HoldEm is played all over the world, in casinos, bars, work lunch rooms and kitchen tables and no matter where you play the game one thing that is essential to a great game is the right holdem poker chips. Poker chips come in various shapes, styles and materials, plastic, composite, clay ceramic and many others. The most popular are casino quality clay or ceramic chips, they have a nice heavy feel, textured surface and high quality holdem poker chips can last forever.
Plastic Chips
These are the lowest quality chip you can buy and are the ones that you probably played with at your grandmothers place as a kid. They are just a small round piece of plastic, they are thin, light and do not hold up to use very well but are great for just messing around when there isn’t anything at stake
“Suited” Composite Chips
These usually come in cases of 300, 500 or 1000, they are an excellent starter holdem poker set for anyone who wants to have the gang over for a game every once in a while. Made from a hard plastic molded over a metal slug and advertised as 11.5 gram casino quality chips. Knowing they are sold everywhere and range in price from .10 to .20 cents a piece it is hard not to see that they aren’t used in any casino. The overall quality is poor as there are at least a few chips in each set that either have high spots, cracks or are slightly off color. Overall for the price they are very good set to have around the house for that occasional game.
Composite Chips
A step above the Suited Composite Chips some manufactures are making chips with new styles and colors as well as adding decals to give them a distinctive design. Don’t be fooled, they are still plastic injection molded an no where near the quality seen in casinos.
Ceramic or Clay
Ceramic or Clay holdem poker chips are a necessity when hosting a regular game or showing off to your friends, these ARE the chips the casinos use. Usually weighing 9.5 – 10 grams they are a solid chip, have various designs, colors and the best part is that manufactures will even customize your set with a logo, design or your own color scheme. The most popular holdem poker chip is the Paulson which is used in many casinos and an excellent choice for the home set. Be very aware that custom holdem poker chips are not cheap, they can range in price from .80 to 1.50 per chip and that does not include the cost to create the design.
If you are serious about hosting your own poker game or like to have the best of the best then having your own holdem poker set is the way to go.