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 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.
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We’ve been reassembling some old images so that we can put an archive together.
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.