Most of the chips we have produced have been for the main event winner’s chipset. Each year, a sample set of these chips was made available for sale, with the profits from those sales used to pay for the chip set prize.

Many of those sample sets are still available in the BCC horde! We hope to see those offered for sale again soon.

Main Event Chip Sets

Since 1993, the BARGE main event winner has gotten a set of chips. As the tradition has evolved, the main event winner now has to make the chips for the next year. This has always happened, every single year, except 2000, and then 2016, and then 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. So it would be more accurate to say that it usually happened.

This page discusses designs from 1993 until 1999.

In 2000, the main event winner didn’t get the chips done. The BARGE Chip Committee was formed to ensure chips were produced in a timely fashion. From 2001 until 2011, those chips were primarily designed by Patrick Milligan.

In 2012, Michael Brennan took over responsibilities as the primary designer, and produced chips from 2012-2019.

A lot of things didn’t happen in 2020. For instance, for several months, you were not allowed to have fun in Las Vegas, or pretty much anywhere else. BARGE even happened virtually. Unfortunately, the loss of momentum meant chips didn’t happen for the 2019 main event winner — and things continued in that direction through 2024.

We also have a salvaged copy of the old pokerart.com site here. Some of the links may work better there. (If you discover any links offering to sell you anything there, note that they no longer work.)

If you have any images of chips you’d like to share, please contact Tim.

Purple Chips

Additionally, since 1993 (?), each year had an exclusive purple chip given to the final table players, side event winners, and previous main event winners, and a few other lucky recipients. Traditionally these chips featured a picture of the previous year’s winner. Some pages above include those hard-to-find purple chips, including 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019. We would love to have more images of the missing legendary purple chips! If you have found one, please contact Tim.