A trove of World Series of Poker tournament chips are listed for sale on the internet.
There are several accounts listing “used” tournament chips for sale on the internet marketplace Ebay. These listings include chips from WSOP events played at the Horseshoe and Paris on the Las Vegas Strip the last few years.
Additionally, there are also sets of chips including large denomination chips from the series at the Rio.
An Ebay user with the screen name “longtall_js8” has several listings with chips from this year’s series up for sale. From this year’s set, the user has 100, 500, 1,000 and 5,000 denominations from multiple different chip sets.
The chips have the phrase “NO CASH VALUE” printed on them. However, the user is pricing them as if the denominations matter.
He has a single, 100-denomination chip listed for $33.99, but he has single 5,000-denomination pieces listed for just shy of $300.
Players Think The Chips Look Legit
Card Player showed the listings to 2024 WSOP main event champion Jonathan Tamayo. He can’t verify the authenticity of the chips only from an internet picture, but Tamayo believes they are chips he’s already handled.
Card Player reached out to the WSOP for comment and are awaiting a response.
Are they the same chips from this year’s series?
“I’ve used those chips a lot,” said Tamayo. “Multiple times over the last two summers.”
“longtall_js8” has the same item description for every poker chip he has listed.
“Up for sell is one of my favorite old collections. All the sales are guaranteed that tested before shipping it. Each shipment has a tracking number(s) that will be provided. You will receive the exact item that I post as the photos.”
According to the listings, the chips are located in Cerritos, California, a city in Los Angeles County.
Tamayo said he used the newer chips for sale in both prelims and in the main event. The smaller chips in the main event are also used in prelims.
Pathway To Cheating Scandals
If these chips are authentic, it gives cheaters the easiest way to to cheat in poker tournaments. A 5,000-chip won’t be anything near the largest chip in the tournament at the end, but they would be valuable to in the early and middle stages of a prelim event.
Adding chips to stacks is one of the most common forms of cheating in tournament poker.
In 2008, Justin Bonomo claimed Men “The Master” Nguyen pulled this same scam at Foxwoods a few years earlier.
“For those of you that don’t know the story, a few years ago, Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen and a bunch of players he staked were in a hotel room together when the fire alarm went off,” Bonomo wrote on his blog. “They were asked to leave the room while the fire was dealt with, and a suitcase full of tournament chips was discovered. This is a no-no in tournament poker.”
In 2014, Christian Lusardi used counterfeit chips in a $560 buy-in at the Borgata Winter Poker Open. Once staff discovered the counterfeit chips, Borgata canceled the tournament, launched an investigation and paid the final 27 players $19,323 each.
In July 2015, an Atlantic County grand jury indicted Lusardi for his actions.
Old Chips Available Too
Having current chips for sale is the most damning. But there are chips for sale from other years as well.
The Rio WSOP chips for sale
A user with the name “vintage-cycle” has a 13-chip set from the Rio’s era as host of the WSOP listed for $1,475. What stands out about this set is that it has several chips exclusive to the main event, highlighted by a 5 million-denomination chip.
Like the current chip sets, the seller claims these are chips that were used on poker’s most famous stage.
“Chips are tournament used,” wrote the seller in the description. “These are authentic WSOP chips, not remakes.”
While there isn’t a cheating concern with this set, the pending sale raises question about how these chips got outside the Rio.
Players and staff, under the most controlled environments with a ton of oversight, are the only people who can handle chips with those types of denominations. Yet someone smuggled them out of the tournament area.
Regulators Could’ve Stepped In To Squash Old Chips
Moreover, according to regulations, Caesars Entertainment likely needed to destroy the chips when they moved the series to the Strip.
Under Nevada gaming regulations Rule 12.070, “The licensee must submit the plan (for redeeming and disposing of discontinued chips) in writing to the Chair not later than 30 days before the proposed removal, replacement, sale or closure.”
Section E of that rule says the Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman could “approve or require” destruction of the chips.
The WSOP is the most common chip on Ebay. However, some sellers have tournament chips from several other properties including Venetian, Aria and Wynn.
Photo courtesy of PokerGO/Enrique Malfavon
