The earliest poker chips were a form of self made money/credit that guys would trade for money? (1 Viewer)

[frondaro]

this is bizarre, i'm listening to this MIT talk about early poker

and the guy makes the claim that the earliest poker people played wasn't for money, it was for "cheques" and these cheques were a form of self made money, and that they would exchange these cheques for money and services

it's really really bizarre to me, has anyone else ever heard of this?

thank you

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

this is bizarre, i'm listening to this MIT talk about early poker

and the guy makes the claim that the earliest poker people played wasn't for money, it was for "cheques" and these cheques were a form of self made money, and that they would exchange these cheques for money and services

it's really really bizarre to me, has anyone else ever heard of this?

thank you

Yup! So when someone "has your marker" it means you owe them money, you're in debted to them and you had to be one to give it out. That's why a marker is phrased that way; it's specific to the person who owes, its their mark.

 

[frondaro]

Yup! So when someone "has your marker" it means you owe them money, you're in debted to them and you had to be one to give it out. That's why a marker is phrased that way; it's specific to the person who owes, its their mark.

wow that is very bizarre, if they didn't have any money what would they trade? time? help? favors?

would they make a marker that represents and hours worth of work and when that person wanted to cash in they would ask that man for his work or his labor and then give him his marks back

so essentially they are selling their word?

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

Cant speak to exact denominations but yes. "I've got your marker' is a way of saying you owe me, help me out. I dont know if it was for specific tasks or if they agreed before the game but it was more like tournament poker; "lets play this game with these tokens", not like each chip represents a certain amount of money

 

[ekricket]

wow that is very bizarre, if they didn't have any money what would they trade? time? help? favors?

would they make a marker that represents and hours worth of work and when that person wanted to cash in they would ask that man for his work or his labor and then give him his marks back

so essentially they are selling their word?

“And then there were none” by Eric Frank Russell

Short story worth a read. Not about poker but a perspective on your post.

 

[allforcharity]

When casinos became legal and regulated entities, then their chips became a sort f corporate currency with many of the restrictions and design components of equivalent government issued currency.