Maybe the most adorable poker chips ever...

...at least if you like cute little critters like I do. I've had dogs and pet rats, though never a piglet.

I saw a guy at another casino last week with one of the Year of the Rat chips, and I had to have one. (Click on the photo to see up close how cute that guy's little face is!)

This is the first time I've picked a place to play poker so that I would have an excuse to buy collectible chips, and the first time I've gone to the cashier just to buy chips, since these don't really circulate regularly (they're both an odd denomination--8 being a lucky number in Chinese culture--and physically oversized, about 3 mm bigger than the 49 mm standard, so wouldn't work well for actual gambling).

It turned out to be an unusually good poker day--uptick $871--so I felt justified in a little splurge for the chip collection.