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The Vineyard Casino : History and Info (2 Viewers)

joker80 said:
I don’t understand how there are 40000 1s and 35000 5s and these chips never come up for sale???
Click to expand...
Many of the sets that primarily sold to "civilians" via eBay have a hard time getting back to us. They bought a "nice set of chips", stuck it in the closet and we might not see it again for 50 years. Same reason we don't see much of the fantasy sets; they're in the wrong hands.
 
I have only 3 sample sets (minus the $500) left. Drop me a PM if you are interested....
 
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If I did a CPC set I would do a Vineyard themed set on the Scrown mold. We are in wine country, I love Cali sets. I would call it Old Vines card room and keep the font and theme of the chips
 
joker80 said:
If I did a CPC set I would do a Vineyard themed set on the Scrown mold. We are in wine country, I love Cali sets. I would call it Old Vines card room and keep the font and theme of the chips
Click to expand...

Do it and I’ll buy a set
Frac x 100
$1s x 200
$5s x 200
$20s x 80
$100 x 20
 
I’ve owned full playable set of vineyards twice in my chipping life. I have none now (minus the $500 I can’t find)
 
I once owned a small set of Vineyard’s, it’s one set I would love to own again someday. The $20 is probably my favourite chip of all-time, those colours are awesome!

If the Vineyard chips were easier to acquire I would strongly consider selling almost every other chip I have and go after a set.
 
FordPickup92 said:
No problem, make sure you send out a PM also!!
Click to expand...
PM incoming. Also went back to read the thread, awesome information! Love the history that accompanies so many chips, thanks for posts like these.

I’m always interested in what drives the demand for various chips, as I like some that are highly sought and not others. These catch me a little by surprise, as I don’t see a ton of love on PCF for giant inlays. Is that simply because many giant inlay chips have meh design and can’t be relabeled?
 
The great thing about these chips is a lot of the chips came out mint. And I’m sure there are still quite a few mint sets out there
 
To build on the mint condition, I think these also came available around peak poker fever. The 2006 WSOP Main Event is still the highest entrant total.
 
An old post definitely worthy of reviving. I’d obviously seen and heard of the Vineyard chips but really knew nothing about them besides how they looked! Kudos to @inca911 for posting this. One of the few lengthier posts that I’ve seen lately that are worth the read!
 
TheB00T said:
To build on the mint condition, I think these also came available around peak poker fever. The 2006 WSOP Main Event is still the highest entrant total.
Click to expand...
Not to try and thread jack here but that is just main event entries. People talk about the "hey day" of poker being 2006 but there was a precipitous drop in main event entries directly after 2006 because of restrictions with online applicants. and a steady increase each year since to where we are almost at 2006 levels now and I wouldnt be surprised if it's surpassed next year.

As far as total event participation the total number of WSOP events has increased nearly every year and total participation across all events is at record levels every year.

Long story short I feel like we are continuing to see the popularity of poker increase year after year and the numbers prove it.
 
Mac128k said:
they're in the wrong hands
Click to expand...

I resent that remark!

IMG_2221.JPG
IMG_2222.JPG
IMG_2223.JPG
 
Thanks for the post and interesting history. Vineyards are one of my favorite sets and was one that got me more interested in better quality home sets.
 
UPDATE!
I can no longer edit my first post; however, I have new Vineyard info that fills in some of the missing pieces of the puzzle. This comes directly from my conversation last night with the guy who originally acquired the chips from the casino. He actually found this thread and reached out to me on PCF to clean up some details.

Our chipping hero, whom we will call Greg, lived just north of the casino in Fresno, CA. He'd driven past it dozens of times on the way to his local poker game, and never really gave the card room or its closing much thought. At the time, Greg worked for a local security company. One day in 2004, his general manager reached out to him about going to see a safe and some stuff at a closed casino. The GM knew that Greg was a poker guy, and thought he might be helpful. Greg obliged, and was soon standing in the closed casino with piles of tables, and a literal treasure trove of chips! Greg was knowledgeable enough to recognize that the massive amount of chips were all high quality Paulsons. Trying to stay somewhat composed, his recollection of what came next went something like this:
  • Hero: Are you interested in selling the chips?
  • Pastor: Yes, I need to get rid of all this stuff. How many trays would you like?
  • Hero: I'm interested in all of them, all the chips.
  • Pastor: Really?
  • Hero: Yes, what would you need for everything?
  • Pastor: I need a bus.
  • Hero: (waiting, mentally picturing a brand new luxury liner full of new church-goers, and trying to do some math in his head)
  • Pastor: ... about $5k.
  • Hero: (trying not to lose his shit) $5k? Yeah, I think I can pull that together.
  • Pastor: Sounds good to me, I'll just keep one tray of chips to remember this. I'm not entirely comfortable selling casino stuff, so while it might be worth more, I'm just glad to have it done.
Yes, 140,000 chips for $5,000. 3.5 pennies per chip. Wow, just wow.

Greg rushed home and pulled together the funds, driving back in his half-ton Toyota pickup to close the deal. Money changed hands, and the first loading began. Our hero recognized that he was going to need to recruit some help when his truck bed starts to sag too much from the weight, and he's tired and no where close to being done. After recruiting several friends with trucks, they form a convoy to get the chips back home.

Now before we get too far along, let's talk about that rack the pastor wanted to keep. Of course, that was the only rack of $500 chips. Ugh. Smartly electing not to press the issue at time time, Greg was contacted about a year later about buying that rack, plus the contents of a smaller unopened safe. This time the pastor was a bit more shrewd, asking another $5k for the one rack and the mystery safe. Greg obliged. The pic of the $500 rack was taken on a purple blanket that Greg still has. The safe had some chips too, so it was another good deal. Greg sold the $500s one at a time for many years.

Greg started selling the chips to his poker friends and associates. One guy up in LA started buying ~$3k batches of chips. We think that guy might have been running Ace Poker Chips, one of the main public sellers with an original distribution price of $1.70 per chip. Greg recalls selling several batches of ~$3k to the LA guy for around $1.50 per chip. Note that the pastor did sell some racks to others before unloading them all to Greg, but the counts above feel right.

For @HaRDHouSeiNC : While the previously posted numbers of NCV chips was close to 10k, Greg thinks there were a lot fewer of those. He remembers selling the NCVs off for cheap, as there was nothing Vineyard on them and they were in much worse condition. I'm still talking to Greg to try and get a set of the NCVs for my personal enjoyment. Time will tell.

I'm really excited to be able to share the details of this epic casino score with all my fellow chipping nuts. It's pretty amazing to be able to finally tell the full story 15+ years later.
 
Last edited:
inca911 said:
UPDATE!
I can no longer edit my first post; however, I have new Vineyard info that fills in the missing pieces of the puzzle. This comes directly from my conversation last night with the guy who originally acquired the chips from the casino. He actually found this post and reached out to me to clean up some details.

Our chipping hero, whom we will call Greg, lived just north of the casino in Fresno, CA. He'd driven past it dozens of times on the way to his local poker game, and never really gave the card room or its closing much thought. At the time, Greg worked for a local security company. One day in 2004, his general manager reached out to him about going to see a safe and some stuff at a closed casino. The GM knew that Greg was a poker guy, and through he might be helpful. Greg obliged, and soon was standing in the closed casino reviewing piles of tables, and a literal treasure trove of chips! Greg was knowledgeable enough to recognize that the massive amount of chips were all high quality Paulsons. Trying to stay somewhat composed, his recollection of what came next went something like this:
  • Hero: Are you interested in selling the chips?
  • Pastor: Yes, I need to get rid of all this stuff. How many trays would you like?
  • Hero: I'm interested in all of them, all the chips.
  • Pastor: Really?
  • Hero: Yes, what would you need for everything?
  • Pastor: I need a bus.
  • Hero: (waiting, mentally picturing a brand new luxury liner full of new church-goers, and trying to do some math in his head)
  • Pastor: ... about $5k.
  • Hero: (trying not to lose his shit) $5k? Yeah, I think I can pull that together.
  • Pastor: Sounds good to me, I'll just keep one tray of chips to remember this.. I'm not entirely comfortable selling casino stuff, so while it might be worth more, I'm just glad to have it done.
Yes, 140,000 chips for $5,000. 3.5 pennies per chip. Wow, just wow.

Our hero rushed home and pulled together the funds, driving back in his half-ton Toyota pickup to close the deal. Money changed hands, and the first loading began. Our hero recognized that he was going to need to recruit some help when his truck bed starts to sag too much from the weight, and he's tired and no where close to being done. After recruiting several friends with trucks, they form a convoy to get the chips back home.

Now before we get too far along, let's talk about that rack the pastor wanted to keep. Of course, that was the only rack of $500 chips. Ugh. Smartly electing not to press the issue at time time, Greg was contacted about a year later about buying that rack, plus the contents of a smaller unopened safe. This time the pastor was a bit more shrewd, asking another $5k for the one rack and the mystery safe. Greg obliged. The pic of the $500 rack was taken on a purple blanket that Greg still has. The safe had some chips too, so it was another good deal. Greg sold the $500s one at a time for many years.

Greg started selling the chips to his poker friends and associates. One guy up in LA started buying ~$3k batches of chips . We think that guy might have been running Ace Poker Chips, with an original distribution price of $1.70 per chip. Greg recalls selling several batches of $3k to the LA guy for around $1.50 per chip. Note that the pastor did sell some racks to others before unloading them all to Greg.

For @HaRDHouSeiNC : While the previously posted numbers of NCV chips was close to 10k, Greg thinks there were a lot fewer of those. He remembers selling the NCVs off for cheap, as there was nothing Vineyard on them. I'm still talking to Greg to try and get a set of the NCVs for my personal enjoyment. Time will tell.

I'm really excited to be able to share the details of this epic casino score with all my fellow chipping nuts. It's pretty amazing to be able to finally tell the full story 15+ years later.
Click to expand...

awesome thanks for sharing!
 
inca911 said:
UPDATE!
I can no longer edit my first post; however, I have new Vineyard info that fills in the missing pieces of the puzzle. This comes directly from my conversation last night with the guy who originally acquired the chips from the casino. He actually found this post and reached out to me to clean up some details.

Our chipping hero, whom we will call Greg, lived just north of the casino in Fresno, CA. He'd driven past it dozens of times on the way to his local poker game, and never really gave the card room or its closing much thought. At the time, Greg worked for a local security company. One day in 2004, his general manager reached out to him about going to see a safe and some stuff at a closed casino. The GM knew that Greg was a poker guy, and through he might be helpful. Greg obliged, and soon was standing in the closed casino reviewing piles of tables, and a literal treasure trove of chips! Greg was knowledgeable enough to recognize that the massive amount of chips were all high quality Paulsons. Trying to stay somewhat composed, his recollection of what came next went something like this:
  • Hero: Are you interested in selling the chips?
  • Pastor: Yes, I need to get rid of all this stuff. How many trays would you like?
  • Hero: I'm interested in all of them, all the chips.
  • Pastor: Really?
  • Hero: Yes, what would you need for everything?
  • Pastor: I need a bus.
  • Hero: (waiting, mentally picturing a brand new luxury liner full of new church-goers, and trying to do some math in his head)
  • Pastor: ... about $5k.
  • Hero: (trying not to lose his shit) $5k? Yeah, I think I can pull that together.
  • Pastor: Sounds good to me, I'll just keep one tray of chips to remember this.. I'm not entirely comfortable selling casino stuff, so while it might be worth more, I'm just glad to have it done.
Yes, 140,000 chips for $5,000. 3.5 pennies per chip. Wow, just wow.

Our hero rushed home and pulled together the funds, driving back in his half-ton Toyota pickup to close the deal. Money changed hands, and the first loading began. Our hero recognized that he was going to need to recruit some help when his truck bed starts to sag too much from the weight, and he's tired and no where close to being done. After recruiting several friends with trucks, they form a convoy to get the chips back home.

Now before we get too far along, let's talk about that rack the pastor wanted to keep. Of course, that was the only rack of $500 chips. Ugh. Smartly electing not to press the issue at time time, Greg was contacted about a year later about buying that rack, plus the contents of a smaller unopened safe. This time the pastor was a bit more shrewd, asking another $5k for the one rack and the mystery safe. Greg obliged. The pic of the $500 rack was taken on a purple blanket that Greg still has. The safe had some chips too, so it was another good deal. Greg sold the $500s one at a time for many years.

Greg started selling the chips to his poker friends and associates. One guy up in LA started buying ~$3k batches of chips . We think that guy might have been running Ace Poker Chips, with an original distribution price of $1.70 per chip. Greg recalls selling several batches of $3k to the LA guy for around $1.50 per chip. Note that the pastor did sell some racks to others before unloading them all to Greg.

For @HaRDHouSeiNC : While the previously posted numbers of NCV chips was close to 10k, Greg thinks there were a lot fewer of those. He remembers selling the NCVs off for cheap, as there was nothing Vineyard on them and they were in much worse condition. I'm still talking to Greg to try and get a set of the NCVs for my personal enjoyment. Time will tell.

I'm really excited to be able to share the details of this epic casino score with all my fellow chipping nuts. It's pretty amazing to be able to finally tell the full story 15+ years later.
Click to expand...

man just imagine the massive hard-on greg got when pastor said 5k for 140k chips lmao
 
Thanks for the cool update, Forrest!

So now the estimated total number of $500s is back to a single rack? (Not that I would have any interest in this... :cool )
 
Incredible. I can’t imagine looking at all those chips for the first time and hearing $5k for the whole lot.
 
Thanks for the update Forrest, so cool to hear this story. I've always been fascinated with this casino, and probably my biggest regret in chipping is selling the small set I had many years ago. In hindsight, I should have avoided many other chipping adventures and focused only on building the perfect Vineyard set. All I have now is a few shuffle stacks, maybe someday I'll get serious and build a nice cash set.
 
WOW ! That's amazing to know the real story many years after !
Many thanks for this update Forrest :tup:
 

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