Casino staff normally reference chips as "cheques," being of French background. In reality, there’s a distinction amidst a chip and a cheque. A cheque is a chip with a amount printed on it and is forever valued at the amount of the written number. Chips, although, don’t have denominations printed on them and any color can be valued at any dollar value as determined by the dealer. For instance, in a poker tournament, the casino may define white chips as 1 dollar and blue chips as $10; at the same time, in a game of roulette, the house might state that white chips as 25 cents and blue chips as two dollars. Another example, the inexpensive red, white, and blue plastic chips you purchase at the department store for your Friday-night poker get together are called "chips" because they don’t have denominations written on them.
When you plop your cash down on the table and hear the dealer announce, "Cheque change only," she’s merely informing the boxman that a new gambler wants to exchange $$$$$$ for chips (cheques), and that the $$$$$$ on the craps table isn’t part of the action. $$$$$ plays in almost all betting houses, so if you put a five dollar bill on the Pass Line just prior to the shooter tossing the dice and the dealer doesn’t trade your $$$$$ for cheques, your money is "live" and "in play." When the croupier says, "Cheque change only," the boxman knows that your money isn’t in play.
Technically, in in real life craps rounds, we compete with cheques, and not chips. Every now and then, a gambler will walk up to the the craps table, put down a $100 cheque, and tell the dealer, "Cheque change." It’s entertaining to act like a newbie and say to the dealer, "Hey, I’m new to Craps, what is a cheque?" Most of the time, their comical responses will amuse you.
This entry was posted on February 24, 2010, 7:21 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.