Poker & BlackJack Gaming Supplies
Interested in gaming supplies? Community Gaming News rounded up the best products on the web.
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Poker Tables
A poker table is a table specifically designed for playing card games, usually poker. It is often covered with baize which is a type of felt, or speed cloth, a teflon-coated fabric that helps the cards slide easily across the surface. It is either an actual table or a fold-out tabletop surface. Those used in professional televised poker feature “pocketcams” which can view a player’s pocket, or hole cards. Such tables are usually fairly oval-shaped, with the players sitting around a curve of the table with a dealer facing them in an indented area of the table made specifically for the dealer. In amateur poker, tables are often round or octagonal, using a rotating dealer position. The edge of the table is usually padded and raised slightly for the players to rest their arms, and this section is called the “rail.” There is often a layer of wood between the rail and the playing surface; this is called the “race track” and often features cup holders as well. The center of the table often features an image, usually the name or logo of the casino or house where the game is being played.
Poker Chips
Poker Chips or Casino Tokens are small discs that are used in Casinos around the world as a form of currency. Most authentic Casino chips are “clay” chips but can more accurately be described as compression molded chips.
Contrary to popular belief modern “clay chips” are not made from clay but froma much more durable composition of materials. Usually a small percentage of the composition will be a sand, chalk or clay. Every manufacturer has it’s own trade secrets when it comes to making the chips but usually all the manufacturers use a special mold that heats and compresses the chip to 10,000 psi and 150 degrees celcius, hence the term compression molded chips.
The graphics on the chips are usually made from paper that is covered with plastic that is applied to the chip before the compression process is applied.
After the compression process the inlay is a permanent fixture of the chip and can not be removed without destroying the chip.
Ceramic chips were introduced in the 1980s as an alternative to clay chips and are used extensively throughout casinos and the home market alike. Ceramic chips are often mistaked for clay or clay composite chips, but they are infact an injection molded plastic or resin formula that is made to feel and sound like a clay chip.
Casino chips have no official weight but rarely wiegh more than 10 grams and are usually between 8.5 and 11.5 g. The chips sold for home use can sometimes weigh as much as 13.5 grams.
Chip designs for home use are usually manufactured with injection molding using ABS plastic and some are molded around a small metal disc or slug for weight.
Every casino has a unique set of chips. This distinguishes a casino’s chips from others, which is a must becasuse every chips value has to be backed up with the appropriate amount of cash by the casino. Except for in Nevada, casinos are not allowed to honor other casinos chips so every one must be unique.
Security features are various and numerous. From high resolution art work to color combinations and edge sopts on the chips these are the basics of the chips security. Some casinos go as far to employ UV markings in the inlay and certain chips even have RFID (Radio-frequency identification) technology build in.
The casino chips that you see in paly during a tournament are of much cheaper value and simpler in design becasue they have no cash value and are only used for tournament play.
If you are looking for your own set of high end casino chips you should check out straightflush.ca Canada’s only custom ceramic poker chip manufacturer.
