The Protégé Thread (4 Viewers)

[utgtrash]

@utgtrash
makes me sad I sold off 90% of mine
I have a spare dealer button if you need one
LMK

Yeah I’m sorry but I’m sure they are out there. Im really grateful I was able to get a hold of these.

 

[EmptyPocs]

ok

 

[Split]

I have at least one, and possibly two new variants of oversized Protégé chips to propose.

First, I found these oversized $5ks. Otherwise, they match the v3.

Next, I found these oversized ND orange (arc yellow) chips with orange inlays. I don’t have any of the chips with orange inlays that have a normal diameter, but these are definitely oversized. Can anyone confirm they have an orange inlay chip with the normal diameter?

On a related note, as I mentioned earlier, I found a second instance of the v3 dealer button. The printing is unaligned, so I propose changing the v3 dealer button to unaligned. The first button I found must have been aligned by coincidence.

Finally, here's a family shot of one rack of each of the Protégé denominations, first without flash then with flash.

 

[buffalojim]

The dimes are best looking chip and it's not even close.

 

[Thomacetti]

The snappers are best looking chip and it's not even close.

Yeah

 

[davislane]

View attachment 1018212

View attachment 1018213

dibs on 1 of the 100 COMPLETE sample sets being offered.

 

[Irish]

Next, I found these oversized ND orange (arc yellow) chips with orange inlays. I don’t have any of the chips with orange inlays that have a normal diameter, but these are definitely oversized. Can anyone confirm they have an orange inlay chip with the normal diameter?

Negative, just double checked the one I had in my sample set; never realized it but it's definitely oversized as well.

 

[utgtrash]

Here’s the two different 25s I have in my set.

 

[Eriks]

Finally able to produce a few full set photos

 

[Split]

I did some experimenting with my camera today, and I hope to have more photos soon. I'll try linking to imgur photos in the post, and include PCF compressed images as attachments to mitigate link rot:

 

[JMC9389]

Yowie wowie @Thomacetti

 

[harrysallout]

Beautiful pics @Split !!

Does anyone else think the 5K should have been another color? The color does it no justice. I wish it would have been the same base color as the $10.

 

[BottomPair7]

I have had the pleasure play with these beautiful chips a few times. A big thank you to @Joe Harris for bringing his protege chips to my game this month! Here are a few pics before I lost them all

 

[Split]

When I posted my Protégé/Protege set earlier this year, I was just beginning to learn how to use a camera but didn't even know where to start for dialing in the camera settings. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't magically know that it's on a tripod shooting a stationary subject, so the camera's automatic settings dialed up the ISO so it could use a reasonable shutter speed with my dim lighting. On a 10+ year old entry level DSLR this wound up introducing significant noise to the photos. The conversion and compression to JPEG seemed to have softened or masked the most egregious noise, but the images were still full of noise. Since I'm not planning to drag the entire set out together for family photos again anytime soon, I was dissapointed by the relatively poor image quality. However, it turns out that software based denoising has gotten pretty powerful in the past few years. Denoisers will still degrade sharpness and introduce artifacts and they can make things look like plastic if they're too aggressive, but it seems like poker chips come out okay. I plugged my RAW image files into DxO PhotoLab and selected their fancy denoiser and left everything else at their default settings, which do things like correct lens aberrations and try to make things look nice. To my eye the default settings got a little aggressive with how bright they made the pinks, but I'm sure I can figure out how to go in and adjust that. All things considered I think the pics came out much better after the denoise processing. As an added bonus, the denoised images are much easier to compress in JPEGs, so I could use a higher "quality" while achieving smaller file sizes. I don't know anything about how image compression works, but in general this makes sense to me since noise should appear to be random and truly random data is effectively unable to be compressed with lossless techniques. It seems that JPEGs also struggle to efficiently compress noise with their lossy algorithms. At any rate, I like the pics. You can see the originals here.

 

[Eriks]

When I posted my Protégé/Protege set earlier this year, I was just beginning to learn how to use a camera but didn't even know where to start for dialing in the camera settings. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't magically know that it's on a tripod shooting a stationary subject, so the camera's automatic settings dialed up the ISO so it could use a reasonable shutter speed with my dim lighting. On a 10+ year old entry level DSLR this wound up introducing significant noise to the photos. The conversion and compression to JPEG seemed to have softened or masked the most egregious noise, but the images were still full of noise. Since I'm not planning to drag the entire set out together for family photos again anytime soon, I was dissapointed by the relatively poor image quality. However, it turns out that software based denoising has gotten pretty powerful in the past few years. Denoisers will still degrade sharpness and introduce artifacts and they can make things look like plastic if they're too aggressive, but it seems like poker chips come out okay. I plugged my RAW image files into DxO PhotoLab and selected their fancy denoiser and left everything else at their default settings, which do things like correct lens aberrations and try to make things look nice. To my eye the default settings got a little aggressive with how bright they made the pinks, but I'm sure I can figure out how to go in and adjust that. All things considered I think the pics came out much better after the denoise processing. As an added bonus, the denoised images are much easier to compress in JPEGs, so I could use a higher "quality" while achieving smaller file sizes. I don't know anything about how image compression works, but in general this makes sense to me since noise should appear to be random and truly random data is effectively unable to be compressed with lossless techniques. It seems that JPEGs also struggle to efficiently compress noise with their lossy algorithms. At any rate, I like the pics. You can see the originals here.

Hang on while I get my sunglasses

 

[toothpic]

When I posted my Protégé/Protege set earlier this year, I was just beginning to learn how to use a camera but didn't even know where to start for dialing in the camera settings. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't magically know that it's on a tripod shooting a stationary subject, so the camera's automatic settings dialed up the ISO so it could use a reasonable shutter speed with my dim lighting. On a 10+ year old entry level DSLR this wound up introducing significant noise to the photos. The conversion and compression to JPEG seemed to have softened or masked the most egregious noise, but the images were still full of noise. Since I'm not planning to drag the entire set out together for family photos again anytime soon, I was dissapointed by the relatively poor image quality. However, it turns out that software based denoising has gotten pretty powerful in the past few years. Denoisers will still degrade sharpness and introduce artifacts and they can make things look like plastic if they're too aggressive, but it seems like poker chips come out okay. I plugged my RAW image files into DxO PhotoLab and selected their fancy denoiser and left everything else at their default settings, which do things like correct lens aberrations and try to make things look nice. To my eye the default settings got a little aggressive with how bright they made the pinks, but I'm sure I can figure out how to go in and adjust that. All things considered I think the pics came out much better after the denoise processing. As an added bonus, the denoised images are much easier to compress in JPEGs, so I could use a higher "quality" while achieving smaller file sizes. I don't know anything about how image compression works, but in general this makes sense to me since noise should appear to be random and truly random data is effectively unable to be compressed with lossless techniques. It seems that JPEGs also struggle to efficiently compress noise with their lossy algorithms. At any rate, I like the pics. You can see the originals here.

 

[demerder]

When Sidepot startet the sale for Protégé's they also had a nice marketing video...showing hu play with the Protégé Chips with an allin showdown where finally quads won over full House...with background music from U2 - Beautiful Day

 

[bigblind]

awesome chips
I remember when they came out.

 

[ThinkingFold]

What a way to send me on an emotional rollercoaster Sidepot.

 

[BNM]

Finally able to produce a few full set photos

View attachment 1019428View attachment 1019429View attachment 1019430View attachment 1019431

Who made the plaques? They are particularly nice.

 

[Eriks]

Who made the plaques? They are particularly nice.

Matsui

 

[BNM]

Matsui

Ah, yes, the gold standard. Accept no substitutes!

Did you have them made or were those part of the original set?

Do you use them for tournament play or do you play cash games high roller like that?

Gorgeous set. Always liked the protégés [fancy accents my own!] and those plaques just take them to the next level.

 

[Eriks]

Ah, yes, the gold standard. Accept no substitutes!

Did you have them made or were those part of the original set?

Do you use them for tournament play or do you play cash games high roller like that?

Gorgeous set. Always liked the protégés [fancy accents my own!] and those plaques just take them to the next level.

Not part of the original set and it’s for cash. Not as baller as it looks though, we play 2/5 but 1 Swedish Krona = $0.1

 

[dontpassdontcome]

Newbie here.

Have been hosting monthly tournaments in my home for two decades, using the same quality chipset I purchased from SidePot these many years ago.

I have long wanted to add more 5000 chips to my set. I had initially purchased just 100 of them, and with modern tournament structures being what they are, I have tons of 25’s that I no longer use and only 25 chips each of the oversized 25k, 100k chips, etc.

Innocently, I thought I could go online and quickly identify my chipset manufacturer, find some extra racks of 5000’s to supplement. For example, last night, in a larger tournament, I had to use my lavender and orange ‘blanks,’ not sure if that is the right name for them, as extra 5000 chips to handle the later levels of the tournament I was hosting.

Vastly amusing, that innocent search has lead me down the SidePot gaming Protoge “rabbit hole” to this thread

I have been amazed and delighted to learn my chipset, continuously and lovingly used for twenty years, is venerated in communities like this. I get it, they have been great chips for me, have always received compliments, and have held up wonderfully over the years.

Honestly, I had been thinking of giving away this “old” chipset and splurging on something modern with quantity in the denominations I need. I don’t think I will do that now….

As a newbie I’ve just read the forum FAQ and understand that I don’t yet have the standing to transact through the forum’s listings.

As other Protoge owners, would appreciate any advice on difficulty acquiring 100-200 more 5000 chips, hopefully for less than face value . I have also lost one purple 500 chip, have 299 of them will eventually want to source one of those.

 

[JMC9389]

Newbie here.

Have been hosting monthly tournaments in my home for two decades, using the same quality chipset I purchased from SidePot these many years ago.

I have long wanted to add more 5000 chips to my set. I had initially purchased just 100 of them, and with modern tournament structures being what they are, I have tons of 25’s that I no longer use and only 25 chips each of the oversized 25k, 100k chips, etc.

Innocently, I thought I could go online and quickly identify my chipset manufacturer, find some extra racks of 5000’s to supplement. For example, last night, in a larger tournament, I had to use my lavender and orange ‘blanks,’ not sure if that is the right name for them, as extra 5000 chips to handle the later levels of the tournament I was hosting.

Vastly amusing, that innocent search has lead me down the SidePot gaming Protoge “rabbit hole” to this thread

I have been amazed and delighted to learn my chipset, continuously and lovingly used for twenty years, is venerated in communities like this. I get it, they have been great chips for me, have always received compliments, and have held up wonderfully over the years.

Honestly, I had been thinking of giving away this “old” chipset and splurging on something modern with quantity in the denominations I need. I don’t think I will do that now….

View attachment 1504387

As a newbie I’ve just read the forum FAQ and understand that I don’t yet have the standing to transact through the forum’s listings.

As other Protoge owners, would appreciate any advice on difficulty acquiring 100-200 more 5000 chips, hopefully for less than face value . I have also lost one purple 500 chip, have 299 of them will eventually want to source one of those.

I'd be interested in the orange chips if you ever move on from these. Welcome!

 

[Tonysquander]

Newbie here.

Have been hosting monthly tournaments in my home for two decades, using the same quality chipset I purchased from SidePot these many years ago.

I have long wanted to add more 5000 chips to my set. I had initially purchased just 100 of them, and with modern tournament structures being what they are, I have tons of 25’s that I no longer use and only 25 chips each of the oversized 25k, 100k chips, etc.

Innocently, I thought I could go online and quickly identify my chipset manufacturer, find some extra racks of 5000’s to supplement. For example, last night, in a larger tournament, I had to use my lavender and orange ‘blanks,’ not sure if that is the right name for them, as extra 5000 chips to handle the later levels of the tournament I was hosting.

Vastly amusing, that innocent search has lead me down the SidePot gaming Protoge “rabbit hole” to this thread

I have been amazed and delighted to learn my chipset, continuously and lovingly used for twenty years, is venerated in communities like this. I get it, they have been great chips for me, have always received compliments, and have held up wonderfully over the years.

Honestly, I had been thinking of giving away this “old” chipset and splurging on something modern with quantity in the denominations I need. I don’t think I will do that now….

View attachment 1504387

As a newbie I’ve just read the forum FAQ and understand that I don’t yet have the standing to transact through the forum’s listings.

As other Protoge owners, would appreciate any advice on difficulty acquiring 100-200 more 5000 chips, hopefully for less than face value . I have also lost one purple 500 chip, have 299 of them will eventually want to source one of those.

Awesome story and great to see you have been putting these wonderful chips to use for many years. They come up for sale from time to time around here. Once you have enough posts/time on the forum, you can put up a wanted ad for the single $500 and the higher denominations. You have arrived at the best place on the web for finding more of them, so welcome to PCF!

 

[utgtrash]

I can send you a single 500 - it's going to be tough to get a hold of a rack or two of 5k though. I have a large set of proteges which i love, do NOT get rid of these chips! strangely it's the 5$ chips that are the most difficult to find. If you are in the market for a pricey tournament set though, let me know!

 

[dontpassdontcome]

I can send you a single 500 - it's going to be tough to get a hold of a rack or two of 5k though. I have a large set of proteges which i love, do NOT get rid of these chips! strangely it's the 5$ chips that are the most difficult to find. If you are in the market for a pricey tournament set though, let me know!

Thank you for the thoughtful advice, much appreciated.

Yes, going to keep these proteges as my tournament set, now that my appreciation for them has grown by discovering forums like PCF and this thread

I would certainly purchase a 500 chip from you sight unseen, but I want to be mindful of the PCF transaction rules. If you were to list the single 500 chip at 'auction' here, I would make sure to be the highest bidder.

 

[Grimace]

I can send you a single 500 - it's going to be tough to get a hold of a rack or two of 5k though. I have a large set of proteges which i love, do NOT get rid of these chips! strangely it's the 5$ chips that are the most difficult to find. If you are in the market for a pricey tournament set though, let me know!

Hmmm might need to have some plaques made if that’s the case with the 5k. I just got a small tournament set and want to build it out slowly but would want a rack of 5k and a few 25k for add ons.

 

[utgtrash]

Thank you for the thoughtful advice, much appreciated.

Yes, going to keep these proteges as my tournament set, now that my appreciation for them has grown by discovering forums like PCF and this thread

I would certainly purchase a 500 chip from you sight unseen, but I want to be mindful of the PCF transaction rules. If you were to list the single 500 chip at 'auction' here, I would make sure to be the highest bidder.

I can just send you one, no worries!