New chips at the Riviera

Played at the Riviera last night. I hadn't been there in a few months, and was very surprised to see that they have made a complete relacement of their $5 chips. There appear to be five different new ones, shown above, fronts and backs. They're really quite nice (though the middle one may hold the world record for the most human butts ever displayed on a poker chip). It's a rare esthetic pleasure to play with a set of uniformly new, sharp-edged, and still mostly clean chips.

I can't recall ever seeing a casino entirely replace its stock of chips. The old ones were nowhere to be seen. Usually the old ones continue to exist alongside the new ones. Despite the pleasures of the new set, this is kind of disappointing, because the Riviera used to be one of just a handful of places (Palms, Rio, the old Aladdin, Harrah's, Hard Rock) that issue new chips at the drop of a hat. They had literally dozens of different ones in circulation, and there were many not yet in my collection. What I most liked about the Riviera's practice was issuing commemorative chips for the various oddball conventions that were held there.

I like having and looking at a variety of chips in my three-ring binder. But it's not a serious hobby, and not worth it to me to invest much of either time or money to expand the collection. Basically, if I don't come across a chip while playing, I don't pick it up. So I'm not going to go out of my way to hunt for all of the chips now taken out of circulation. Furthermore, I've never paid more than face value for a chip, and still won't. They're just not that important to me. All of which means that what had been one of the reasons I occasionally hit up the Riviera--the hope of picking up a couple of new interesting chips as souvenirs--is now gone, and the ones I didn't get earlier will just have to remain out of my life.

Certainly a bit of sadness, but I suppose it's possible that there are greater tragedies than this in the world.