QUICK LINKS: the gallery
It is a tradition of BARGE that each Main Event winner wins a custom chipset… that they “get to” design. These chips are also sold as sample sets in order to fund the trophy set, and also because the BARGE community likes chops.
The gallery starts in 1993 and ends in 2025. There is also a gallery table of contents. We’ve got images of each of the chip sets and a little bit of information on their history.
Special thanks to Patrick Milligan for reaching out to many folks who were able to share images of chips from their collections. Patrick also re-scanned and edited a lot of these to get the best quality images we could.
Thanks also to BR Pro Poker, Michael Brennan, and the Internet Archive for the opportunity to dig through their archives.
There is even more BARGE memorabilia that we will add in the future.
Please contact us if you have images or corrections.
Buying Old Chips
We have an inventory of some old BARGE chips, including some complete sample sets. These will be offered for sale soon. Watch this space.
History of BARGE Main Event Chips
Pre-BCC Chips
Starting with 1993, and through 1999, chips were produced by the Main Event winner. For the first few events, the chipset was presented at BARGE and designed by the previous year’s winner, but starting with 1997, the winner started designing their set for themselves.
In 2000, the main event winner did not make the chips. Ken “QB” Kubey made a set for distribution at BARGE 2000.
BCC Chips
Starting from the 2001 BARGE, and retroactive to the 2000 chipset, the BARGE Chip Committee formed to ensure chipsets were produced every year. Input from the Main Event winners varied from very active to none at all.
The BCC’s last chipset was the 2019 chipset.
Chips are coming back!
In 2025, chips are being made again, including make-up sets for 2020, 2021, and 2023.
Orders for the 2025 batch of chips are now closed.