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Casino tokens (also known as chips, checks or cheques) are small discs used in lieu of currency in casinos. Colored metal or compression molded clay tokens of various denominations are used primarily in table games, as opposed to metal token coins, used primarily in slot machines.
Some casinos also use gaming plaques for high stakes table games ($25,000 and above). Plaques differ from chips in that they are larger, usually rectangular in shape and contain serial numbers.
Although the first gambling house was legalised in Venice in 1626, actual poker chips as we know them now were still not used for over two hundred more years. Back in the 1800s and prior, poker players seemed to use any small valuable object imaginable. Early poker players sometimes used jagged gold pieces, gold nuggets, gold dust, or coins as well as “chips” primarily made of ivory, bone, wood, paper and a composition made from clay and shellac. Several companies between the 1880s and the late 1930s made clay composition poker chips. There were over 1000 designs from which to choose.
What the BPO lured top players over from the US whom had not played in the UK before, such as the current World Poker Champion Greg Raymer, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer and this in turn brought the BPO further exposure.
The inaugural BPO was eventually won by Adam Dujmovic, a semi-professional from Chicago whom after qualifying for the tournament online, collected a prize just shy of 100,000 pounds.
The success of the BPO 2005 inevitably bought along the BPO 2006 a year later. The 2006 version had a pot of 100,000 pounds to be won over 6 heats and a final. Noah Boeken collected around 56,000 pounds.
Poker Million II returned in 2003. Snooker-player Jimmy White won the $150,000 first prize. The final was played under the Texas hold 'em rules and broadcast live on Sky Sports 1. All cards were visible via cameras placed underneath glass panels on the tables, and the players were wired to a heart monitor, so that viewers could see the top players' strategies and how relaxed or nervous they really were.
Seventy-two poker professionals played the 2004 Poker Million III, competing for the $300,000 first prize. The tournament counted snookers stars Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams and 2003 winner Jimmy White, rugby World Cup star Mike Tindall and sports celebrities Tony Cascarino and Phil Taylor. Half of the 2004 players had qualified online via Ladbrokes Poker, marking the progress of the online qualifiers.
$855,000 were added in the prize pool by Ladbrokes for the Poker Million IV, and there was a guaranteed first prize of $1,000,000. Sixty-six of the finalists qualified online. Tony Jones, who started the evening as an 8/1 outsider, beat TV celebrity Helen Chamberlain.
