Poker Chips can be a collector's item

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Poker Chips
"Tables Full of Chips"
By Andy Hughes

When you think of "tables full of chips" your first thought as a poker player might be of a poker tournament. In this case, I am referring to the Casino Chips & Gaming Tokens 9th Annual International Convention held this past May 30th through June 2nd at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, Nevada.

On the Convention floor there were 108 "tables full of chips" with just about every denomination, color and shape you could imagine. People from all walks of life came to this convention to buy, sell and trade chips. One gentleman was from as far away as Belgium. Another visited from Canada, and if not for a last-minute cancellation, another was supposed to arrive from Australia!

This year's convention started Wednesday night with a sold out banquet at which Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman gave a speech. Bob Stupak was also on hand to say a few words, and Steve Rossi was the Master of Ceremonies. Chip collectors stayed well past midnight trading chips. All this and the Show itself had not even started! The Show did open to the public at 10am on Thursday, and people were waiting in line to get inside.

Keep in mind that in addition to the banquet and show itself there are daily seminars, and the 3rd annual CC&GTCC Poker tournament was held at The Orleans this year. 105 players entered and at the end, Russ Diaz of Atlantic City had won the tournament. The CC&GTCC does not use just ANY chips for their tournament. With The Orlean's permission, the club had their own chips which were designed by CC&GTCC member Dick Covington and produced by Paul-Son. You see an example of the set here with the yellow 500 chip. All players who entered the tournament were given a set of the chips and any extra sets were offered for sale by the club.

The hobby of chip collecting keeps getting bigger and bigger. This past April, a record $15,100 was paid in an eBay auction for a one-of-a-kind $5 Hacienda rectangle mold chip which is shown here. Jim Steffner, who for the past 5 years was the CC&GTCC membership officer, was lucky enough to find this chip at an Ohio flea market 3 years ago! Maybe you have one laying around, or just have left-over chips that did not get cashed-in before you left the casino. If you come across a chip or two, please e-mail me and I'll let you know about your new find!

The last chip I'll show you is the World Series of Poker add-on chip made for the 20 chip set issued in 1993. This year's chip has the winner of the $10,000 buy-in event from 2000 on it, Chris Ferguson. I hope this year's winner, Carlos Mortensen, is as happy with next year's chip as Chris was with his!