So, you have followed our guide to storing your poker chips and you have strictly enforced the playing conditions but the unthinkable has happened. Your poker chips are dirty and need a good cleaning! Do not worry Nevada Jacks has your complete guide to poker chip cleaning.

How To : Poker Chip Cleaning

This section is a guide to poker chip cleaning, dedicated to everyone who does NOT have a true clay poker chip set. A true clay poker chip set would be something like the Paulson Top Hat and Cane clay poker chips. Here is the general rule of thumb. Even if you are 1000 percent sure that your poker chips are clay, if you did not pay around one dollar per chip (yes… $1 per chip), there is a 99.99% chance that your chips are not considered to be clay to the true poker chip connoisseur.

I can hear it now. There are thousands of people out there declaring that the site where they purchased their $50 set of 500 poker chips stated that the chips that they were buying were real, honest to goodness, genuine, grade A, 100%, official CLAY POKER CHIPS. I am sorry to inform you that your chips are not ‘clay poker chips’ at all. You, my friends, have been duped by unscrupulous opportunistic retailers on the internet.

Read our site closely. We reserve the term ‘clay poker chip’ for only a few select poker chips found on our site. These would be the above named Paulson clay poker chips and possibly some of our real casino chips. The term clay is even a little deceiving. There is, in fact, no clay in a true clay poker chip but that is a whole other story. But have hope! There is a silver lining to every cloud. The good news is your poker chips are still poker chips and still can do everything a clay poker chip can do and more. They can even be cleaned easier than clay poker chips.

Now that we cleared up that confusion, here is how to get started. It is easy but a thorough cleaning can be quite time consuming. Simply gather the following household items. You will need a container of lukewarm water (bucket, bowl or sink), some MILD detergent, a soft bristle brush (a tooth brush is fine), a soft wash cloth, and a drying towel. First, you can soak your chips in the warm soapy water in bulk as long as they do not have a stickered inlay. If you are not sure just do a few at a time to be safe. You don’t want the soapy water to work its way under the sticker. As a reference, Nevada Jacks ceramic chips DO NOT have a sticker and you can soak them in lukewarm water. Next, take the chips out of the soapy water one at a time and scrub them with the soft cloth. If any are still dirty after rubbing them down with the cloth, a soft bristle brush may be used to scrub any remaining dirt. Once clean towel dry the chips. You may want to do a final rinsing and drying when you are all done to remove any remaining detergent. That’s all there is too it! Please note that you should NEVER place your chips in the dishwasher, washing machine or microwave!

Cleaning Clay Poker Chips

If you are the proud owner of clay poker chips (or refuse to face the reality of the above rule of thumb), you will need the same materials as mentioned above. There are a few differences with cleaning clay poker chips though. First, DO NOT SOAK the chips are any extended period of time. When cleaning clay poker chips, we recommend you clean them one at a time. Briefly dip them in the mild soapy water as needed to clean them. Take care to GENTLY scrub them. Avoid scrubbing the inlay area especially the edge of the inlay where the seal could be broken. We even go so far as to cleaning just a few and letting them dry just to make sure that they are not damaged in the process. Let’s face it.. at $1 per chip, ruining 500 just isn’t an option. The primary reason why clay chips should be cleaned with more care is because generally the materials that they are made of are softer and tend to absorb outside agents faster than harder non-clay chips. This is why they also get dirtier faster.

Now that your clay poker chips have been cleaned and dried, you may notice that their color is not as deep as when you started cleaning them. Do not panic. There are two solutions to this issue. First, you can do nothing and put them back in play. After being handled by players, the chips will start to absorb the oils from their hands. With this method it may take a little time to break them back in. Alternatively, you can take a very small amount of non-scented oil and a soft cloth and gently break them in quicker. It just depends on how much time you ware willing to dedicate.

We hope this care and cleaning information has helpful. See you on the felts!

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