How to Clean Poker Chips

When it comes to keeping your poker chips clean, players might easily assume that poker chips clean themselves. Either that or the casino have a magical system of making sure each tournament is fresh. Like poker itself, however, the solution of how to clean poker chips isn’t simple.

MACHINES ARE THE FUTURE

A poker chips cleaning machine is often needed, especially for the larger casinos, and these days with so many events taking places each week in live casinos, especially in the United States of America where live poker has grown since Black Friday, a poker chip cleaner is a standard machine to have in any poker playing environment. But how do you clean poker chips and is cleaning poker chips a lengthy task or a simple operation?

Here’s an example of a popular casino-bought poker chip cleaning product and how it works from A to B. As you can see, it’s not a simple process by any means.

THE PROCESS EXPLAINED

So what have we learned from that video? Cleaning poker chips can be an operation that takes a single member of staff some considerable time, that’s for sure. But it’s also a necessity, with players health of paramount concern for every good casino in the country.

Making sure that any dirt or germs are soaked off then washed then rinsed and dried is an important process and as you can see in that video, completing each task in an orderly fashion is vital. Each casino will have their own cleaning schedule, but from the cards themselves to the chips used for gambling in each game, anything touched by poker players is regularly cleaned.

HOME GAME HYGIENE FOR POKER CHIPS

Cleaning poker chips at a casino is one thing, but what if you’re just starting out in the game and love watching tournaments such as the Short Deck final table or Super High Roller featuring Phil Ivey from the recent partypoker MILLIONS Sochi festival and enjoy playing some home games with your friends?

You’ll want clean poker chips too, but might not be able to stretch to a poker chip cleaning machine.

Here are a few ways you can make sure the only thing your buddies catch is a completed hand on the river next time they play in your home game.

Don’t Scratch Your Chips

It’s very easy to be tempted to scratch or scrape away any dirt that might have become attached to your poker chips, but resisting this urge is key. Many poker chips have a lot of markings on them.

Maybe they’re a novelty gift or perhaps they came from your favorite casino and were bought for you as a souvenir. Either way, the markings are often susceptible to being easily removed, so take great care around those areas.

Do Put Prized Poker Chips Aside

If you have rare poker chips or ones that mean a lot to you, then they will have an intrinsic value that is worth putting them to one side. Keep them on display, but don’t actually play with them, and pay for an expert to get them safely cleaned. It could be more than worth it in the long run. et experts clean very old or valuable chips.

You’ve only got to take a look here to see just how many extremely rare and valuable poker chips are on sale for thousands. If you’re rummaging through your collection for chips won at Casino de Isthmus City, then firstly, congratulations – you’re James Bond in the 1995 film License to Kill. Secondly, do we now get a commission based on your sudden wealth please?

Don’t Clean Stamped Chips Roughly

Any poker chips that have been stamped with a brand or name – possibly your own name if your family are struggling for Christmas gift ideas – are going to be very sensitive to over-exertive scrubbing. Keep them clean, but don’t use scourers or rough cloths, otherwise, they’ll just be plain chips with no more novelty than a Phil Hellmuth blow-up in 2020.

Do Be Gentle

It really is worth sticking to the rule of thumb that using anything abrasive to clean your poker chips is a bad idea. A soft cloth or even your hands are gentle enough yet firm enough to get the job done.

You could use a very soft-bristled toothbrush, perhaps an old one once it has been sterilized and cleaned, but not a new one with hard bristles. You might as well brush your teeth with a street sweeper and no-one is pulling off that look.

Don’t Get Steamed Up

Using steam or heat from boiling water to an iron might seem like a great last resort in the 10 minutes before your buddies arrive but stop! Any heat on clay chips and they’ll lose their rigidity and will soften and warp in a worst-case scenario.

If in doubt, put your poker chips to one side, play your home game with clean chips only and if they’re valuable to you, get them professionally cleaned.

While keeping your poker chips clean is a priority, the action in the latest Super High Roller series has been sparkling recently. Not a PokerGO subscriber? Sign up today and you won’t miss a thing, with 24/7 access at the click of a button across a multitude of digital devices.