Casino Chip of the Day

Category: Cruise ships
Cruise Line: Princess
Ship: Crown Princess

I sailed on the Crown Princess roundtrip from San Francisco from July 31 through August 11 with port calls in Alaska (Ketchikan, Sitka, and Haines) and Victoria, Canada.

Though I've been on several cruises, this was my first one on Princess which is known for being the line featured in the television show "The Love Boat." So I was excited about that, in addition to going on my first trip to Alaska. They give you occasional reminders about their Love Boat connection, such as slogans ("I LOVE this room!") and things like a Love Boat trivia session. Otherwise, it's the usual cruise ship sights and sounds, though with a bit of Alaska pride (even when we were in Canada).

The casino had the usual games, including $10 minimum craps where I won $40 on the first day.

They use a combination of chips like the one pictured and a generic Princess Cruises logo chip that I didn't keep.

Is this the only Labor Day $1 limited edition casino chip out there? As you can see, this house chip was produced to advertise their 1995 Labor Day Tournament. Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Something new from Grand Casino in Hinckley, MN.

Very simple chip but I first reaction when I saw your post on fbook was how much I like it.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Auto/Truck Plaza

Sometimes called 76 Auto/Truck Plaza, was an odd location for a ”casino”. They opened for gaming in 1973 and operated until 2011 when it was sold and renamed Alamo Casino.



I can’t tell you much about the old 76 Auto/Truck Plaza, but I was at the Alamo Casino the week it put a black jack table, along with casino chips, in the property. In fact, I was the first to bring these chips to the attention of the casino chip collecting community. The location is what you might envision when thinking of a truck stop along the highway. It’s a crowded convenience store where they pushed aside some shelving units to make room for two black jack tables. When I asked about playing, they had to grab an employee to open the table and sell me some chips. I played a few hands, won maybe $20 or so, and pocketed a stack of $1 chips with a few $5’s to use as traders. I was impressed by the fact that their chips had different artwork on either side.



As one might imagine, operating gaming tables is labor intensive and takes up much more space than slot machines. A few years after that visit they removed the tables and only offer a few slot machines now, just like dozens of other small businesses in the Las Vegas area.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Ambassadors

Not much information on Ambassadors other than it looks like they opened in 1978 and closed in 1985 when it became La Mirage. This is their first $1 chip release. The subsequent release was a white gold hot stamp chip.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: La Mirage

When Ambassadors closed in 1985 it became La Mirage, not to be confused with The Mirage, when it reopened the following year. They operated until 1989 when it changed hands once more and became Anthony’s.

They issued this light blue plastic suited mold chip with a gold hot stamp.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Anthony’s

This is the next chip in the history of this property. First opened as Ambassadors in 1978, then becoming La Mirage in 1985, and now Anthony’s in 1989. This would be the final casinos until the property became a Quality Inn in 1993.

Like its predecessor, Anthony’s used the same light blue plastic suited mold chip with a gold hot stamp.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Big Al’s Speakeasy

When the Nashville Nevada Club closed in 1977 after 16 years in business, the property remained dormant until 1980 when it was briefly reopened as Big Al’s Speakeasy until closing for good later that same year.

They issued this light blue Paulson chip with a gold hot stamp.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Bingo Palace

Bingo Palace opened in 1978 on the spot of the previous casino, known simply as The Casino. They operated for 6 years before becoming what is now Palace Station.

They issued this classis coin-in-center chip on a chocolate-brown base with a dice and suits mold.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Carousel

The Carousel opened in 1965 in Downtown Las Vegas on the spot that was previouslySilver Palace. It operated until 1974 when it closed for a couple years before reopening as Sundance West.

They issues 2 different $1 chips during their years in operation. The first is this maroon chips with 3 green inserts and a delightful carousel image on the inlay with multicolor letters arranged in a fanciful manner.



Their second release was this is chip whose mold is known as horse head right. The off-white chip has 3 green inserts and a very harsh inlay with a font popular in those days.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Carver House

Carver House opened in 1961 and operated until 1965 when it became Cove Hotel before closing for good the following year.

This striking chip has a pair or maroon and navy inserts on an off-white base, making it favorite of collectors.

State: Texas
City: Watauga
Casino: Wild Card Poker Club

The Wild Card Poker Club opened in October 2022 and was closed down by the county the following month.

This ceramic chip has an orange-gold colored background with a white Greek key style border. The black inlay has the denomination in white with the Wild Card logo in blue which shown a diamond royal flush with a wild card replacing the king all set above the scripted name of the poker club.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: CBS Sports World

The CBS Sports World Casino opened on 29 August 1997 and was renamed Sports World Casino the following year.

They issued two $1 chips during this time. The first was this limited edition Grand Opening chip. This lavender 4-suits mold has the city/state in black text around the top of the inlay, the grand opening date along the bottom, and the words “Limited Edition” across the center. Red text is used for CBS Sports World Casino and the $1 denomination.



Their standard $1 house chip looks very similar to their grand opening chip, but with a few differences. The city is in black text along the top of the inlay and the state is now along the bottom. The grand opening date and limited edition text is removed. The red logo remains unchanged, although a bit larger. This house chips also includes two small black flags on either side of the denomination.

Quote: alpha1243

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: CBS Sports World

The CBS Sports World Casino opened on 29 August 1997 and was renamed Sports World Casino the following year.

They issued two $1 chips during this time. The first was this limited edition Grand Opening chip. This lavender 4-suits mold has the city/state in black text around the top of the inlay, the grand opening date along the bottom, and the words “Limited Edition” across the center. Red text is used for CBS Sports World Casino and the $1 denomination.

$1 CBS Sports World grand opening chip

link to original post

(snip)

Is that a hint of edge printing I see?

No edge printing. I think those are just 2 lavender lines in each white section of the chip.

Something new from theTreasure Chest in Kenner, LA.

.....

Quote: alpha1243

State: Texas
City: Watauga
Casino: Wild Card Poker Club

The Wild Card Poker Club opened in October 2022 and was closed down by the county the following month.

This ceramic chip has an orange-gold colored background with a white Greek key style border. The black inlay has the denomination in white with the Wild Card logo in blue which shown a diamond royal flush with a wild card replacing the king all set above the scripted name of the poker club.

link to original post

Now I want to hear about why it got shut down!

Quote: GenoDRPh

Now I want to hear about why it got shut down!
link to original post

They were in Watauga County, TX. That county is much less friendly to social clubs than other counties in the state.

Governors Lounge was closed down in Sep 2022 after being in operation for less than a year.



And then the Watauga Social Lounge was raided and closed in Oct 2022, also after being in operation for less than a year.



The main problem the county has with these social poker rooms is not the gambling, but the disruption to local businesses. These poker room are mainly located in strip malls alongside other businesses. The landlords designed these strip malls with parking lots sized to accommodate customers going in and out of the stores. Poker players stay parked much longer; longer even than restaurant customers would. So the parking lots are now full of cars, so customers wanting to frequent the other shops in the strip mall have no place to park. These other strip mall tenants have a valid argument.

On top of the congested parking lots, these poker rooms have longer hours of operation with many not closing until 2 a.m. or later on the weekends. This sometimes causes additional security concerns or generates extra trash which adds to the frustration of the other tenants. Eventually the county steps in. Since the county already approved the business license for the poker room, then can't just change their minds, so they usually stake out the poker rooms for several weeks or months until they can find some other pretense with which to close them down. This usually results in suspicion of money laundering, failure to submit currency transaction reports (CTRs), or the poker rooms simply breaking Texas gambling laws by having chips removed from the tables in the form of rake or tips.

Dallas sits in a county that looks upon these social clubs in the same light and have made it very difficult for them to operate. This is why clubs have popped up outside of the city to service the residents of Dallas.

Let me know if anyone is interested in buying these chips/coins. Obviously, I'll just cash in the Aria chips. Most of the chips are cashable but they hold a premium for collectors.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Moulin Rouge

The Moulin Rouge casino was originally opened between 1955 and 1959 but was reopened in 1993. This chip is from their reopening as prior to that they simply used $1 coins. The casino operated for another 3 years before closing for good in 1996.

They produced a very nice $1 chip with a light blue base and three pairs of pink-green inserts. The inlay features a can-can girl with the casino name and denomination in red and Las Vegas, Nevada below that in black text.

I really like the bright colours and how they go with each other.

I rather like that the skirt resembles a rose.

State: Texas
City: Katy
Casino: Katy Poker

I always check Poker Atlas when I’m planning my Texas Poker Road Trip. For several weeks prior to my departing, a new club, called Katy Poker, was listed as ”coming soon”. I reached out to the club asking when they expect to open and was able to time my trip so that I would be in Katy when they were opened. I’m glad that I did because from what I experienced, this poker room will not be in business for long.

The club is in a new location, meaning that they didn’t take over the space of a previous poker club. It’s a bright little room, but was empty on a Thursday evening with the exception of 3-4 players sitting at the only table in operation. I asked at the desk if there was a game going, and they said yes while pointing to the table. They waived the membership fee, saying that they are a new club and are looking to attract new players, so no membership fee for now. I asked about the rake, knowing that they wouldn’t abide by Texas state law and charge an hourly seat fee. Sure enough, they rake $10 per pot: $2 once the pot reaches $30 (no rake if the pot is smaller), $5 at $50, and $10 at $70. This is a pretty steep rake, but maybe the game would be juicy.



I bought in for $400 at the cage. On the walk to the table I pocketed a $25 chip, two $5 chips, and fifteen $1 chips ($50 total) and sat with the remaining $350 at the $1/$2 NLHE table. This is my usual routine. They offered a bad beat jackpot for quads beaten, though I don’t recall the payout. Food and drinks were provided and served by a couple of young Asian girls dressed as hookers. The dealer was not very experienced and let the players run over the table. As I was getting settled in at my seat I observed a hand in progress. Both players checked the river. This is when the player in Seat 8 announces “straight”, though there was no straight possible on the board and he did not table his hand. The clueless player in Seat 3 next to me was holding jack-high and was about to muck. Seat 8 eventually tables his hand. He’s holding trey-deuce and is playing the board, so Seat 3’s jack-high is good. The dealer announces that Seat 8 is playing the board. Seat 3 finally tables the winner and is pushed the small pot. This is when Seat 8 erupts, telling the dealer to keep his mouth shut. They argue a bit before I interject and tell Seat 8 that he cannot announce a hand at showdown without tabling that hand or better, else he loses any right to the pot since he’s doing this to get a player to fold. He tells me that he can say whatever he wants and the dealer should butt out.

I get dealt my first hand. We’re playing 4-handed with 2 stacks sitting in front of empty chairs. They play with a PLO bomb pot button, so this means that we’re playing a PLO bomb pot after just 3 hands of NLHE. Seat 8 soon understands that I’m not going to take any angle-shooting from him and decides to leave the game. Now we’re 3 handed. I tell the dealer I’ll sit out the bomb pots until the two players who own the stacks in front of the empty chairs return. He makes no motion to call them or speculate where they might be. After a few hands a new dealer comes to the table to relieve our dealer who immediately picks his tips out of the dealer well and sits down in seat 8 with about $43. The game is a $100 minimum buy-in. I ask him what he’s doing and am told he thought he’d play a while just to keep the game going. When I tell him that the min buy-in is $100, he quietly picks up and walks to the back of the room. Now it’s clear that the two empty seats are just for show – there are no players. The house and dealers allow this so they can run what looks like a busy table when in fact it’s just the 3 of us. I decide to pick up after having bluffed Seat 3 out of a couple tiny pots.

No one is at the cage. Our original dealer sees me standing there waiting and walks over to say that he’ll text the owner. After a couple of texts and no response he says that he can cash me out and proceeds to pull out his wallet. I have $372 in chips. He assembles a pile of folded and mangled $100, $50, $20, and $1 bills until he’s got the total correct. I’m satisfied with my small $22 profit and even more satisfied that I visited Katy Poker to pick up some nice clean chips before this place goes out of business.

Yikes, that sounds like a mess of a room.

State: Texas
City: Houston
Casino: Lucky J Social Club

This was the very first Texas social club I played at during my first trip in 2021. It was called 52 Social South back then. It's gone through several changes since, starting with Johnny Chan's 888 Social, then 101 Poker Richmond, and then Elite Social Club. I visited last year when it was Elite Social Club, but they were using a mix of chips from when it was known at 52 Social South and 101 Poker Richmond. I was hoping that they would have "Elite" logo chips this year. The signage on the building now read Lucky J Social Club. I asked if they still used the old chips and was told that yesterday was the last day that those chips could be redeemed. She went on to tell me that their grand opening would be on 11 Oct, but that the new chips were put into play this evening. Perfect timing!



They honored my old 101 Poker Richmond membership card, but unlike all of the previous iterations through the years, Lucky J would not charge an hourly seat fee. They raked $5 at $50 and another $5 at $100, but they do this in a matter that I can only imagine that they think is legal. Once the pot reached $50, the dealer removes a $5 chip from the pot, places it in his well, then picks up a time chip and places it over the drop slot. If the pot reaches $100, he removes another $5 chip from the pot and places that on the drop slot. Once the hand ends he deposits both chips into the drop. Every once in a while he'll call for a fill and a chip runner will appear with two stacks of time chips which are exchanged for two stacks of $5 chip from the dealer's well. I never got a close look at these time chips, but they were bright light-blue with a variation of the Lucky J logo on them. It wouldn't be the only time I'd see this practice as I'd run across it later in the trip at the Doghouse Poker Club.

I bought in for $350 but immediately lost it when I was dealt pocket jacks on the very first hand. We were playing $1/$3 with a $6 straddle and two players called. I raised to $36 and we went 5-way to a flop of 5-3-2 rainbow. Two players shoved in front of me and I called. One player tabled pocket aces and the big stack tabled 6-4. I would rebuy twice for $500 during this wild session. After getting stacked a final time I headed out a $1,300 loser. It had been a long first day that had me starting this year's Texas Poker Road Trip off in the hole. I hopped in the car and headed to Roegels Barbecue in Katy to grab a BBQ brisket sandwich just as they were closing up for the day.

State: Texas
City: College Station
Casino: Jokers of Aggieland Poker Club

I saw a picture of the $1 Jokers of Aggieland chip before heading to Texas and knew it would be one of my stops on this year's road trip. There were only a few poker rooms in College Station, and upon further inspection it appeared that Jokers of Aggieland was operating at the same location as Texas Ave Social Poker Club. I arrived at 7:30pm to find that Jokers expanded upon the space that Texas Ave occupied by knocking out the adjoining wall to the next unit in the strip mall thereby giving them enough space to add 4 more tables. Several players were on line at the cage to get chips for a game that was just about to start. They collected a $5 membership fee and I purchased $300 worth of chips and was also given a seat number card. That was something new. I asked what happened to Texas Ave and the owner said that the 2 clubs combined earlier in the year and took the name of Jokers. They did not charge an hourly seat fee as Texas Ave had, but rake $5 per pot instead. Again, a time chip is used for this, but this time I was able to get my hands on five of those chips. Few $1 chips are used in play, so it took an hour or more of play to accumulate enough to bring home. You'll also notice the unique orange $25 chips. They look even better in person.



They also use a bomb pot button, but this was a Dealer's Choice button. Players could select almost any game. The first time it came into play the player selected 4-Card Crazy Pineapple where players ante $5, are dealt 4 cards, and discard 1 card after the flop and 1 after the turn. You can see the cards being dealt in the picture below. I was dealt AAT8, raised to $30 and got 2 callers. The flop came AK8. I discarded my T, bet $55, and got 1 caller. The turn was an 8, I discarded my 8, bet $75, and got the call. The river was a 7. I moved all-in for my remaining $107. My opponent squirmed for quite a long time before folding pocket kings face up! Good start to my session.



The drive back to Houston would take just over an hour, so as the fish busted out and were replaced by more seasoned players, I decided it was time to grab a rack and lock up the $290 win.

State: Texas
City: Richmond
Casino: Broadway Poker Club

On the way back to Katy I made the detour to Richmond to play at Broadway Poker Club. I'd seen this card room on Google Maps for several years, but never saw any other indication that the place was still opened and never saw any chips listed anywhere. I tracked down a phone number and called the owner a few days prior who said that they are only opened a few nights each week and alternate between NLHE and PLO. I was informed that Friday was PLO and Saturday was NLHE, but to call before driving there to make sure that they actually had enough players for a game. It was Saturday and when I called was told that they had 1 seat opened at the only table running this evening.

It's located in a tiny strip mall, with little signage, and players are buzzed in. There's a tiny anteroom big enough to fit 2 people until you're buzzed in a second door. I was greeted by the Indian gentleman I spoke with on the phone. I followed him to the cage where I bought in for $500. He returned to the table with me where he was also playing. Most players had stacks of $800 to $1,000. The dealer looked to be taking a $5 rake from each pot. There was also a double-board PLO bomb pot button in use, but I sat back when that was dealt and watched players lose their minds, and most of their chips. It was already late when I arrived, so I played an hour or so before collecting the chips I'd come for and adding another $143 to my growing pile of winnings.



Again, we see the ChipLab set of chips in play here. These white chips with the blue and gray inserts are used by several poker rooms in Texas and elsewhere. It still amazes me that these rooms don't care about security. Anyone can purchase a bunch of these chips from ChipLab and redeem them at the cage. Just bring a stack or two of 18 white $1 chips or the red $5 chips with you, stick them in a full rack with a legitimate house chip on either end, and the cashier will never notice them since they just run a single chip across the edges to make sure the stacks are full, or may pull out one of the stacks on the end to count them down. Yeah, it's not much, but it'll work with $25 and $100 chips too in bigger games. I guess it's not enough of an issue for them to bother with.

State: Texas
City: Round Rock
Casino: Austin Social Lounge

Austin Social Lounge is the previous Poker House Austin.