Agreed, you can easily notice the difference in how someone plays when you're using lightweight plastic chips and properly weighted ceramic chips. It affects how someone plays more than money (usually putting $5 on a game will be enough to get people to play serious, but the proper chips and cards will make people play like it's a $50 game).
"A research team found that they could alter people’s judgement of importance just by getting them to answer questions using a heavier clipboard."
A heavier material implies a higher cost, which may be associated with commitment, health, being well-off, status. It's the same psychology driving costly signals in males when approaching females (like owning a expensive car, or building impressive branched horns, or long and colorful feathers.)
