The Weight of Poker Chips

[citytom]

During the last year, I started keeping a $1 chip from every casino and poker room I had played in. I now have 22, from across the country, cluttering my shelves.

The funny thing is, I weighed each chip when I brought them home placing them on my hi-tech, Ohaus scientific triple beam scale. Please, before you say, "What kind of a wierdo brings poker chips home...and weighs them?!!", I recently produced an instructional DVD on performing poker chip tricks and flourishes and part of my research was determining the best weight for doing such table acrobatics. 11.5 grams was the winner. The heaviest weighted chip I tried was 13.5 grams which seemed, well...a little heavy. I also found that I need at least 8 grams of weight to perform the shuffles, flips, twirls, and rolls with the profiency I'm accustomed to.

Here's the surpise of this story...only one of the 22 casino and poker room chips weighed, reached the weight of 11.5 grams. All were "clay" or more likely acrylic composite chips. The only chip that met the 11.5 gram so called "Standard Professional Casino Grade" weight as claimed on the internet was found at a harness racing track in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Yes, I only had one chip from each casino and it might not be representative of the average chip of that casino, but it probably is. All the chips I weighed were of average looking quality for that particular establishment, with no defects. With that said, below are some interesting statistics.

Weight of a cheap plastic chip: 1.5 grams
Weight of an inexpensive "clay" acrylic composite chip: 8 grams

The following weights are of $1 denomination poker chips taken out of play from corresponding casino/poker rooms during 2004.

LAS VEGAS:
Circus Circus 10.7 grams
Sahara 9.3
The Mirage 8.9
Plaza 9.3
Bellagio 9.2

ATLANTIC CITY:
Borgata 11.1
Trump Taj Mahal 10.9
Sands 9.8
Tropicana 9.8
Bally's 9.7

FLORIDA:
Seminole Hard Rock Casino, Hollywood 10.7
Seminole Indian Casino, Coconut Creek 10.4
Seminole Indian Casino, Hollywood 10.5
Miccosukee Gaming, Miami 10.6
St. Tropez Cruise Ship, Port Everglades 10.4
Calder Race Course, Miami 10.8
Pompano Park, Pompano Beach 12.1
Hollywood Greyhound Track, Hollywood 10.5
Miami Jai-alai, Miami 10.0
Dania Jai-alai, Dania 10.0
Palm Beach Kennel Club 10.8


CONNECTICUT:
Foxwoods 9.2

My Chip Tricks website is www.pokerchipsvideo.com. Please visit.

[SHAMUS TDT]

Most casino's use a 10g clay chip....I'm wuth you on the 11.5g chip. I bought a 1000 chip 11.5 gram set and I will never have to buy another. I have tried bouncing them off the floor and you have to really slam one down to bust it and the 11.5g is perfect for riffeling and they have a great sound when plopped into the pot. The money you have to pay for clay or 13.5 gram is a littel excessive IMO.

[citytom]

I've taken 17 more $1 poker chips out of action from poker rooms in Vegas since the writing of the first post. I think I've been to them all now.
All of them are at or under 10 grams except for the Stardust. It has a metal insert and weighs in at 12.1 grams.

Citytom
www.pokerchipsvideo.com