Casino Chip Show - Battle Creek (part 4 of 4)

The final installment of my four part series on my brother's and my trip to the Great Lakes Casino Chip Show in Battle Creek is just one final chip.  It's a chip I won via the 11:30am raffle.  And it's the one I've had the most trouble tracking down information on.

1.  Atlantic Maritime.  The AM was a management company that ran casinos on cruise ships off of Florida.  More or less.  There's more information on it here.  Thanks to collectors Albert Scalzo and Ricky Pushkin for pointing me in the right direction on this chip's background.  It joins a growing section of cruise chips I have.

Casino Chip Show - Battle Creek (part 3 of 4)

On to the chips I actually purchased from actual dealers at the actual show!

1.  Mandalay Bay - Rahman/Lewis November 17, 2001.  Limited to 2,500.  You might remember the $25 version of this chip from this post.  I had no idea there was a $5 version until I saw it in a display case.  It took me roughly .2 seconds to decide to buy it.  This was the rematch which Lewis won, meaning we had a new heavyweight champion who was NOT from the United States.  Fans of Jim Lampley will know what I am talking about.

2.  Luxor - Anubis.  The Luxor had three chips out at once that had a mythological theme.  I had Egyptian Queen one already, 19th one down here.  This one is Anubis, which is the Greek name for a jackal-headed god associated with the afterlife in Egyptian religion.  That makes one want to gamble, no?

3.  Luxor - Sphinx.  The final of the three, this one is designed to look like the entrance of the Luxor.

4.  Binion's Horseshoe Club - Stu "The Kid" Unger.  I think they spelled his name wrong, as everyone else goes with "Ungar."  A three time winner of the World Series of Poker's Main Event, Ungar had a book written about his life by Nolan Dalla that I thought was really good.

5.  Planet Hollywood - Grand Opening November 16 & 17, 2007.  Limited to 3,000.  A two day opening event!  That must've been quite a party.  #sarcasm

6.  Monte Carlo - Happy New Year 2005.  I'll collect just about any Monte Carlo chip that doesn't have Frank Caliendo on it.

7.  Silver Sevens.  Former Terrible's Casino, just off the strip.

8.  Silver Sevens - Grand Opening.  Opened in 2013.  Wonder how long it'll stay Silver Sevens?

Casino Chip Show - Battle Creek (part 2 of 4)

The second batch of chips from my brother (@ATRoss14) are all horse racing themed.  2014 will mark my 10th straight trip to the Kentucky Derby, so these are pretty cool to me.  They are:

1.  Riviera - The Run.  Undated, limited to 1,000 chips.

2.  Riviera - Kentucky Derby 2001.  Limited to 800 chips.  This race was on May 5 and won by Monarchos.  Giacomo in 2005 was my first Derby and the only year I haven't won a bet in the main race.

3.  Palms - 2005 Kentucky Derby Winner Giacomo.  Limited to 1,500.  Hey, what do you know, I was at that race.  Talk about your foreshadowing.  Giacomo was roughly a 50-1 shot and touched off a string of long shots winning the Derby in recent years.  Mine That Bird (50-1), Animal Kingdowm (21-1) and I'll Have Another (15-1) have all cashed tickets for me.

4.  Palms - 1977 Belmont Stakes Winner Seattle Slew.  Limited to 1,000.  The second to last Triple Crown winner, Seattle Slew accomplished that feat in 1977.

5.  Palms - 2004 Kentucky Derby Winner Smarty Jones.  Limited to 1500.  This was the year before I started going and the thing I remember most about this mega-favorite winning the race was an episode of the Nick and Jessica Simpson show where they went to the race and bet on Smarty.  At 4 to 1.  Big time.

6.  Palms - 1977 Preakness Winner Seattle Slew.  Limited to 1,000.  See #4.

7.  Palms - 2004 Preakness Winner Smarty Jones.  Limited to 1,000.  Wonder if the Simpsons made it to Baltimore for this race?  Smarty would finish second at the Belmont in 2004, narrowly missing out on the first Triple Crown since 1978 (Affirmed).

8.  Palms - 2003 Kentucky Derby Winner Funny Cide.  Limited to 1,500.  Funny Cide was a 13-1 winner in Louisville and won the Preakness before finishing third in the Belmont.

9.  Palms - 1977 Kentucky Derby Winner Seattle Slew.  Limited to 1,500.  The race that started Seattle Slew's march to the Triple Crown.  Seattle Slew was an incredible 1 to 2 to win the Derby.

Casino Chip Show - Battle Creek (part 1 of 4)

For the second consecutive year, I made the trek down to Battle Creek to attend the Great Lakes Chip Show.  This year my brother came along as well.  Before we even left for Cereal City, I got a handful of chips from him.  Some he just gave me out of the goodness of his heart and some he charged me for ($1 under face!).  First, the non-Las Vegas ones:

1.  Overland Hotel Reno - This chip looks old and I would have thought this was from a now-closed Casino but a quick google search shows that you can still book a room at the Overland Hotel on your next trip to Reno!  What?  You don't have a trip to Reno in the works?  Oh.

2.  Hilton Resort Reno

3.  Clarion Hotel Casino Reno

4.  Boomtown Hotel Casino - Jamboree Country - Verdi, NV.  Verdi is about 10 miles west of the Reno/Sparks metroplex.

5.  Gold River Gambling Hall & Resort, Laughlin, NV

6.  Golden Nugget, Laughlin, NV.  Man I wish Tim and Tom would come back and do a Fox reality show on this.

7.  Harrah's Tahoe.

Casino Chip Show - Cleveland

This past weekend I was able to attend my second casino chip show, this one just outside of Cleveland.  I was expecting it to be bigger and grander than the one I attended in Battle Creek, but it was probably a little smaller.  And there seemed to be more non-chips on display, things like; ash trays, key cards, dice, signage and other stuff of that nature.  Nonetheless, I was able to come home with 8 new chips.

1.  Casino M8trix, San Jose, California.  Kind of cool looking chip from the new M8trix Casino.  The 8 in the name is in red so at first glance, I read the chip as "Casino Trix."

2.  Rivers Casino, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  My first chip from the Keystone State.  Pretty basic looking.

3.  Rio - Danny Gans.  Danny was called the "Man of Many Voices" and for a while advertisements for his show could be found on virtually every cab and bus in Vegas.  He performed at the Strat, the Mirage and the Rio before dying in 2009 at age 52.  I had no idea he was a pro baseball player and only stopped playing due to an injury to his Achilles tendon.  The theater at the Mirage is named after him.

4.  Holiday Inn Casino Boardwalk - Grand Opening.  The Boardwalk opened in 1995 - it seemed way older than that.  Had a great Strip location between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo.  Also had a fake roller coaster on top of their main entrance, long before casinos started putting actual roller coasters inside.  It was imploded in 2006 and the City Center now sits where I used to play $3 blackjack.

5.  Blue Man Group - Monte Carlo.  The Blue Man Group moved to the Monte Carlo after fairly lengthy runs at the Luxor and the Venetian.

6.  Stardust - Legendary Old-Timer Bill Boyd.  This chip was put out in 1998 and limited to 2,000 chips.  Bill Boyd is a four-time winner of the 5 Card Stud event at the World Series of Poker. 

7.  Tropicana - Folies Bergere 35th Anniversary.  Maybe that's why the Trop smells like old people - they have the same acts for 35 years.

8.  Flamingo, New Orleans.  I really like the look of this chip, with the small font and dark colors.  Good job Flamingo, NO.

Casino Chip Show, part 3

The third and final installment of my trip to Battle Creek for a Casino Chip Show.  I bought these four chips from the same woman, after flipping through her "Las Vegas" binder.  I didn't sit this time, just stoop and flipped, which seemed to confuse the old folks at the show.  Why would anyone pass up a chair?

1.  Kings Crown - Las Vegas.  Never heard of this place, the chip isn't all that special (has a crown in the middle with the casino name and city).  But it's older, the chip is from the 1980's and the casino opened in 1966 (according to the dealer).  And since it was only $5, it was a no-brainer for me.  I love chips from old places that are no longer open.  According to wikipedia, the Kings Crown was originally the Tally-Ho Casino and eventually became the Aladdin.

2.  Boardwalk Casino.  This is an older chip than the Boardwalk one I already have - it's real creepy, too.  Got a drawing of clown in the middle.  A really odd, creepy looking clown.  I'm not surprised they changed the design.

3.  Boardwalk Casino - Y2K Limited Edition.  This also has the clown picture, it looks like it's superimposed on the Moon.  I'm not sure.  If it is supposed to be the Moon, I'm not sure I get it.  What did the Moon have to do with Y2K?  It also doesn't say what the number of chips production was limited to either.  Hopefully not many.

4.  Luxor - Nefertiti.  I think this is one of the first chips the Luxor put out.  I bought it from this dealer for $5.  The dealer who sold me the NY/Canada chips also had this one for sale, but for $15.  He did tell me that it's one of only a few $5 chips he's ever seen that wasn't red.  I'm not sure what color it is, but I guess it's not red.  So when I saw it later for $10 less than he was selling it for, I thought why not?  It can be the first chip in my Non-Red $5 Chip Collection.  

Casino Chip Show, Part 2

The next batch of chips I got at the Battle Creek Casino Chip show were actually the first ones I bought there.  I had pulled up a chair and was flipping through a binder marked "NY/Canada" hoping to find a Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods chip.  I've been within 45 minutes of each casino on various work trips, but never made it to either, so I figured this might be my best chance at scoring chips from the two mega-casinos.  I didn't find those chips but I did find:

1.  Turning Stone Casino - Verona, NY.  This casino sits between Utica and Syracuse.  It's another casino I was in the vicinity of on a work trip, but never made it inside.  Pretty lucky that I just happened to find it flipping through some random binder.

2.  Casino Windsor.  This casino is 90 minutes away and I've never been there.  Not even to run in and grab a chip.  It's cool looking, too... with a big Maple Leaf on it.  I like it.  I might have to actually drive over and check this place out one of these days.

3.  Casino Niagara.  Never been here either, but it's a nice looking chip, with a drawing of the Falls on it.  It was in the binder next to the Windsor chip, so I grabbed it.

All told, I spent 15 minutes at this guy's booth and spent $15 on three different $5 chips.  Good deal for me.

Casino Chip Show, part 1

Went to a Casino Chip Show in Battle Creek on Saturday and picked up a handful of new chips.  It was my first time attending a Chip Show, and it was pretty much what I expected.  Just like a baseball card or coin show.  There were probably 25ish dealers, they all sat behind folding tables with their chips in front of them.  Most of the chips were in plastic sheets inside binders.  And they all had chairs in front of the tables, so you could sit and flip through hundreds and hundreds of chips.  Also, save for one or two people - everyone was 112 years old.  I mean, the collection of people would make a Wednesday Night Bingo Club look young and active.  But it was a pretty good time and I bought chips from 3 (well 4) dealers.  Up first, the Ohio guys.

The Ohio guys were easily the youngest of the dealers - unless I missed someone.  They were also the most talkative and outgoing.  I think they were the first people to talk to me while I initially cased the perimeter.  Nice guys and they gave me some info on another show near Cleveland in April.  The chips I got there:

1.  Hollywood Casino - Columbus.  Just opened.  Looks just like the Toldeo chip only it says Columbus on it.  Since I like the looks of the Toledo chip, I like this one too.

2.  MGM Grand Riddick Bowe/Jorge Luis Gonzalez chip.  I saw this chip in a display and immediately knew I would buy it - barring it being ridiculously expensive.  I was prepared to pay $15 for the chip... and I ended up paying $15, but for two chips.  Since the chip has Bowe on one side and Gonzalez on the other, he wanted to sell them as a set.  No big deal - I'll either trade or sell (hopefully) one of them.  And then display the Bowe side.  Even though the Gonzalez side has the slogan "Mortal Enemies" on it, which absolutely cracks me up.  The Bowe side says "1995 WBO Heavyweight Championship."  Bowe won by KO in the 6th.  Fan of Blog Matt Hoppe found online that the fight was refereed by Mills Lane and the judges were Duane Ford, Chuck Giampa and Jerry Roth.  Which anyone could have guessed - they are the only ref/judges to work in the 1990s.  I just hope this chip becomes more popular than Hop's Lewis/Rahman chip.