As all of you who have read my blogs should know, golf is one of my favorite sports and pastimes. I spend a lot of time golfing throughout the year being on the varsity team. What most of you probably don't know is that I have a pastime that i enjoy more and spend equal if not more time doing it. You could almost call it an addiction, although I myself would like to think that if it really came down to it I could quit. What I am talking about is poker. I spend roughly 40-50 hours a week playing poker, mostly live, in Blackhawk and Vegas. I do realize that many people would not consider poker a sport but I am not going to get into that argument. My blog is about materials and metallurgy in SPORTS and for the purpose of this blog I am going to take the stance that poker is shown on ESPN so that is good enough for me. Like most avid poker players I spend countless hours playing with the poker chips, flipping, spinning, twirling and shuffling them. The other day while sitting in front of the t.v. practicing my chip tricks (yeah, ok maybe it is becoming an addiction) I got to wondering how poker chips are manufactured. If you've ever thought about a casino poker chip you may have realized how much of a beating they go through. Most chips stay in circulation for 10 years or so. Throughout their lifetime they must withstand a considerable amount of wear and tear. After doing a little research I was able to find out from several sources the general procedure used in making the poker chips. The exact details are not entirely made public as it would be similar to releasing the exact procedure on manufacturing bills and coins.
A combination consisting of mainly clay but incorporating other earthen materials such as sand, calcium carbonate, and/or chalk are formed into a long cylinder that is the diameter of a poker chip. Long strips are removed from the edge of the cylinder and replaced by a "clay" of a different color. The cylinder is then divided into smaller pieces, chips, that are just slightly larger than the size of a poker chip. An inlay consisting of paper and plastic with a unique design is then placed on each of the "chips". The single chip is placed in a mold and heated at around 300 F and compressed with a pressure nearing 10,000 psi. The heat and pressure fuses all of the materials together and creates a very hard chip. The process is actually quite costly but it ensures that the chips are made very durable and difficult to replicate.
Sean
Curious: do you find yourself playing cash games or mostly tournaments? How often do you go to Vegas to play, seems like it would be expensive unless you are making a considerable amount of money. Do you think you could drop out of school and pursue poker full-time?
ReplyDelete40-50 hours a week at Vegas and Blackhawk?? Wow, sounds like a full time job (and a little bit of an addiction, but I won't judge.) I've always been envious of people that can do chip tricks, since I can not. I can do a couple tennis racket tricks, but thats about all. I think classifying anything on ESPN as a sport is a good rule of thumb, but it has to be the official network... no ESPN 2 stuff or ESPN The Ocho (from Dodgeball) though.
ReplyDeleteHuh. I would never have even thought about this. Guess I'll look at those chips differently next time.
ReplyDeleteNow I know where you've been, when you haven't blogged in four weeks :).