Why is it that we spend hundreds of dollars on poker chips? Wouldn’t be easier just to put stacks of $1, $10, and $100 bills in front of us and bet with those? Why the heck do we need to bet with little discs made from clay or plastic?
Of course this is something that every prospective buyer for a poker chips set considers. Poker chips sets are expensive but the real truth about a poker chip set is its convenience and of course it is somewhat of a status symbol.
In the early days of poker, it was simply more convenient to have some sort of chip instead of carrying around a stack of cash. It was also a heck of a lot safer not to have a ton of money in front of you. At first people used objects of intrinsic value like gold but these items were quickly replaced with chips of bone or ivory among other materials.
Once people started using these poker chips instead of real money, casinos noticed a magical thing. People started betting more often and in higher denominations. For a casino, that’s a very good thing so they started to research why people were becoming so much looser with their cash.
Because chips only symbolized money, this idea enabled gamblers to detach themselves from their cash. This meant they felt safer betting.
It makes sense when you think about it. It’s pretty easy to casually toss a little chip into a pot that represents a hundred dollars. It’s not quite that easy to pull out your wallet and have Benjamin Franklin stare you in the face as you place him in the pot.
The experts think that this fact is what makes people put up more money with online games. Poker chips symbolizing money makes people more lavish with their bets than hard cash. Similarly playing online poker you cannot even handle the chips. This results in a double disassociation and makes players even freer with their bets. This results in heavy losses.
So now the secret is out. The use of chips results in action! When people bid low and are conservative poker games are no fun. Nobody wants to play with tightwads. These little chips make the poker game more exciting as people can forget they are gambling.