Hi all,

Just wondering does anyone does this?

Sometimes the line at the Cage is insanely long
And at my home casino we can’t buy In at the table for the first buy in. Does anyone take home chips with them after a winning session (100 dollar chips) and just bring them back to the casino next time instead of exchanging them for cash?

Does this question make sense?

Pros cons?

Most you keep on you at one time?

If it helps I play 2-3x/ week and usually always have like 5 buy ins available on me always so I don't have to go to the bank

I'm lazy so yes I carry chips (3 to 5 buyins) away with me sometimes. I don't think it's a massive security risk because of the times I arrive 5pm and leave 7am. Also the other punters are walking in and out with orders of magnitude more than me in cash, the area isn't that dangerous and I'm fairly large and I'm in the UK so armed robbery isn't maybe as big a concern as some other places.

I'm not sure if the casino mind, maybe I should ask lol. It has occurred to me that I might show up after a break and find they've started using new chips and mine are worthless. It would save me the time losing them at the table but be a bit annoying

But I think if you feel like it could put your security at risk then you're probably right and you should probably deposit your chips.

Taking chips home is fine. Just dont be the D-Bag that buys into a 2/5 game with a $1000 max buy in with 1 $1000 chip.

Carrying chips is common among regulars and pros.

Do keep in mind that it will change your image. Even if you actually got chips at the cage and just have them to chip up it makes you look more like a serious player. This isn't really a problem but it is something to be aware of.

The only real downside is losing track of them. Make sure you have some way of carrying and keeping them that is better then sticking them in your pocket.

Yeah I have a very uncool little bag in which I keep my chips and notebook (oldschool plus I'm there so long my phone's battery goes flat mid session).

You've officially crossed into degen territory when you decide it's a good idea to carry around $1000+ in casino chips instead of cash.

Not really a strategy question, so I moved this to Casino and Cardroom Poker. Keeping part of one's bankroll in chips is very common among mid and high-stakes players. Less common among low-stakes players, but it is no big deal.

Couldn’t you replace the notebook with a power bank to charge your phone?

If I know I will be back in the same card room the next day I am more inclined to take my chips home instead of going to the cage.

Casino's are more than happy that you take chips home and maybe lose them!! But also you create less labor on their end when you come back and can get right into your session.

Lot's of casino's have a 'threshold' where cashing out $X or more in chips requires/requests a Player's Card. At one of my main casinos anything under $3K is fine, but if even $25 over the cashier is required to call security to make sure they have you clearly on camera. They don't really have an explanation for it either and indicate 'it's not tracked' and there is no 1099G issued either. GL

They need to prove to the federal government that they tried to see if you were structuring your cashouts to avoid the hard $10k limit for CTR. Every casino has a slightly different bar but it's around 2k or 3k because that's when it would take you a memorable number of trips to the cage.

Yes I could but I quite like not having the temptation of my phone to distract me at the table. Plus I'm a modern day luddite - tech bores me so I try not to own any.

Maybe, but there are good reasons to favor chips in certain cases.

1. At high values, chips are easier to carry than cash. A $1 chip weighs more and takes up more space than a $1 bill, but a $5,000 chip weighs less and takes up less space than fifty $100 bills.

2. High denomination chips don't count towards the CTR limit.

3. There's probably more scrutiny on high denomination chips than on equivalent amounts of cash. The cashiers tend to recognize people who "should" be cashing chips above a denomination. If you drop a $1k chip, a rando might get questioned trying to cash it. Around here, the $5k chips are signed out with a name.

I know this forum is mostly for casinos, but if you play in legal card rooms, you might not want to do this just as a courtesy to the room management. They usually close at some point and balance their drawer and chip counts. Most of these places don't want to keep hundreds or thousands of dollars in cash on hand from day to day, so if someone walks out with 5 black chips to bring back on some undetermined day in the future, it's going to be a pain in the ass.

I used to play at a card room that had player boxes. There were probably millions in chips in all those boxes.

Does anyone have any nightmare stories to share regarding keeping a large % of their bankroll in chips?

I'm reminded of the fact that a local poker room--Cheers--suddenly went under. What would management's obligations to honor those chips be in such a scenario? Would a chip holder be a creditor? How much notice must a room give before changing chips?

I welcome those players with open arms. They usually get them from the pit games so I don't mind it at all.

In Nevada, you have at least 120 days from the change to "new" chips (or from when the casino closes its doors) to redeem the "old" chips.

They also have to publish a notice of the discontinuance of the chips and tokens and of the redemption and the pertinent times and locations in at least two newspapers of general circulation in Nevada at least twice during each week of the redemption period.

Source

Different states would have different requirements.

i do this all of the time
i'll try to color up to big chips with other players at the table if i see the long is line and i'll be back to the casino soon

You shouldn't keep a larger fraction of your bankroll in chips than you'd otherwise keep in cash.

But how are they gonna look like cool swag poker pros without pulling pumpkins out of their purple Crown Royal bag?

By pulling out chips big enough that people ask, "What the hell is that?"

What does that word mean?

I have a poker satchel full of $1 chips

Its quite funny when you go to cashier tho and just tip your bag out in front of them and its mountains of 1s and 5s and they look at you like 'what in the actual fk is your deal' then they have to count it all lmao

At least as “funny” as people putting a mountain of coins in front of a grocery store cashier. Especially for the people waiting behind you in line.

Don't take home lots of $1 chips. High end casinos (where min bets are $10+) don't have a lot of them.