Casino Chip of the Day

State: New Jersey
City: Atlantic City
Casino: Harrah’s Trump Plaza

Harrah’s Trump Plaza was the tenth casino to open in New Jersey. It opened for business on 14 May 1984. A short 5 months after opening the name was changed to Trump Plaza to avoid confusion with Harrah’s Marina casino.

Like Harrah’s Marina, the Claridge, and the Playboy casinos, Harrah’s Trump Plaza used what are known as ”Coin-In-Center” chips. These heavy chips have a plastic outer ring with a metal disc as the inlay. These “coins” featured the Harrah’s Trump Plaza logo, boat, and denomination. The outer plastic ring is inset with $1 Harrah’s Trump Plaza. The color of this outer ring varies from a light maroon to a dark red. Casino chip collectors are always eager to “discover’ new chips -- sometimes too eager. As casinos reorder more of the same chips, manufacturing processes may produce chips with slightly different shades of ink, slightly thicker or thinner text, or misaligned 4-color printing. In the case of the $1 Harrah’s Trump Plaza chips, collectors have “identified” multiple shades of text on this outer ring. Some see 4 colors from light to dark. Others see less. For me, I agree that there are only 2 colors. Both are shown below.

State: Texas
City: Bacliff
Casino: Clifton Card House

Clifton Card House opened on 7 December 2023 with an 8-table poker room on Galveston Bay about 35 miles south east of Houston. Their main competition is the much larger Spades (Webster) poker room. Clifton Card House offers $1/hour comps for their cash game players as well as a bad beat jackpot. I haven’t played there yet, but I have to imagine that these comps and jackpots are funded by raking each pot, which is illegal, but more and more Texas social poker rooms seem to be doing this in order to attract players.

Here’s what’s been said by some people that have played there and reviewed the room:

27 Jan 2024 - ”Too much shady business out in the open for me! The drugs, unprofessional management & owners playing in GTD tournament left a bad taste in my mouth. I will say there were a few people in there that were absolutely amazing! They were the only people that knew what was going on around there. The female floor Manager was incredibly knowledgeable and is a hidden gem! Hopefully she & 2 others wise up and move on to a much better place. No actual food options! BYOB - that's it. Service is bad so others were stepping up to help out. The vulgarity is way out of control there. Won't recommend nor will I go back. I don't foresee this place lasting.”

And then there’s this:

12 Dec 2023 - ”I went last Saturday for the noon tournament but no one showed up except the people who work there.”

On to the chips. They have a very nice ceramic chip set. The center design on both sides is the CCH monogram with their name on one side and the denomination on the reverse. There are 4 blue and 4 orange inserts on a white background.

State: Texas
City: Humble
Casino: Four Suits Social

Four Suits Social, sometimes written as 4 Suits Social, opened in February 2023 and was previously the Empire Humble poker room. The 7-table room opens at 4pm daily. I was in Humble in August 2023 and called Four Suits ahead of time to ask about the room. Here’s what I wrote at the time in my Texas Poker Road Trip blog:

”I phoned 4 Suits from my car even though they were only 0.8 miles down the road. They still had no cash games running at 9:30pm on a Saturday night but hoped to once their tournament ended. There were only 3 names on their waitlist when I looked on Poker Atlas. A cash game seemed unlikely, so I left Humble without any new chips from 4 Suits. It could be because Lillian, the general manager, told me that they rake 10% up to $15 per pot plus take a $2 promotional drop when the pot reaches $200! I'll have to trade for one of their $1 chips to add to my collection once I get home. I'll have to do it quickly as I can't imagine they'll be in business much longer.”

To my amazement, the room is still in operation! What do I know?

The chips they use are very cheap plastic ones with paper sticker inlays. As you can see, it doesn’t take long (less than a year) for these type of inlays to degrade. Notice that some of the ink on the name “Four Suits Social” has come off already. Eventually the white paper under the logo will show through until you have a grey chip with a 100% white inlay. This is what’s happened with the chip sets at all Empire locations as well as the Alamo Card House. There’s no excuse for playing poker with such cheap equipment.

I had the same problem with 4 suits end of October. Friday night and no games ran the entire night there. Not sure how they are managing to stay open.

State: New Hampshire
City: Nashua
Casino: The American Social Club

The American Social Club was a charity casino that operated from approximately 2021 until 2023. It was advertised as ”Sports Bar, Arcade, Food and Fun!”. They ran 3 poker tables and charged a $12 per month membership fee to enter. Very little can be found about this club online even though it closed somewhat recently. Here’s what a Google review had to say about the place:

”Private club that includes...Gambling, all sports, large screen TVs, live music, socially distanced, bar bingo, great staff, good food & always upbeat! Visitors are welcome to come in and explore to see if you’re interested in joining. Many different occupations qualify for one year membership free, come check it out! Temperature and sign in sheet at door.”

I assume that their “gambling” offer was limited to the 3 poker tables as no mention of slots or traditional pit games. Perhaps they charged for “bar bingo”. From all accounts they positioned themselves as a private sports bar that served food and drinks, but wanted to also offer poker and bingo, so used the cloak of a charity casino to do so. This obviously was not a viable business model.



The chip is ceramic with a white background and black logo/denomination with 4 black/gray/black inserts.

Quote: alpha1243

State: New Hampshire
City: Nashua
Casino: The American Social Club

The American Social Club was a charity casino that operated from approximately 2021 until 2023. It was advertised as ”Sports Bar, Arcade, Food and Fun!”. They ran 3 poker tables and charged a $12 per month membership fee to enter. Very little can be found about this club online even though it closed somewhat recently. Here’s what a Google review had to say about the place:

”Private club that includes...Gambling, all sports, large screen TVs, live music, socially distanced, bar bingo, great staff, good food & always upbeat! Visitors are welcome to come in and explore to see if you’re interested in joining. Many different occupations qualify for one year membership free, come check it out! Temperature and sign in sheet at door.”

I assume that their “gambling” offer was limited to the 3 poker tables as no mention of slots or traditional pit games. Perhaps they charged for “bar bingo”. From all accounts they positioned themselves as a private sports bar that served food and drinks, but wanted to also offer poker and bingo, so used the cloak of a charity casino to do so. This obviously was not a viable business model.

$1 The American Social Club chip

The chip is ceramic with a white background and black logo/denomination with 4 black/gray/black inserts.
link to original post

I'm impressed! I thought I had a complete set of active New Hampshire locations (though if this placed closed perhaps I do again) but have not heard of this place.

I don’t believe any NH casinos have slots, all just poker and/or table games.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I don’t believe any NH casinos have slots, all just poker and/or table games.
link to original post

Nh casinos have class11 slots. They are called hhr machines which stands for historical horse racing.
A few states Kentucky being another one have them.
The largest NH casino has about 300 slots .

Ah ok thanks I didn’t realize they had Class II machines I’ve actually never been to NH.

Quote: Hunterhill

Quote: PokerGrinder

I don’t believe any NH casinos have slots, all just poker and/or table games.
link to original post

Nh casinos have class11 slots. They are called hhr machines which stands for historical horse racing.
A few states Kentucky being another one have them.
The largest NH casino has about 300 slots .
link to original post

Technically, no.

"Class II" gaming can only happen at tribal properties.
New Hampshire has no recognized tribes, so no tribal casinos.

HHR is similar, but pedantically NOT Class II, since the IGRA does not apply.

Quote: Dieter

Quote: Hunterhill

Quote: PokerGrinder

I don’t believe any NH casinos have slots, all just poker and/or table games.
link to original post

Nh casinos have class11 slots. They are called hhr machines which stands for historical horse racing.
A few states Kentucky being another one have them.
The largest NH casino has about 300 slots .
link to original post

Technically, no.

"Class II" gaming can only happen at tribal properties.
New Hampshire has no recognized tribes, so no tribal casinos.

HHR is similar, but pedantically NOT Class II, since the IGRA does not apply.
link to original post

Thanks for that clarification, didn’t realize that class ll specifically was for tribal gaming.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Ah ok thanks I didn’t realize they had Class II machines I’ve actually never been to NH.
link to original post

Since HHR machines have been approved there are more casinos opening and expanding.
Also some corruption going on as the casinos are supposed to donate a certain amount of profits to approved charities.
One of the casinos was shut down because the owner was not doing that and was keeping the extra money.
The owner or his wife was on the state gaming commission and was forced to resign and sell the casino.

Quote: Hunterhill

Quote: Dieter

Quote: Hunterhill

Quote: PokerGrinder

I don’t believe any NH casinos have slots, all just poker and/or table games.
link to original post

Nh casinos have class11 slots. They are called hhr machines which stands for historical horse racing.
A few states Kentucky being another one have them.
The largest NH casino has about 300 slots .
link to original post

Technically, no.

"Class II" gaming can only happen at tribal properties.
New Hampshire has no recognized tribes, so no tribal casinos.

HHR is similar, but pedantically NOT Class II, since the IGRA does not apply.
link to original post

Thanks for that clarification, didn’t realize that class ll specifically was for tribal gaming.
link to original post

Hey hey, big discussions over minutiae are why we keep coming back... right?

HHR isn't a "Nevada-style" slot machine, in any case.
Enjoy the day!

State: New Hampshire
City: Seabrook
Casino: Greyhound Casino & Tavern

The original Seabrook Greyhound Park opened in 1973. It offered greyhound racing until 2009 and in the 2010’s opened a poker room spreading Limit Hold’em then eventually No-Limit Hold’em. In March of 2019 the property was sold and reopened as the Greyhound Casino & Tavern. This name did not last long because in January of 2020 it was completely remodeled and reopened as The Brook which was the country’s largest charity casino.

Luckily for the casino chip collecting community they produced a pretty high quality chip, at least compared to their predecessors.



This is a Paulson RHC chip with a white background and a grey and red triangular insert. Their greyhound logo, name, location, and denomination adorned the inlay. The chip rack from The Brook used the same chip mold with the same base and insert colors (see below). I suspect that both chips were used simultaneously after the name change.

Quote: Hunterhill

Quote: PokerGrinder

Ah ok thanks I didn’t realize they had Class II machines I’ve actually never been to NH.
link to original post

Since HHR machines have been approved there are more casinos opening and expanding.
Also some corruption going on as the casinos are supposed to donate a certain amount of profits to approved charities.
One of the casinos was shut down because the owner was not doing that and was keeping the extra money.
The owner or his wife was on the state gaming commission and was forced to resign and sell the casino.
link to original post

Money always leads to greed which always leads to corruption.

That is a dashing dog in a suit! I also like the cleanness of the design of the second chip.

State: Colorado
City: Cripple Creek
Casino: Aspen Mine

Cripple Creek is a great little tourist town in the Rocky Mountains just outside of Colorado Springs. Having grown up in New Jersey and spent countless hours in Atlantic City, I wasn’t ready for Cripple Creek. In fact, the first time I drove there from my duty station in Colorado Springs I drove straight down Bennett Ave (the main drag, or perhaps better worded “their only street”), passed every casino, and came out the far end scratching my head thinking I must have missed something. There are no neon lights or high rise casino hotel towers. Bennett Ave was a dirt road and the buildings that lined it had raised wooden walkways just as you’ve seen in any western movie. The “casinos” were tiny one-room gaming areas on the ground floor as most of the buildings were only one story anyway. This short road was home to a dozen or more casinos.

Gaming was limited to slot machines and blackjack back then when I arrived in 1993. Blackjack had a minimum and maximum wager of $5. The slot machines accepted coins or $1 metal tokens. The blackjack tables made use of these $1 tokens and loose quarters if they needed to pay out $7.50 for a natural 21. This means that the casinos only had a need for $5 chips for wagering and payouts. Some $25 chips were on hand if a blackjack player ran well and required a big color-up before walking to the cage. $1 chips were not needed. Now, most of these casinos were just small rooms filled with slot machines. Only a few had a blackjack table, and it was not uncommon to find them empty. When someone did want to play, they usually played all five spots for $5 each.

So how are there $1 chips? Well, when a casino opened they would order a number of $1 chips which they expected people to take home as souvenirs. They would only be given out at the blackjack tables when a player hit 21. Within a week or so of opening, all of the $1 chips were gone. This was a form of cheap advertising for the casinos.

The Aspen Mine opened in July of 1993. This was a late comer as most of the casinos had opened a year or two earlier in existing buildings. The Aspen was new and glitzy. When you entered, it looked like a mine, complete with an ore cart on tracks filled with gold nuggets. No other casino in Cripple Creek had any such decorations – they generally all looked the same – like rundown western saloons filled with slot machines. My folks had come to visit that weekend, so I took them to Cripple Creek and just happened to find the Aspen Mine was opened. My dad was a gambler and also collected casino chips, so we played a few hands of $5 blackjack until we were able to get our hands on a $1 chip. Dad took home a $5 and I a $1.

I should also mention that the newly formed ChipCo International, innovator of the ceramic casino chip, had one hell of a sale rep in Colorado. All of the Cripple Creek casinos purchased ceramic ChipCo chips. Several even spent the extra money for serialized chips with printed or engraved numbers. That little casino town is responsible for creating some of the best looking casino chips out there!



The Aspen Mine closed its doors for good in February of 1996. While Colorado does not require that closed casinos destroy their chips as Nevada and New Jersey do, few of these ceramic chips survived, especially the $1 chips. Certain $1 chips from Cripple Creek are ”key” for collectors, and the Aspen Mine is one of them. I was just glad to have been there to pick up this one in person.

One of my favourite casino towns. I’ve only been once back in 2014 but I really enjoyed it. I will have to get back there at some point to collect the new Golden Nugget.

State: Colorado
City: Cripple Creek
Casino: Bronco Billy’s

Bronco Billy’s was one of the first casinos in Cripple Creek that I visited. At the time it was all slots, but rather than using the usual gray metal $1 tokens in their slot machine, they used a hybrid known as a ”choken”. The word ”choken” is mash up of the word ”chip” and ”token”. The choken has a metal core and laminated, colored surface. It has a smaller diameter and is thinner than a token or chip. It can be used in slot machines as a token or at table games as a chip. I don’t know why Bronco Billy’s used chokens, other than the fact that they looked nicer than tokens. Perhaps they didn’t want the hassle of finding tokens from other casinos in their slot machines. These colored chokens are prized by collectors but difficult to find in good condition as the slot machines really tended to dent and distort the colored coating.



Years later, as Colorado adopted more liberal gaming laws, casinos expanded to include more table games. Bronco Billy’s produced this $1 chip.



Later, this rack would be replaced with this one with a traditional white base color.



Bronco Billy’s eventually expanded by taking over the adjoining casino. They dropped the ”Bronco” from their name and became Billy’s Casino. The new chip required little modifications and at first glance might look identical to the previous chip.

State: Colorado
City: Black Hawk
Casino: Bronco Billy’s

In addition to a Bronco Billy’s in Cripple Creek, there was a Bronco Billy’s in Black Hawk. They opened in November of 1992 and closed just over 5 years later in January of 1998. Like their sister property, they really did not require any $1 chips, but unlike their sister property, they did not produce any $1 chips or $1 chokens. They used very cheap red plastic $5 chips with a hot gold stamped center and some years later actually produced a pretty nice $25 Paulson clay chip, but for what purpose I have no idea.

In 1998 they produced a set of ”Goodbye Chips”. This ceramic commemorative set was produced by ChipCo and featured four different $5 chips plus this unusual $2.95 No Cash Value chip good for a ”Complete Prime Rib Dinner”. I love this chip!

State: Colorado
City: Central City
Casino: The Miners Pick Casino

The Miners Pick Casino opened on 22 June 1992 and closed on 30 August after just 10 weeks of operation. Following in the footsteps of the Gregory Street Casino, the Miners Pick Casino produced this comical chip. The front depicts a gold miner with his finger picking his nose and a pickaxe lying at his feet. The Miners Pick Casino and Central City, Colorado are in black text with a pair of crossed pickaxes circling this picture. The $1 denomination is in gold. Not only were very few of these $1 chips produced, but few survived as the casino was only opened for 10 weeks, making this one of the rarer $1 Colorado casino chips.

State: Colorado
City: Black Hawk
Casino: Gregory Street Casino

This $1 Gregory Street Casino chip is one of the more comical chip designs out there. The front depicts a bearded man in long red underwear with no shoes panning for gold with the Colorado mountains in the background. The reverse of the chip depicts the backside of the image, showing our gold panner with the right side of his drawers unbuttoned. Gregory St. Casino and Black Hawk, Colorado are in black text circling this picture on both sides with a gold $1 denomination.



Only 100 of these $1 chips were produced, making this one of the rarer and more expensive $1 chips in my collection. Here’s what Colorado casino chip enthusiast Eric Miller had to say about this chip:

The Real Story: $1 Gregory Street
Some of you may have been watching a recent auction for the $1 chip from Gregory Street Casino in Black Hawk, CO, that fetched a handsome final bid of $750! As with many casinos in the mid-1990s when chip collecting and the production of limited-edition chips was all the rage, the Gregory Street was no exception with the two-part owners, brothers David and Mike Patterson both being into the chip collecting hobby. With the encouragement of other local collectors, the casino started releasing numbered sets, stackable sets, NCV commemoratives and were very good customers of Chipco. In the months before closing, Chipco sent the Gregory Street one rack of the $1 chips as a sample, and they were never put on the table and never officially released. Knowing Dave and Mike personally to this day it is said that a handful of chips were given or sold to collectors and their aunt who owned the property grabbed a couple along with the two brothers who may retain one or two for their collections and the rest, like many chips disappeared into the history and lore of chip collecting. I would venture to guess that no more than a dozen of these chips exist in private collections.

The limited edition chips are more commonly held by casino chip collectors. The front of the chip depicts the Colorado blue columbine, the state flower, with Gregory St. Casino in gold text at the top, and Black Hawk, Colorado – Limited Edition in black text at the bottom. The $1 denomination is in purple and only shown on the front of the chip. This limited edition chips also has 3 blue inserts. On the reverse we find the same gold panner, but with the left side of his long underwear unbuttoned this time and the Colorado mountains in the background. The bottom of the chip now has the words One Dollar in black text. A total of only 200 of these chips were produced.



There was also a serialized, or numbered, set of chips produced. These look identical to the previous chip but have a 3-digit number printed in purple below our gold panner (069 in this case). A total of only 750 of these numbered chips were produced.



The Gregory Street Casino opened on 22 March 1992 and closed on 29 September 1996.

I really like the chips from the last two posts. I wish more casinos would have chips that are comical like this.

State: Colorado
City: Black Hawk
Casino: Bull Durham

The Bull Durham Casino received its name following the painting of the exterior tobacco advertisement in 1912.

The property has seen many establishments in its time and has since become a Colorado landmark. In the 1880’s, the building was used as a wagon works and later was used as a livery stable and blacksmith shop. In later years, the building was restored and used as an art studio and store. Bull Durham Casino began its business in February of 1993 and has been expanding and flourishing since.

Today you will find a quaint slot house nestled in the heart of Black Hawk; filled with the sounds of jackpots and the smell of our famous Hot Dogs! It’s too bad we weren’t around during the Gold Rush. It would’ve been much easier to strike rich!

Well, that’s what their website says. While it’s just a slot casino today they did have a blackjack table when they opened in the 1990’s. They issued 3 types of $1 chips. The most common is the style shown below. This illustrates another humorous chip design from Chipco. You can just see that the edges of the chips have 4 sets of inserts with a black-red-black-red-black pattern. The design and text are identical on both sides of the chip, but the bull is showing its head and tail on each side. This makes for a nice heads-and-tails chip.



A less common design is this serialized version. Only 500 were produced. This is number 079 which is engraved into the ceramic on the tails side of the chip.



The rarer version was produced in a 5-chip stackable set which included the 25¢, 50¢, $1, $5, and $25 denomination. The only change in the design is that an image of the bull was added between the edge inserts.

They also produced a number of limited edition $5 chips, mostly for various holidays, where the bull was appropriately attired with Christmas lights, bunny ears, a sombrero, etc. They certainly had a sense of humor.

State: Colorado
City: Central City
Casino: Harvey’s Wagon Wheel

Harvey’s Wagon Wheel had a short but colorful chip run in the 9 years it was in operation between 1994 and 2003. Their $1 house chip was a classic Paulson RHC style. The Chipco sales rep must have not been able to locate Central City on the map because most every other casino town in the state used Chipco ceramic chips. As a poker player I love this chip design as it features a wagon wheel. In poker, when I player bet the nuts, it referred to the nuts holding the wheel onto his wagon. He was basically saying that he had the best possible hand and was willing to bet everything he owned as his wagon was worthless without the nuts to affix the wheels.



Harvey’s was one of the earliest casinos to hop on the limited edition train. The Chipco sales rep made an appearance, although a brief one, when in 1998 Harvey’s Wagon Wheel issued a series of limited edition chips depicting a number of current wheels (a.k.a. classic cars). This is also when they entered into a marketing agreement with Bill Cosby. This series shows a classic car on one side of the chip, and various poses of Bill Cosby on the other side with the tag line ”Cos it’s a classic”. Only 300 of these limited edition $1 chips were produced.



The next year, in preparation for the Y2K celebration, they produced ”KA-CHING!” chips, again featuring Bill Cosby, but this time they had Paulson do the work. The edge inserts are the same as their house rack, so this worked better for the dealers as they would be on the tables longer with a production run of 5,000 chips.



When Independence Day rolled around, they produced another limited edition chip. For some reason it was not 2-sided. This again featured Bill Cosby and another 5,000 chips were made.



That Christmas they pushed on and produced a smaller run of 1,000 limited edition chips, though this time without Bill Cosby for some reason.



Perhaps they were saving Bill for the New Year’s Eve chip a week later. Upon closer inspection perhaps Bill was not called upon as his image is the same used for last year’s New Year’s chip. A run of 2,250 were produced. Why the unusual quantity you might be wondering?



They made 2,250 New Year’s Eve chips because the next day they produced 2,250 New Year’s Day chips – bringing the total to the standard 5,000 that they produced the previous year. Again there were no new images of Bill Cosby. This was smart, as collectors would bring home 2 chips this year rather than just the one.



Fear not, for The Cos made a short comeback later in 2001 for St. Patrick’s Day. They produced a short run of only 1,500 of these chips showing Cosby in a green shirt making one of his trademark faces.



In all there are five $1 limited edition chips featuring Bill Cosby. At the end of 2003, Harvey’s Wagon Wheel was sold and reopened as Fortune Valley casino. They carried the torch forward by making a few of their own $1 limited edition chips.

Quote: alpha1243

When Independence Day rolled around, they produced another limited edition chip. They made 2,250 New Year’s Eve chips because the next day they produced 2,250 New Year’s Day chips – bringing the total to the standard 5,000 that they produced the previous year.

Your math isn’t mathing sir.

Category: Cruise Ships
Cruise Line: Celebrity
Ship: Ascent

Celebrity cruises newest ship: Ascent (maiden voyage Nov 2023)
It's captained by 2 brothers: 3 months on, 3 months off with 1 week overlap for each switchover

They are the only 2 people related to each other that are Captains on Celebrity.
They opened the ship, from sea trials to current.
They've been Captains for years and this is the 1st time they are in command of the same ship.




The cruise line created five hundred $5 chips to commemorate this event.
I'll probably use the chip when one of them gets xferred to another ship.

Doc is going to ask you to add the official chip of the day header.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Doc is going to ask you to add the official chip of the day header.
link to original post

oh ok.
i edited my post.
No idea what to put for state/city

Quote: 100xOdds

Quote: PokerGrinder

Doc is going to ask you to add the official chip of the day header.
link to original post

oh ok.
i edited my post.
No idea what to put for state/city
link to original post

The format is slightly different for cruise ship CCotD posts. See for example https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/off-topic/general/8928-casino-chip-of-the-day/63/#post239344

State: Colorado
City: Central City
Casino: Fortune Valley

Fortune Valley opened in November of 2003. It was the old Harvey’s Wagon Wheel casino. They produced a variety of $1 chips to include both ceramic and clay types. I won’t list all 7, but will show you this St. Patrick’s Day limited edition chip from 2006.

This Paulson chip with the large inlay has a big 4-leaf clover on one side with green text and the denomination in black. The reverse is similar to their house chip, but with the larger inlay.



Fortune Valley remained in operation until 2012 when it was sold and reopened as The Reserve casino later that same year.

Happy St. Patrick's Day Eve, everyone! It's apparently a thing now!

I was driving all day yesterday so I forgot to post but happy 12 year anniversary to the chip thread! Doc your baby is old enough to babysit the little chips now.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I was driving all day yesterday so I forgot to post but happy 12 year anniversary to the chip thread! Doc your baby is old enough to babysit the little chips now.
link to original post

And apparently 12yr olds are dating nowdays. :o
I was born in the wrong century altho when i was 12, i was having the time of my life with my Atari 2600 :)

To be fair 12 year olds were “dating” when I was 12 as well. But dating at that age is holding hands and talking on the phone at night.

12 year olds dating is more than holding hands now.

Yikes

Doc are you not doing your yearly anniversary post?

Quote: PokerGrinder

Doc are you not doing your yearly anniversary post?
link to original post

He's not been active in a month or so. He either passed away or is no longer interested/able to maintain the directory.

Quote: alpha1243

Quote: PokerGrinder

Doc are you not doing your yearly anniversary post?
link to original post

He's not been active in a month or so. He either passed away or is no longer interested/able to maintain the directory.
link to original post

I hope this is merely good-natured teasing. Surely there must be a third scenario!

Quote: Doc

As my senility progresses, perhaps someone else will need to take over the CCotD indexing of chips in this thread. I can't seem to keep straight the casinos in one small "city" in New Jersey, where they seem to want to keep reusing similar names for places.

When I posted my souvenir chip from "Bally's (Atlantic City)" in this thread just under eleven years ago, I tried to post the history of the place. Just the day before that, I had (similarly) attempted to post the history of the place from which I had collected my souvenir Golden Nugget chip. There have been a few other times in this forum that similar attempts were made, but now it all just looks like a jumble to me.
link to original post

I think Doc would like to pass the responsibility on to someone else. I hope he keeps posting.

I didn’t realize he hadn’t been on the forum. I messaged a mutual friend of ours off the forum to see if they know anything. I hope he’s ok. I don’t seem to have his cell number anymore.

I’ll let him share his info if he chooses but I have confirmation he is alive and well.

State: California
City: San Diego
Casino: Doc’s

Doc’s was one of the many small card rooms that sprung up in California in the 1980’s. They opened for business in late 1984 but closed down only 4 years later.

In the 1980’s there were more than 100 card rooms in the City of San Diego. At a time when the San Diego Police Department and the City had an unfavorable opinion of these businesses, the City approved regulations that gradually eliminated every cardroom except for the two that now remain - the Palomar Card Club and the Lucky Lady Casino. Card rooms were phased out in the City when regulations were approved to prohibit card rooms from being passed along to heirs or being sold to third parties. Whenever a cardroom owner passed away, the business closed down.



The Paulson hat and cane chip is dark blue with 3 pairs of light blue and white inserts. The paper inlay shows Doc’s in black text with a small club and spade on either side. The large denomination is in red with the location below in black.

Category: Oceania
Country: Auckland, New Zealand
Casino: Poker Ape

Today’s chip of the day is from Poker Ape in Auckland, New Zealand. I recently finished a 44 day trip through NZ, Australia and a cruise with stops in Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. This is the only poker room that I found in either NZ or Australia that offered cash games, the few I found in Australia were tournaments only due to laws. This small two table poker club was in room off a main square that was filled with bars and restaurants. The room was the perfect size for two tables and there is no chance that a third table would have fit. I played 1/1 NLH for about a hour before busting my second buy in and leaving. I think I lost $300 NZD which is about $179 USD. The game was very small for what I prefer to play so I was never going to stay long but also the $100 max buy in made it less enjoyable as well. Now that I think about it I might have only lost $250 but I can no longer remember. The club provided dealers and I think the rake was $10 per hand which while high for North America is actually low for the region. The first pot that I won I tipped the dealer a dollar forgetting where I was and everyone looked at me funny. The table explained there isn’t tipping here and I said I forgot. Dealer made a joke that he’d keep the tip so he did. I later found out that in Australia it’s illegal for casino staff to accept tips. I don’t remember which casino I was told this in so it could have just been that province I don’t know.

Quick note as to me saying the 1/1 limits were small. I prefer to play an absolute minimum of 2/5 but love to play much larger. I won’t be posting my chip from The Star in Sydney as it’s been posted before but I played 10/20/40 NLH there on a few nights. They also had 100/200/400 which is wayyyyy too big for me lol.

The chip is blue and textured with 8 white outlines of bananas around the chip. The centre inlay has the denom and club name in white. The opposite side of the chip has a monkey holding two cards along with the denom and club name again.

Category: Oceania
Country: Dunedin, New Zealand
Casino: Grand

Today’s chip of the day is from Grand Casino in Dunedin, New Zealand. Grand Casino has 180 slot machine, 13 table games and one poker table. They didn’t have any beatable slots as was the case with all of Australia and New Zealand sadly. I played one of the most boring poker games I’ve been in. After checking the slots I found a 5 handed 1/3 game running and grabbed a seat. The guys were there more for a social thing than to gamble. The raises were small and the pots even smaller. I only saw 2 pots over $100. They have a rule in NZ that every 5 hours gamblers have to take a break but with poker they just shut down the poker table every 5 hours for 30 minutes so that everyone takes a break at the same time. Since the table opened at 6:30 they decided break would be 10:30… that makes sense right?!? The table protested and so they moved it to 11 and one player got mad and argued that first off none of the current players were here until at least 8 and even if it’s from table open that 11:30 should be the break. I personally didn’t care much as I was leaving as soon as the break because the game was garbage but the one guy got very angry. Anyways the table closed and I left, not sure if the players stuck around for the 30 minutes or not.

The chip is from the Dunedin Casino as they never got new chips after changing the name to Grand in 2021. I kept both a $1 and $5 as I often do overseas when the $1 is a hot stamp, don’t ask why cause I’m honestly not 100% sure why. The $1 chip is a light blue hot stamp with the suits around the edge of the chip. The centre inlay has a black hot stamp with the casino name listed twice, the denom and then DC in the middle. The $5 chip is red with 6 white edge inserts and the denom listed 4 times in white around the edge of the chip. The centre inlay has a blue chip with yellow inlays with a D on it. The casino name is listed twice in blue on the inlay.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Category: Oceania
Country: Dunedin, New Zealand
Casino: Grand

I kept both a $1 and $5 as I often do overseas when the $1 is a hot stamp, don’t ask why cause I’m honestly not 100% sure why.
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It's a cost savings measure since casinos order a lot of $1 chips. Chips like their $5 chip probably cost them at or above $1 to buy, and since a $1 chip is also the most popular souvenir, they're not losing money when patrons walk out the door with them. This is why hot stamped $1 chips are making a comeback in Las Vegas.

I think you read my post wrong. I said I don’t know why I keep both the $1 and $5 when it’s a hot stamp chip.

Category: Oceania
Country: Queenstown, New Zealand
Casino: Sky City

Today’s chip of the day is from Sky City Casino in Queenstown, New Zealand. Sky City is a small casino with only 86 slot machines and 13 table games. Went I visited most of the tables were closed. I played $10 bj to collect my chip and won $100 in the process. All the bj was csm.

The chip is red with 3 sets of 3 white edge inserts. There is a half circle under each set of inserts and the denom is listed 3 times. The reason I kept a $5 chip is that I didn’t find any casinos in either country that had $1 chips on table games. You have to bet $5 increments and they have $2.50 chips. So casinos that didn’t have poker didn’t have $1 chips. The centre inlay has a picture of the view looking out from the harbour of Queenstown. The casino name and location are white.

Quote: alpha1243

Quote: PokerGrinder

Category: Oceania
Country: Dunedin, New Zealand
Casino: Grand

I kept both a $1 and $5 as I often do overseas when the $1 is a hot stamp, don’t ask why cause I’m honestly not 100% sure why.
link to original post

It's a cost savings measure since casinos order a lot of $1 chips. Chips like their $5 chip probably cost them at or above $1 to buy, and since a $1 chip is also the most popular souvenir, they're not losing money when patrons walk out the door with them. This is why hot stamped $1 chips are making a comeback in Las Vegas.
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What is hot stamp?
how is the $5 different?