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Professional Clay Poker Chips - Real or Fraud?

Now here’s a phrase you’ll see everywhere: professional clay poker chips. It seems like everyone selling poker chips makes the claim that their chips are the real deal. But just what are "professional clay poker chips"? Does such a thing even exist? There seems to be some confusion. Don’t be fooled. The confusion is deliberate.

Clay Poker Chips Online

Looking to buy real clay poker chips online? Before you fall for someone’s sales pitch touting “authentic” casino clay poker chips, you need to understand how poker chips are made and the difference between casino chips and retail poker chips.

The fact of the matter is that how authentic casino chips are made is a closely guarded secret. Here’s what we do know, however: Clay casino chips are not 100% clay, and haven’t been since the 1950’s. In order to prolong the life of their chips, modern casinos use a clay compound.

For all intents, however, these chips are still considered authentic clay chips due to how the material is constructed. Casino chips are compression molded – a process of applying extreme temperature and heat to form the chip. It is both expensive and time-consuming, which is why the poker chips sold online are very different, despite their claims otherwise.

Retailers who sell poker chips online often call their chips clay or clay composite, but the fact is that they are mostly plastic with clay-like filler and are constructed using a cheaper process known as injection molding. This is not to say that online poker chips aren’t durable – they are. They just aren’t the same as professional clay poker chips in look or feel.

11.5g Poker Chips

Other than injection molding, an easy way to sort through non-casino chips is by looking at the weight. Poker chip outlets love to tout their heavy “casino weight” poker chips of 11.5g. This is nothing more than marketing. There is no official casino poker chip weight; they vary from casino to casino. One thing I can tell you for sure, though, is that real casino chips weigh somewhere around 8.5 to 10 grams, not the 11.5g or even the 13.5g weight that you have been led to believe is better.

Here’s something funny: Not only are 11.5g poker chips not casino weight, they often contain a metal center to give them their additional heft. So what you have is a chip that is not only a different weight, but also a different material than real casino chips. Looks like you’ve been had!

Where to Buy

If you must have that casino feel and sound to your poker chips, you’ve got to go with real professional clay poker chips. Where can you buy authentic clay chips? Basically, you have two options: you can buy casino poker chips that are antiques or have been otherwise taken out of circulation or you can buy chips from a vendor that specializes in custom poker chips.

Of the two options, buying from someone who sells customized poker chips is usually the better option, as they usually have premium clay poker chips in stock. Remember, just because they do custom work, you don’t have to get your clay poker chips personalized if you want to keep the cost down. You still need to do your research, though, and make sure you’re getting compression molded chips. If they don’t volunteer this info on poker chips somewhere on their webpage, then contact them and ask. If you get an answer that is unclear or sounds like mumbo jumbo, then buy from someone else.

Antique casino chips are, of course, the only purely authentic casino chips, but finding a complete set of antique chips is almost impossible and will cost you a great deal of money. If you’re a collector, it may be worth it, but who wants to spend all that money on professional clay poker chips for home games? It just isn’t worth it.

The Best Poker Chips for Home Games

Personally, I think that the lower priced, injection molded chips sold by most vendors are perfectly fine for most poker players who want their own set of poker chips. They are affordable, durable, stackable, and easy to keep clean. They won’t feel or sound exactly like custom clay casino poker chips, but if you opt for the 10g poker chips instead of the overly hyped 11.5g chips, you’ll at least have chips that are a similar weight to casino chips.

In short, there’s no need to pay a lot of money for a set of poker chips if you just need them for everyday use. You can probably find an acceptable set from someone selling discount poker chips wholesale – just don’t fool yourself into thinking that they’re anything but a cheaper version of the real deal.

Done with Professional Clay Poker Chips? Read the Next Article: Poker Chip Sets