenir chip and the fact they failed to staff their craps table as advertised)? I blame that last item on failures of the casino rather than my not having read the schedule, as PG admitted to in his visits to the Casino Queen.

So you sat on the top deck for 4 hours? Sounds like a long afternoon. Why did you keep a $5 chip and not a $1 chip like you usually do?

The day before, my wife and I had spent five hours on a fishing boat that we had enjoyed on previous trips to Florida. This time though, the ride was rough, the accommodations seemed crowded, and we didn’t catch much — she hooked nothing but the reefs and other people’s lines while I caught just two fish that I gave to the people who had been fishing next to us. I was reasonably pleased to experience a nice, smooth, free boat ride on my next outing. I kept the $5 chip because it was a simple process — never had a $1 chip in my possession.

Quote: Doc

... the guy having a snit took his free-play coupon to the cashier, got a $10 bill they expected to have go into a machine right away, took the ten bucks to a blackjack table, bought in for two $5 chips, put one of them in my pocket and made one (losing) $5 bet at the blackjack table. ...

I'm not completely familiar with the restrictions placed on what qualifies as a valid Doc collectible, but I will admit a fleeting thought that this might be a marginal case as if you didn't gamble at this casino. The $10 came straight from the cashier, half was pocketed as the souvenir and the other half sacrificed to the gods of chance. I guess technically the second chip qualifies even though it was a gift from the casino since it could have been pocketed, so it was your money that you voluntarily put at risk. To be safe I guess you could go back again :)

I have no such qualms in my collectibles, and will gladly add a chip to my collection without regard to its provenance.

Yeah, this case was a little marginal, but it wasn't the extreme. There have been a few casinos that I visited when no table games at all were in operation, and I just bought a souvenir chip from the cage. In most (perhaps all?) of those cases I played a coin in one of the slots to constitute having gambled there, and in this case I at least placed one bet (with house money?) on a blackjack game.

He gambled, he lost, he left with a chip. Seems good to me! Lol

State: Indiana
City: Anderson
Casino: Harrah’s Hoosier Park

Today’s chip of the day is from Harrah’s Hoosier Park in Anderson, Indiana. Hoosier Park became Harrah’s Hoosier Park on January 1, 2020 after a bill was passed (in 2019) to allow them and Indiana Grand to have live table games. Harrah’s has 1581 slots and 30 table games. I was in a bit of a hurry when I stopped in so I did a quick round of vulturing and played a few hands of BJ winning $20 or so before moving on to my next casino stop.

The chip is a white RHC with two grey/purple edge inserts. The centre inlay is white with a giant purple gear (?!?) that covers most of the inlay. The casino name, location and chip denom are all white.

I missed a few days while I was out of town but I’m back and posting again. I have 6 more chips and then I’m out of chips to post for awhile. I’ll be collecting more in late June/early July but I think most of those have been posted previously.

Quote: PokerGrinder

... Hoosier Park became Harrah’s Hoosier Park on January 1, 2020 after a bill was passed (in 2019) to allow them and Indiana Grand to have live table games.

Not only do I not have a chip from Harrah's Hoosier Park, I don't even have one from the predecessor Hoosier Park! (Guess that's because they didn't have table games before.)

It's starting to look a bit as I might not have been wasting enough of my time driving around the country collecting chips! My "Chips I might get" list includes the one PG just posted as well as Caesar's Southern Indiana (former Horseshoe Southern Indiana). I don't even have Indiana Grand on the list, but the MOGH Chip guide says that it is closed. I suppose I should check what other candidates might be in that area/direction.

I now see that some time in 2021 the Indiana Grand was renamed Horseshoe Indianapolis, though it is located in Shelbyville. I have also been informed by PM that there is a new Hard Rock Northern Indiana casino located in Gary.

Quote: Doc

I now see that some time in 2021 the Indiana Grand was renamed Horseshoe Indianapolis, though it is located in Shelbyville. I have also been informed by PM that there is a new Hard Rock Northern Indiana casino located in Gary.
link to original post

I got to Indiana Grand too late as it was already the Horseshoe. Also I might be about to cover all the chips you just mentioned…

Quote: Doc

Not only do I not have a chip from Harrah's Hoosier Park, I don't even have one from the predecessor Hoosier Park! (Guess that's because they didn't have table games before.)
link to original post

Doc,

Actually, Hoosier Park did have table games, but they used electronic chips and cards. Their BJ game was fantastic ;-)

Dog Hand

State: Indiana
City: Elizabeth
Casino: Caesars Southern Indiana

Today’s chip of the day is from Caesars Southern Indiana in Elizabeth, Indiana. This property was Caesars until 2008 when it became part of the Horseshoe brand and it remained the Horseshoe until 2019 when it became Caesars Southern Indiana. With the rebrand the property also moves from its riverboat to an on land building. The casino has 1580 slots and 146 table games. I played a few small plays on the slots and hit a decent size pay before playing a few hands of BJ to get my chip. I mentioned to the dealer that the casino looked different than when I last came before the name change, she laughed and said it was cause it was a brand new building. Oops. I grabbed a burger at the only restaurant open at the property during the day and then went to my car and slept in the backseat for 2 hours. I had barely slept the night before and I was exhausted, luckily I travel with blankets so I used one as a pillow and the other as a normal blanket.

The chip is a white RHC with 3 blue/green edge inserts. The centre inlay is blue with a grey border. The casino name and logo is black, the denom is white and the location is black on the grey border.

State: Ohio
City: Cincinnati
Casino: Hard Rock

Today’s chip of the day is from Hard Rock Casino in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hard Rock has 1830 slots and 131 table games and poker tables. This is the 3rd time that I have collected from this property. The first time the casino was called Horseshoe until June, 2016 when it became Jack Casino. I then visited Jack and it became the Hard Rock Casino in September, 2019. I am assuming that this will be the last name change for a while so I can’t see myself visiting again anytime soon. The night I went to the Hard Rock was the same night that the Bengals won the AFC Championship game so I was surprised that it wasn’t still crazy at 1 am when I got to the casino. I played a few hands of BJ to get my chip, i don’t remember the results.

The chip is a white RHC with two edge inserts in pink/brown. The centre inlay is white with a pink hexagon in the middle and a guitar taking up 1/3 of the hexagon. The casino name, location and the chip denom are all in black.

State: Indiana
City: Shelbyville
Casino: Horseshoe Indianapolis

Today’s chip of the day is from Horseshoe Indianapolis in Shelbyville, Indiana. The Horseshoe has 1600 slots and 92 table/poker games. I was planning on getting a chip from Indiana Grand but sadly the name changed in January so I never got to the property to collect the old chip. I instead collected this chip on my last stop while playing a few hands of BJ.

The chip is a white RHC with 2 large green edge inserts and 2 small pink edge inserts. The centre inlay is white with a large black and gold star taking up most of the inlay. The casino name, location and chip denom are all white.

Well, it took me a fair while to get around to indexing this latest chip post, in small part because I seem destined to be inconsistent in how I list the Indiana casinos named "Horseshoe".

Starting this description with the casino that has the simple, complete name of "Horseshoe", that chip was contributed to the thread by rdw4potus in 2013. I listed that one in the index with it's city name (Hammond) in parentheses right below. I had started doing that very early for cases where there are multiple casinos with (essentially) the same name that are located in the same state.

In the case of the casino in Hammond, I included that city descriptor because a year earlier (2012) I had already posted a chip from "Horseshoe Southern Indiana", which is located in Elizabeth. At the time of that earlier post, I didn't like the way the long, three-word, casino name seemed to distort the grid of the Indiana index block when I presented it on a single line. Instead, I listed the casino name in the index as just "Horseshoe", with "Southern Indiana" in parentheses right below, as if that was equivalent to being the city where it was located, which it was not. Yep, I was inconsistent from the beginning.

So now in 2022, PokerGrinder has presented us with the chip from the "Horseshoe Indianapolis", which is really located in Shelbyville. Rather than fretting about how to make the index posts look consistent, I just indexed this one as "Horseshoe Indianapolis". Blame the casino owner for the inconsistency this time.

So no rhyme or reason is your point? Lol

State: Indiana
City: Gary
Casino: Hard Rock Northern Indiana

Today’s chip of the day is from Hard Rock Northern Indiana in Gary, Indiana. The new casino is sort of the old Majestic Star Casino. They moved the casino license, all of its staff and some gaming equipment over to the new land based Hard Rock. Hard Rock opened on 5/14/2021 which is funny because my first visit to this casino was in March of 2021… story time! I planned to visit this casino in March of 2021 not realizing it wasn’t open yet. I drove there, went past security by the security gate and parked where all the cars were. I then walked into the casino to find that it was only half set up with the stands for the slots but no actual slots. I looked around and realized I wasn’t supposed to be in there but none of the workers seemed to care that I was there. Obviously I didn’t get a chip that day lol. Fast forward to this January and I visited when the casino was actually open to the public. I played BJ to get my chip after checking out the slots. The casino is huge with 2000 slots and 127 tables although it actually felt bigger than that.

The chip is a white RHC with two edge inserts in purple and blue. The oversized centre inlay is white with a blue circle. The denom and location are both in blue the Hard Rock logo is in the middle of the inlay. The other side of the chip has a guitar taking up the left side of the inlay and the casino name and chip denom in blue on the right side.

Quote: PokerGrinder

So no rhyme or reason is your point? Lol
link to original post

Seems about right. So for today's chip going into the index, I just truncated the four-word, longest-name-yet for an Indiana casino to the simple "Hard Rock". Until there is another casino with that name in Indiana. One of these days, perhaps someone else will have the opportunity to manage the thread index.

Quote: Doc

Quote: PokerGrinder

So no rhyme or reason is your point? Lol
link to original post

Seems about right. So for today's chip going into the index, I just truncated the four-word, longest-name-yet for an Indiana casino to the simple "Hard Rock". Until there is another casino with that name in Indiana. One of these days, perhaps someone else will have the opportunity to manage the thread index.
link to original post

You planning on resigning? Lol

State: Illinois
City: East St Louis
Casino: DraftKings at Casino Queen

Today’s chip of the day is from DraftKings at Casino Queen in East St Louis, Illinois. That’s a mouthful! I wasn’t able to pin down an exact renaming date but Casino Queen became DraftKings at Casino Queen around mid 2020. DraftKings has 993 slots machines and 29 table games. I am having memory problems with this property. My memory says that when I visited this casino in June 2012 that the casino was still on a boat but the article I found says they moved in 2007 when I was 16 so I’m quite confused. The building I collected this new chip from doesn’t look anything like what I remember soooo… I’m losing it clearly. Anyway I played a few slots, made some money and then played way more BJ than I expected to. I was only planning on playing a couple hands as I had 4 hours to drive still that night but I won something like 14 hands in a row and didn’t leave until the shoe was over. I ended up winning about $400 as I added a to my bet with every win.

The chip is a white RHC with 4 blue edge inserts. The centre inlay is white with the casino name in black other the draft being green, the location and chip denom are black as well. GPI the chip manufacture’s logo is grey. Not sure what the symbol in the middle is supposed to be but it looks like a “Q” in 3/4 of a box.

Quote: Doc

Quote: PokerGrinder

So no rhyme or reason is your point? Lol
link to original post

Seems about right. So for today's chip going into the index, I just truncated the four-word, longest-name-yet for an Indiana casino to the simple "Hard Rock".
link to original post

I wouldn't feel bad about it. For the first few months, I think they didn't have a sign.
Then, the sign said "ardRo" for long enough for me to take notice. ("What the Hck?")
They did eventually install the missing letters.

No idea if "Rockford Casino" (a Hard Rock opening act) has tables.

Unfortunately no they only have etables for now.

Quote: PokerGrinder

State: Illinois
City: East St Louis
Casino: DraftKings at Casino Queen

<snip>Not sure what the symbol in the middle is supposed to be but it looks like a “Q” in 3/4 of a box.


link to original post

PokerGrinder,

I think that symbol is a stylized "CQ" for Casino Queen. For a chip only about 2 years old, your specimen is really dirty.

The last time I visited Casino Queen they were still on the boat, so I guess it's been a while!

Dog Hand

Talk about foreshadowing!!! Two days in a row I made quips about how overly-long casino names can play havoc with the index grid boxes, and now PG posts a chip from "Draft Kings at Casino Queen"!!! So how do I respond to that?

Well, since the Illinois portion of the thread index already had an entry for "Casino Queen", I just indexed this entry as "Draft Kings". Hope that works for a while. And, a bit amazingly, the Illinois section of the index is still quite compact and neat.