Casino personnel usually allude to chips as "cheques," which is of French origin. In reality, there’s a difference between a cheque and a chip. A cheque is a chip with a denomination printed on it and is always worth the value of the written on it. Chips, on the other hand, do not have denominations imprinted on them and the value is determined by the croupier. For example, in a poker tournament, the dealer might value white chips as one dollar and blue chips as ten dollars; whereas, in a roulette game, the casino might define white chips as $0.25 and blue chips at two dollars. A further example, the inexpensive red, white, and blue plastic chips you buy at Wal-Mart for your weekend poker game are called "chips" due to the fact that they don’t have denominations printed on them.
When you put your cash down on the table and hear the croupier say, "Cheque change only," he’s basically informing the boxman that a new competitor wants to change money for cheques, and that the money on the table is not in play. Cash plays in many betting houses, so if you put a 5 dollar bill down on the Pass Line just before the shooter rolls the pair of dice and the croupier doesn’t change your cash for chips, your cash is "live" and "in play."
In reality, in actual craps games, we play with cheques, not chips. Every now and then, an individual will approach the table, put down a one hundred dollar cheque, and tell the dealer, "Cheque change." It’s amusing to act like a newbie and ask the croupier, "Hey, I am a beginner to this game, what is a cheque?" Frequently, their comical answers will amuse you.
This entry was posted on January 24, 2010, 2:22 am and is filed under Craps. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.