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The two largest and most well-known poker tournaments are the World Poker Tour championship event and the World Series of Poker, both held in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 2005 World Series of Poker was the first held outside of Binion's Horseshoe Casino, though the final few days of the main event were held in the legendary Benny's Bullpen. Future tournaments have been held at one of the Harrah's Entertainment properties; since 2005, the Rio has served as the host venue.
Arguably the most publicized European poker tournament is the Poker Million, which began in 2000 on Sky Sports, following on from the success of the Late Night Poker television show.
In addition to these poker events, there are other major poker tournaments throughout the year. The World Poker Tour broadcasts a series of open tournaments throughout the U.S. and Caribbean with buy-ins from $5,000 to $25,000, as well as a European event.
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.
