Self labeling silliness (3 Viewers)

[valleychips]

Pics or it didn't happen.

Fair enough. Here's a photo of a $1 chip. You can see some of the clear urethane coat extending past the label edge onto the chip itself. Not a huge deal at all, and I don't think anyone would notice during game play.

 

[valleychips]

Okay, after many poker nights with these self-labeled dice chips, I'm ready to render my verdicts here.

Pros of the urethane coating

• It did indeed protect the labels. Since applying the urethane, the labels have not worn out at all that I can tell, and this is with enough use that I would have noticed.
• I likely won't have to reapply for years... maybe ever.

Cons of the urethane coating

• It took a lot of time to coat the labels. If I were to do it again, I'd do only one very thin coat. I think it's all they need. The chips would also dry faster.
• The chips sometimes stick together. I should have let some dry more (and only applying one coat would have helped).
• The excess urethane flakes off from time to time. Not a huge deal, but you'll definitely notice the particles on your felt.
• If dust/debris/brush hairs/etc. got stuck in the urethane before it dried... they're basically part of the chip now.

Other methods

• If I were to attempt self-labeling with a home printer again, I'd probably do the following: buy the round .875 or .88" white stickers from OnlineLabels. Then buy CLEAR labels in the same size/quantity.
• I'd apply the printed white labels to the chips, then apply the unprinted clear labels directly on top. That should give actual printed sticker the protection it needs from impacts/scratches, without any of the cons of the urethane. But, if you look at how much you'd spend in labels... you could just buy something better for a tiny bit more without the manual labor.

Overall take

The only reason I tried printing my own labels at all was because a friend gave me a ton of unused dice chips for free, and I got 600 new ones dirt cheap ($20 or something). I didn't want to waste those chips, and I thought self labeling would be a one-time upfront investment (the time it took to label plus the cost of the labels) and nothing more. Obviously, I was way wrong. So I turned it into a science experiment to see what else I could do, and I figured it could inform the PCF community, especially other newbs like I was (and still kind of am). My dice chips now are perfectly usable and my players do like them. They're readable and good enough. That said, folks are very excited for the custom Tinas I ordered, which will be my primary set when they arrive. I'll use the dice chips as a backup set when we get three tables at a game or something. (I don't think I could even sell these to anyone, haha.)

THAT SAID, if I were starting from scratch and actually had to pay for dice chips... I wouldn't bother with any of this. I'd just buy nicer prelabeled chips (even metal slugged ones), then save up for some Tinas or something else.

There you have it. My adventure in self-labeling is now complete.

 

[Cratty]

What's your current chip breakdown?

Edit: See you're ordering some Tinas, more curious what breakdown you're ordering now too. But nice!

 

[valleychips]

EDIT: Had to try a few times to get the tables to work. Now it's all correct.

Sure.

Dice chip breakdown (1200 chips)

Denom.	# of Chips
.25	200
$1	300
$5	200
$10	200
$20	200
$50	50
$100	50

Tina chip breakdown (1500 chips)

Denom.	# of Chips
$0.25	225
$1	425
$5	525
$25	225
$100	100

I kind of wish I'd ordered 2000 Tinas (more $1s, $5s, some extra $100s, and a rack and a half of some new $20s -- that way when playing quarter/fifty games, we could use the $20s instead of the $25s to avoid confusion). Assuming these Tinas turn out well, once our games grow, that may be my next purchase. But I think some of it is the PCF bug biting me... we'll probably be more than fine with the current Tinas for years, haha.

 

[Jers28]

You did name your thread self labeling silliness, which takes the fun right out of trashing anything you’ve done. lol

I’m glad you’ve got some Tina’s coming. The only thought I had throughout the thread (beyond busting a seam when @GreatWhiteDope offered to loan you one of his sets ) was time is money my friend. My goodness, I have no idea what you do for a living, your financial situation or if all this labeling silliness was fun for you somehow, but time is money!!! It’s insane to me how many hours you spent sinking more and more time into saving a few bucks. It was a good laugh though and hopefully you’ll enjoy your Tina’s.

FWIW, I run multiple tables with different stakes at the side tables and still don’t need 2,000 chips in a set to do that. My main set has around 1,500 chips which comfortably holds 20+ players at a time with some of the craziest action in the Midwest.

Best of luck!

 

[valleychips]

You did name your thread self labeling silliness, which takes the fun right out of trashing anything you’ve done. lol

I’m glad you’ve got some Tina’s coming. The only thought I had throughout the thread (beyond busting a seam when @GreatWhiteDope offered to loan you one of his sets ) was time is money my friend. My goodness, I have no idea what you do for a living, your financial situation or if all this labeling silliness was fun for you somehow, but time is money!!! It’s insane to me how many hours you spent sinking more and more time into saving a few bucks. It was a good laugh though and hopefully you’ll enjoy your Tina’s.

FWIW, I run multiple tables with different stakes at the side tables and still don’t need 2,000 chips in a set to do that. My main set has around 1,500 chips which comfortably holds 20+ players at a time with some of the craziest action in the Midwest.

Best of luck!

It was like I was able to limp in from the small blind, flopped what seemed like a good draw, then I kept getting what seemed like a good price to call on every street... then on the river I thought my draw hit... but someone had a better one. In hindsight, yeah a waste of time haha. But incrementally, it seemed okay. It wasn't actually a total waste because we did/do use these chips frequently, and people generously tip the host/dealer, so I made up the money, plus covered the Tinas. But yeah per hour, not exactly an amazing pay rate haha. I did a lot of this when watching something on TV or learning something on YouTube, etc., as it didn't take that much brain power.

But this post is to save any other newb the time/effort!

And thank you -- good to hear that 1500 suits your game(s) just fine!

 

[Jers28]

It was like I was able to limp in from the small blind, flopped what seemed like a good draw, then I kept getting what seemed like a good price to call on every street... then on the river I thought my draw hit... but someone had a better one. In hindsight, yeah a waste of time haha. But incrementally, it seemed okay. It wasn't actually a total waste because we did/do use these chips frequently, and people generously tip the host/dealer, so I made up the money, which covered the Tinas. But yeah per hour, not exactly an amazing pay rate haha. I did a lot of this when watching something on TV or learning something on YouTube, etc., as it didn't take that much brain power.

But this post is to save any other newb the time/effort!

And thank you -- good to hear that 1500 suits your game(s) just fine!

It was a great read! I don’t know how I missed it when it was a new post. Especially since @GreatWhiteDope partnered with me on my current custom cash set and I follow him. You’re absolutely right..it’s a great read for noobs to save them some time, hopefully.

Doing what makes the most sense in hindsight isn’t a realistic goal. You can only do what makes the most sense in that particular moment. Since you made your journey very public, I’ll share how ridiculous my story is/was in the opposite extreme. Shortest version possible…

I knew when I started hosting again, I was going to be taking on a lot of new players I didn’t know or trust in the beginning. I mainly wanted chips you couldn’t buy online so people couldn’t sneak in matching chips and rob me blind. I figured a couple $25 chips per week might add up! So with the goal of having a unique custom chip to avoid getting robbed, I stumbled down the PCF rabbit hole.

Let’s pretend I had $200 a week in chips snuck into my game since joining in April. I think that’s an insanely high number, but for purposes of pointing out how absurd I went in the opposite direction, let’s roll with it. 23 weeks x $200 gives me $4,600 that I potentially saved by having chips you couldn’t just walk in with in your pocket.

I have more purchased something in the neighborhood of 20,000 chips since joining. Table that number. Let’s just use my main cash set and pretend that’s all I’ve spent. The total cost on this set is over $10k now. To save $4,600, which is a completely unrealistic number. I probably wouldn’t have had a nickel stolen, in hindsight. Maybe a couple chips. Certainly not $200/week. And I don’t own the one set. My guys could play with a different set every week for 2 months and never see the same set twice. But, look at all the money I saved by not having some chips snuck in!!!

So, I’m definitely not the guy who ever wags his finger at someone. It was a fun read was all. lol

I’ve added a few racks since this pic, but close enough to what we primarily play with most weeks these days.

And one pic of my son crushing it, just because…

 

[valleychips]

It was a great read! I don’t know how I missed it when it was a new post. Especially since @GreatWhiteDope partnered with me on my current custom cash set and I follow him. You’re absolutely right..it’s a great read for noobs to save them some time, hopefully.

Doing what makes the most sense in hindsight isn’t a realistic goal. You can only do what makes the most sense in that particular moment. Since you made your journey very public, I’ll share how ridiculous my story is/was in the opposite extreme. Shortest version possible…

I knew when I started hosting again, I was going to be taking on a lot of new players I didn’t know or trust in the beginning. I mainly wanted chips you couldn’t buy online so people couldn’t sneak in matching chips and rob me blind. I figured a couple $25 chips per week might add up! So with the goal of having a unique custom chip to avoid getting robbed, I stumbled down the PCF rabbit hole.

Let’s pretend I had $200 a week in chips snuck into my game since joining in April. I think that’s an insanely high number, but for purposes of pointing out how absurd I went in the opposite direction, let’s roll with it. 23 weeks x $200 gives me $4,600 that I potentially saved by having chips you couldn’t just walk in with in your pocket.

I have more purchased something in the neighborhood of 20,000 chips since joining. Table that number. Let’s just use my main cash set and pretend that’s all I’ve spent. The total cost on this set is over $10k now. To save $4,600, which is a completely unrealistic number. I probably wouldn’t have had a nickel stolen, in hindsight. Maybe a couple chips. Certainly not $200/week. And I don’t own the one set. My guys could play with a different set every week for 2 months and never see the same set twice. But, look at all the money I saved by not having some chips snuck in!!!

So, I’m definitely not the guy who ever wags his finger at someone. It was a fun read was all. lol

View attachment 1568941
I’ve added a few racks since this pic, but close enough to what we primarily play with most weeks these days.

View attachment 1568942
And one pic of my son crushing it, just because…

I appreciate you sharing, haha. You're right -- the other extreme indeed. But you had a fair concern! That's part of why I got custom designed Tinas -- game security amid some new faces showing up, even if they're referrals.

On the plus side, your felt and the chip designs/colors look great. Also I love the way you laid them out in a spiral. That really caught my eye. The game looks very well hosted.

 

[Jers28]

I appreciate you sharing, haha. You're right -- the other extreme indeed. But you had a fair concern! That's part of why I got custom designed Tinas -- game security amid some new faces showing up, even if they're referrals.

On the plus side, your felt and the chip designs/colors look great. Also I love the way you laid them out in a spiral. That really caught my eye. The game looks very well hosted.

Thanks! It’s been a super fun journey for sure. My newest table build will hopefully be done this week and my newest MTT set labels are on the way from @Gear as we speak.

 

[acezag]

It was like I was able to limp in from the small blind, flopped what seemed like a good draw, then I kept getting what seemed like a good price to call on every street... then on the river I thought my draw hit... but someone had a better one. In hindsight, yeah a waste of time haha. But incrementally, it seemed okay. It wasn't actually a total waste because we did/do use these chips frequently, and people generously tip the host/dealer, so I made up the money, which covered the Tinas. But yeah per hour, not exactly an amazing pay rate haha. I did a lot of this when watching something on TV or learning something on YouTube, etc., as it didn't take that much brain power.

But this post is to save any other newb the time/effort!

And thank you -- good to hear that 1500 suits your game(s) just fine!

The other BIG plus if you keep using dice chips is security at any stakes where a lot of money changes hands.
I'm always amazed when I see people playing big stakes where there are thousands of dollars on a table with dice or similar.
It's stupidly simple for a thief to bring their own high denoms and slip them into their stack.