Some of the challenges (and fun) of collecting California chips include (1.) Our state takes 20 hours to drive from north to south (2.) It's four hours across in most places so to hit all the cardrooms you'd have to constantly zig-zag back and forth on your way down (3.) There's not even a good list of which Calif. cardrooms are currently open. There's a lot more than are listed in the poker magazines. The internet casino locator lists are out of date and leave some out. (4.) Many of the smaller cardrooms are in the back of bars and run as separtate businesses from the bar. The cardroom proprieter may only come in to open the cardroom at night or on weekends, and you can only buy chips when he's there. (5.) Here's an example of a chip that's cheap to get but can be a hassle. The Sundowner in Benicia has a 50 cent chip. It's used as a fee chip in blackjack. They usually won't sell it at the cage. The club normally opens the blackjack table from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. on weekends. So you have to go in the middle of the night and actually play blackjack to get it. (6.) Which leads to some places won't sell you chips unless you play. Just a week ago I received a lecture about how the chips were NOT for sale. So I played a bit of Hold-em to get the chips I wanted. (None of the Nor. Cal. Indian casinos I've been in will sell chips at the cage, only off the tables.) (7.) Even finding out what clubs have issued chips, new racks, etc. can be a challenge. Greg's board makes that easier but for some of the places "off the beaten" path it can sometimes take a long time to find out they've changed chips. To me though it adds to fun. Who wants to just drive around to a bunch of giant casinos near one another and just buy chips at the cage 24-hours-a-day? <g>