Chips

There are two basic ways to handle chips, having them or not.

One way stacks nicely and fit in a sleek holder. The other way requires you to visit the bank on a regular basis and make change.

I would suggest getting a nice set of chips and a holder for them. It might seem like a bit of an expense but the amount of fun and play you get out of them is well worth it.

Denominations of Chips

I found that having 150 low value, 150 medium value and 150 high value with 50 premium value chips work out best to start of with. After you begin you might find you want to invest in an extra 50-100 chip roll of the medium to high value chips to have if your game gets bigger (I've sometimes had 2 tables running at the same time!).

The 500 chip sets usually have the denominations set up like that but some places let you pick the colors and denominations in your rack, which I personally like.

I've outlined a few of your chip options below

Cheapest Way

Go to the bank with $100 and get 50 singles and $50 of quarters. This will feed 5 people at a $20 buy in. ($10 in change and $10 in bills). People can add their own money if they want.

Cheapo Way

If you have a limited budget you can get the cheap plastic sets of chips. Just make sure you get a few of them. While they sell them in 100 chip lots you want about 300 to 500 chips.

You can also get the Deluxe poker hold'm kit. This poker set includes 200 professional weight, quality poker chips, a deck of poker cards, and a poker chip rack. For about $22 you'll need two of these to get a good game going.

Moderately Priced Set

This is the set that I have. The chips are a nice weight and you can get 300-500 chip denominations. They also sell cases that look like you can carry spy equipment in it.

Here are listed five nice ones to choose from:

• Texas Hold'em Poker Set ($32.99)
• Oak Poker Chip Case & 300 Chips
• Real Clay Tri Color 12-Stripe Poker Chip Set; 500 11.5 gram ($169)
• Real Clay Dice Poker Chip Set #2; 300 13.5 gram Chips ($119)
• Diamond Poker Chip Set; 500 11.5 gram Clay Composite Chips ($74)

For a game for 5 to 8 players you need about 500 chips of different colors for different values.

Expensive Set

You can go really nuts with chips. You can get high-end designs and even get your initials engraved into them.

Create Your Own

This is a good way to get the set you really want. Some places let you select the denomination and kinds of chips as well as the type of case. I prefer the hard aluminum case because it looks cool but they sell leather ones as well.

It's a good idea to make sure that any case you get also has room for cards if you want to take your game on the road.

Card Tables aren't all they're cracked up to be...