I was at a friend’s house recently and the topic of poker came up. During the conversation, he asked me, “can you play poker without chips?” After answering him, the question got me thinking so I did a bit of research and decided to share a few tips on how to play poker without chips.
These chips are hearty enough to withstand a little dipping! 3- Baked Beet Chips. When beets bake in the oven, they sweeten and become oh so good! They're pretty too, 4- Crispy Kale Chips. Kale chips also make a wonderful, crunchy salad topper. 5- Baked Apple Chips. Fruit chips, such as the apple chips, would be perfect for dessert nachos! Poker Tournament Chip Distribution. In a typical tournament, players get a particular number of certain-valued poker chips. That chip stack usually includes a few larger values, some of a medium denomination, and several lower values for the early stages when blinds and antes are low. Most everyone has at least one of the following games that contain good poker chip substitutes: Othello, Connect 4, Backgammon, and Checkers. In a pinch, one could even bet with Scrabble tiles. If you have multiple games with reasonably useful game pieces, feel free to mix and match so that you have enough quantity to play poker with.
Best Substitute For Poker Chips Online
Poker games are built around wagering or betting. Therefore, unless you are strictly playing for fun you will need some form of currency or monetary substitute available to play with. Otherwise, it is virtually impossible to know who is winning or losing. Almost universally, the most common thing used in lieu of real currency is poker chips.
However, sometimes an impromptu poker game will happen and no actual poker chips will be available. Fear not. You probably have numerous different options to use as an alternative somewhere in your house or place of business. I know because I scoured my house and office for ideas to fulfill the needs of avid poker players when it comes to playing without chips.
Here are a few obvious and maybe not so obvious quasi-poker chip options:
1. Spare Change
Okay, so this is the obvious one so I saved it for last since you might have forgotten about your kid’s piggy bank or those coins built up in the center console of your car. Speaking of which, I once built a $4,000 bankroll from the spare change lying around. If I can do it, surely you could use those accidental savings to play a quick game with your family or buddies. Rolls of pennies, nickels, dimes, or all three would serve perfectly. Just make sure you set the parameters ahead of time dictating whether the winner actually gets to keep the money.
2. Play Money
Perhaps the most common option that one might have lying around the house is in the form of play money collected from various board games. The most obvious that come to mind are Monopoly, Payday, and the Game of Life. It’s likely that one or more of these types of games are stuffed in a closet or cabinet somewhere. If so, the fake cash will serve you well in a game of poker. Maybe the most fun part of using play money comes from pretending like the money is real and you are a group of high rollers!
3. Board Game Pieces
While you’re raiding the game closet if you find that you do not have any board games that contain play money all hope is not lost. Many other games contain game pieces that can substitute fairly well for poker chips. Here are a few examples of games that have either some form of chip or other items that can be used as money. Most everyone has at least one of the following games that contain good poker chip substitutes: Othello, Connect 4, Backgammon, and Checkers. In a pinch, one could even bet with Scrabble tiles.
If you have multiple games with reasonably useful game pieces, feel free to mix and match so that you have enough quantity to play poker with. Scrabble tiles could be $1, red Connect 4 chips could be $5, all the way up to using black Othello pieces as $1,000 chips.
4. Dried Foods
Another option that could upset your significant other is to use common dried foods from the kitchen pantry. Dried beans, corn, and/or legumes work well since they won’t make a huge mess and are typically available in large quantities. You could even boil them up afterward and have some poker chili!
Just be sure not to use any foods that are ready to eat. For most, the temptation is too great and you will probably eat up all the profits. Besides that, who wants to eat an M&M that has been touched by everyone at the poker table. That’s pretty gross.
5. Office Supplies
If you are playing an impromptu game at the office, your options will be limited with no poker chips. Even so, I’m sure there are plenty of items in desk drawers that will do nicely in a poker game. Just make sure the boss isn’t around.
Here are a few things that might be laying around or in a desk drawer:
- Paper clips (Preferably Color)
- Tacks
- Rubber bands
- Posted Notes (Fold Them)
6. Color Popsicle Sticks
Best Substitute For Poker Chips Recipe
This is a great stackable option that most households, especially those with kids, have stuffed in a drawer somewhere. I recommend cutting each stick into thirds to stretch out the number of “chips” that you have. This will add a nice variety to your game.
If you don’t happen to have color popsicles, then it wouldn’t take long to just write different denominations on each stick. The best way to do it is to give a stack to each player who is tasked with writing on a different amount. Otherwise, you can just have the sticks serve as one single denomination.
7. Garage Items
Your typical garage likely has numerous items that can come in multiples and can serve as poker chips. This is especially true if you have a dedicated toolbox that almost always contains a wide assortment of the following:
- Nuts
- Bolts
- Nails
- Washers
- Fasteners
- Electrical Terminals
How Many “Chips” Do You Need to Play Poker?
For most poker games you typically need about 500 poker chips for the game. However, games with 6 players or less can usually get by on 300. This sounds like a lot, but it’s really not since your house or office typically will have a variety of items which can act as a poker chip substitute. Of course, if you have rolls of coins you just evenly distribute them among the players.
What Type of Game Should We Play?
My advice is to only play short stacked cash games or tournaments where the blinds don’t go up. That way you don’t have to round up too many chip replacement items and can just get on with the business of playing poker. After all, your significant other or boss might not appreciate you digging around like a groundhog and making a huge mess!
Assigning Denominations
Without real poker chips available, the best thing you can do is to keep things simple and only use three different poker chip amounts. I would recommend playing 25/50 blinds and giving the following “chips” or denominations that go in a player’s stack:
- $25- 8 Chips
- $100- 8 Chips
- $500- 2 Chip
This setup will give each player $2,000 or 40 big blinds to start with. This allows for an exciting action-packed game. If you need some advice on playing short stacked, I wrote a brief guide with charts that anyone can obtain for free by signing up for my newsletter. Feel free to use my raising ranges or whatever you like so that you can dominate your friends!
What If Someone Runs out of Chips?
If someone busts out, my advice is to let them “rebuy” for a half stack of 20 big blinds or $1,000. That way no one is ever out of the game and some will be able to play deep-stacked as the game progresses.
Alternative Methods of Playing
If everyone in your poker group has access to a computer or even a smartphone/tablet, another option is to play for play money against each other “LAN party” style. There are numerous poker sites out there that offer play money games where you are able to create your own “home game” table to battle against your friends. I recommend Pokerstars since they have the smoothest software and have a way to set up private home games.
Don’t Forget to Use Good Playing Cards
Good playing cards are relatively inexpensive. So, if you can’t afford good poker chips but want to still have a classy game, pick up a quality deck of cards!
Attributions LAN party image by Sanza29 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
Poker has been one of the most famous casino games for decades. The game requires a little skill, luck and plenty of experience and it is the level of challenge presented by the game which makes it so popular among players worldwide. Best poker chips have been around probably as long as the game has been in existence. Though in the earlier days the game had been played with just about anything, soon there was a need for using a standard currency equivalent at the tables and with that the poker chips had been introduced.
Best poker chips
In casinos poker is no longer played with chips made from 100% pure clay. Pure clay chips are very delicate and can break easily. In the 1950s clay chips were replaced by the composite clay chips where a few materials were added to the clay to make it more cost effective and to make it more durable.
The edge spots or the inserts are actually not painted but they are punched out and then replaced with the clay of desired colors after which they are molded and compressed to get the end product. In US most casinos, like iGame poker, use poker chips which are anywhere between 8 to 11g and rarely more than that. However, for home use the best poker chips which are used are significantly different from those which are used in casinos.
Home poker chips
The chips are used for poker in casinos and at home are quite different from each other. In casinos mostly composite clay chips are used for casinos which weigh from 8 to 11g but the home poker chips usually weigh more than that at around 13.5 g. Choosing home poker chips is not very difficult since they are available at almost all grocery shops, markets and even at airports.
Home poker chips are quite inexpensive and are usually made from plastic with a metal disc in the center in order to increase its weight. The type of poker chips to be purchased depends on the taste and the budget of the customer and while there are several inexpensive home poker chips available these are usually not of a very good quality.
Purchasing home poker chips
Home poker chips can be bought in sets of 200, 300 and even in 500 chips. The best option is to purchase an entire set which will include poker chips, a protective case for storing the chips, dealer button, poker dice and 2 decks of cards.
The ideal number of poker chips which need to be purchased will depend on the number of players that would be playing the game and the combination of denominations should depend on the limits that will be played with the chips. It is recommended that at least four different denominations should be purchased for the game.
How many chips to purchase
Given below is a list of the number of chips that would be needed according to the number of players:
- 2-3 players - 200-350 chips
- 4-5 players - 350-500 chips
- 5-6 players - 500-650 chips
- 6-8 players - 650-750 chips
- 8-10 players - 750-1000 chips