So why buy poker chips when they are so expensive? The reason is quite simple. Of course it is more convenient but it is also a status symbol.



Long ago when people first started playing poker they searched for a symbol instead of having to carry large amounts of cash to the poker game. They soon found it was not only inconvenient but positively unsafe to have all that money laid on the table. It did not take them long to develop chips made out of bone and ivory.

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.

As it turns out, poker chips separates they gambler from his money. Even though the poker chips represents actual money and can be redeemed for cash, gamblers find it easier to think of the money as already spent.

This is the perfect mind game. There is no problem when you drop an innocent little chip into the pot. However it is a completely different, when you have to put your hard earned cash in the same receptacle.

Some psychologists think that this phenomenon is the reason online games tend to be looser than live games. Poker chips separate the gambler from their money and make it to spend and online poker rooms separate the gambler from the poker chips. The poker player ends up playing with virtual poker chips which are representations of real poker chips which are representations of real money. The result, a looser game.

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.