The colour of a poker chip: what does it mean?

Poker chips are a crucial element of the game, as I'm sure we've discussed on other occasions. We always focus on the cards, on the decks, but the chips are unfairly relegated to second place, and without them a poker game could not even be completed.

In poker, and not only in cards, colour plays a fundamental role. At both cash tables and tournaments, where chips have the value of real money and points respectively, chips come in various formats and colour.

As is often the case with many of the features of poker games, the issue of chips has a lot to do with the type of table and game. For example, in high-stakes tournaments, where each player can have hundreds of thousands of points, rectangular chips similar in size to playing cards can be used. Also in some Cash games particularly large, although it is normal in high-stakes games to play with round chips.

The value of poker chips and their colour: are they related?

Normally, the aim is for the chip to be recognizable. To help players distinguish them, several resources are used: the shape (square or round) and the colour are usually different. Therefore, each poker chip has unique characteristics that help to identify it quickly, without having to look one by one to see what value it represents.

What defines the colour of a chip in poker is usually the value it has. And we're talking mostly about cash tables, where the chips represent real money.

A distinct colour code is followed, as we discussed earlier in this article on the value of chips in poker: white, yellow, red, blue, blue, grey, green, orange, black, pink, purple, maroon, light blue and brown are used to represent values of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 euros respectively.

So, yes: the colour of poker chips has a lot to do with the value they represent, which makes it easier for players to visually identify them during the game.

Do professional poker chips have different colors?

This use of colour is not only applicable to poker chips in amateur games: professional poker chips also have a unique colour code that serves the same purpose: to simplify the visual identification of the chips to help players in the game.

However, it should be noted that, although these are the standard colour and values, there is in fact no EU-wide standard that designates how the colors should be used on the chips.

Therefore, variations can be found in amateur games as well as in professional competitions, so it is really the player's responsibility to be aware of the dynamics of each platform or gaming table.

The fact that must be assimilated is that professional poker chips do not have different colors just because they belong to a different category of game. Since there is no obligation to apply chip colors across all poker tables and platforms, players should be aware that there may be variations in the colors of the chips they handle during games, if they play on different platforms or tables.

How do you choose the colour of a poker chip?

In reality, the colour of a poker chip is chosen by the casino or online platform itself, as they control all aspects of the games, including the design of the elements that allow for variations or licensing.

For example, there is not usually much controversy over the cards because they have a virtually identical representation, but the chips do have elements that differentiate them from others: they include the name of the platform and may have other variations, including colour.

An increasing number of platforms are opting for unification. In fact, in an effort to standardize certain aspects, poker platforms are increasingly opting to stick to the standard colour designation, with no variations or complexities.

While it is to be expected that the standardized colour codes will be more or less respected, in reality there can be changes that, by inertia, can be detrimental to the player. To avoid problems, it is best to try to get to know all aspects of the platform beforehand, or try to spend the first few games getting used to getting to know the peculiarities of each table.