I have fished several tournaments since late september of last year and let's just say that poker chips are the standard. Without them, there will be controversy. The best tournaments that I have seen run have poker chips in a dark bag. After registration, the competitor will draw a chip that serves as starting position. Granted that some tournaments have take-off number as registration number, it is not necessary to use this portion of the format. The chip that is drawn by or handed to the angler is written down beside their name by the director. We only use one chip and it MUST be in a designated bucket by the end of the tournament, i.e. 3:00 P.M.. Depending on your rules, ours state that if it's not in the bucket, you don't weigh in. I'm sure that it makes the weigh-in much easier and less controversial for tournament directors and participants. You can get poker chips from just about anywhere.