Are all chips this bad? (1 Viewer)

PLOdonk

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I'm new to the scene, just having bought my first samples as I'm searching for my first home set.

I've been watching reviews, reading forums posts, and from everything that I've seen, I was expecting an impressive range of chips. However, I was sorely disappointed when they arrived, as each set of chips seems incredibly low quality. I bought these chips from Thepokerstore and Apachepoker, the sample sets being:

Eclipse - I can't even believe how bad the flashing is on these chips. They almost hurt to hold and riffle.

Monaco Club - again, the flashing makes them feel jagged. Close to unusable.

Classic Ceramic - I was actually excited for the ceramics... until I saw the poorly pasted on vinyl like covering. They look and feel like they were screen printed in the 70's. I was picturing a smooth ceramic feeling... not a screen printed plastic feel.

Milano - Top 3 out of the bunch... but they're still so light and cheap feeling. They riffle decently, except I can't stand the noise of them going together. It sounds like penny chips from Walmart.

Monaco Casino - A bit heavy, but not horrible. It's more the plastic feel and lack of gloss that I dislike. They're probably in the top 3, but I still can't believe this is considered top 3.

Majestic - I heard so many good things about these chips, and how they're so similar to casino chips... but I can hardly feel a resemblance. I'll admit they look sort of nice, but it's the feeling that drives me insane. Plastic and cheap.

I never thought I would be such a chip snob, or that there would be such a big difference in chips. I have a stack of my local card rooms chips that I've been riffling for years, so to adjust to these retail chips is a major downgrade. Although I'm left wondering, did I just order the wrong samples? Did I just get bad samples?

I never thought the chips from my local cardroom were top-tier chips, but they do riffle wonderfully and have a super smooth gloss finish that lets them mesh together graciously.

I'm left wondering - are there any other reasonably priced samples I should try, or is the only way to match even close to casino grade chips to spend a massive amount of money?

I never thought these things could be so expensive.
 
Look up thechiproom on here and their pending sale of Jumers chips....these are likely the quality you are looking for. If you can handle the home chips don't worry many of us are also picky.
I recommend cards mold customs, then BRpro ceramics, then CPC or Paulson for progressive quality improvements. Most lesser chips suck in comparison.

Perhaps post a photo of the chips you like from the card room. Then a matching recommendation can be made. Be aware with Paulson's broken in (used) chips shuffle easier than new....I personally like lightly used paulson's.
 
I’m not sure what blanks that the poker store uses for their ceramics, but I recommend trying a sample for the BRProPoker ceramics. They’re smooth with just enough grip to them.
 
Look up thechiproom on here and their pending sale of Jumers chips....these are likely the quality you are looking for. If you can handle the home chips don't worry many of us are also picky.
I recommend cards mold customs, then BRpro ceramics, then CPC or Paulson for progressive quality improvements. Most lesser chips suck in comparison.

Perhaps post a photo of the chips you like from the card room. Then a matching recommendation can be made. Be aware with Paulson's broken in (used) chips shuffle easier than new....I personally like lightly used paulson's.
Thanks for the reply,

I just ordered some samples from BRpro, so hopefully those turn out a bit better. If those don't work out, I think I'll just end up with some crappy cheap chips, because I can't fathom spending more than a dollar per chip.

Also, here's a picture of the cardroom chips that I've been holding onto. Looking closer, they really seem like pretty low-quality chips, with the stamping being uneven. There's just something about the glossy smoothness that feels so nice. I'm not even sure how I could research that further, any thoughts?
 

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Thanks for the reply,

I just ordered some samples from BRpro, so hopefully those turn out a bit better. If those don't work out, I think I'll just end up with some crappy cheap chips, because I can't fathom spending more than a dollar per chip.

Also, here's a picture of the cardroom chips that I've been holding onto. Looking closer, they really seem like pretty low-quality chips, with the stamping being uneven. There's just something about the glossy smoothness that feels so nice. I'm not even sure how I could research that further, any thoughts?
They certainly look like ceramics. Not Chipco, I wonder who the manufacturer was.
Is the rolling edge glossy?
 
I'm new to the scene, just having bought my first samples as I'm searching for my first home set.

/snip/

I never thought I would be such a chip snob...

...are there any other reasonably priced samples I should try, or is the only way to match even close to casino grade chips to spend a massive amount of money?

I never thought these things could be so expensive.
You need to define what "reasonably-priced", "massive amount of money", and "expensive" means to you. To some, 50c/chip may be expensive; but to others, that number might be anything north of $5/chip. It's a pretty large and diverse market, with a lot of cheap and relatively inexpensive options.

Once your budget has been (initially) established, we can help guide you to the chips that can provide you with the best-bang-for-the-buck in your price range, along with applicable evaluations and recommendations.
 
You need to define what "reasonably-priced", "massive amount of money", and "expensive" means to you. To some, 50c/chip may be expensive; but to others, that number might be anything north of $5/chip. It's a pretty large and diverse market, with a lot of cheap and relatively inexpensive options.

Once your budget has been (initially) established, we can help guide you to the chips that can provide you with the best-bang-for-the-buck in your price range, along with applicable evaluations and recommendations.
Thank you for keeping your cool. I was worries when I saw that you replied. Haha
 
Lighter is not cheaper. Unleaded Paulsons are 8.5-9.0 grams. Search these pages for comments on "casino weight."

Ceramics don't have a vinyl like covering. They are typically printed over the entire face. I think that feel you didn't like was the "linen" texture that was molded into the chip to emulate the linen finish on traditional compression molded clays.

Try Keywest samples for a really great chip that comes minty new. These are compression molded clays. These have the linen finish that you dislike.

Try Monte Carlo smooths from the poker store if you like more weight. I think these are a pretty decent chip, especially in the lower price range. They have a fine sand blasted finished and slightly filleted edges. Plus they have sparkles which I really find attractive. My local cardroom uses these for tourney chips. Huge selection of colors and denominations.

You're running good with the amount of samples you've pulled. Double that amount and you'll have a really solid idea of the possibilities.

I happen to have most of the HORRIBLE chips you've listed. This is why we sample. It prevents costly mistakes.
 
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Ceramics don't have a vinyl like covering. They are typically printed over the entire face. I think that feel you didn't like was the "linen" texture that was molded into the chip to emulate the linen finish on traditional compression molded clays.

I have some ceramic samples and whilst some don't, some *do* appear to have some kind of vinyl (or other plastic) covering that almost covers the entire face but doesn't quite, which gives it the texture (and I guess protects the face of the chip).

Wasn't a massive fan as the "stickers" were massive grime collectors.
 
You're not a chip snob, I'M a chip snob and all the samples you got are ghetto ;)

If I wasn't going high end, I'd get tina cards mold/blank mold ceramics. The blank mold has a smooth version which u might prefer.

Time for more samples!
 
I'd say you're doing pretty well - you bought a bunch of garbage samples and you decided they were garbage. Well done.
There are no hard and fast rules here, but you can expect to pay more than 50 cents apiece for decent chips. One exception is the recent trend of chinese ceramics, most notably cards mold, which are just decent, but can be gotten for 40 centsish.
But yeah, quality costs. And it isn't snobbish to say it. It's just honest.
 
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Any PLO at Oxford Downs, or just hold em?
I wish. They have a Big O game that runs twice a week, but it's too large for me. 5/10+ I believe.

I'd say you're doing pretty well - you bought a bunch of garbage samples and you decided they were garbage. Well done.
There are no hard and fast rules here, but you can expect to pay more than 50 cents apiece for decent chips. One exception is the recent trend of chinese ceramics, most notably cards mold, which are just decent, but can be gotten for 40 centsish.
But yeah, quality costs. And it isn't snobbish to say it. It's just honest.

I keep hearing about Cards Mold, but I can't find where they're getting them. I see alibaba, or are they all from group buys here? Anyone have a link to their site?

You need to define what "reasonably-priced", "massive amount of money", and "expensive" means to you. To some, 50c/chip may be expensive; but to others, that number might be anything north of $5/chip. It's a pretty large and diverse market, with a lot of cheap and relatively inexpensive options.

Once your budget has been (initially) established, we can help guide you to the chips that can provide you with the best-bang-for-the-buck in your price range, along with applicable evaluations and recommendations.
I'd say anything near or below $1 a chip. I'm just trying to host a .25/.50 or .50/.50 monthly game with 5-10 friends. I'm still not sure how many chips I need, or what denominations to get, but I can't imagine spending more than $500 on chips for such a low stakes game.

They certainly look like ceramics. Not Chipco, I wonder who the manufacturer was.
Is the rolling edge glossy?
Yes. They have the same gloss all around the chip. It's doesn't feel like a coating, more like the actual chip is just that smooth.
 
I'd say anything near or below $1 a chip. I'm just trying to host a .25/.50 or .50/.50 monthly game with 5-10 friends. I'm still not sure how many chips I need, or what denominations to get, but I can't imagine spending more than $500 on chips for such a low stakes game.
Excellent. For a full cash table of ten players, I recommend a 600 chip set. For your stakes, I recommend the following set breakdown:

100 x 25c
200 x $1
200 x $5
100 x $25

That's a total bank of $3725, which is roughly 74 $50 buy-ins (100 big blinds each at your current stakes). It is also big enough to cover a potential future 50c/$1 game (37 $100 buy-ins per table, or 3+ per player). If the chip bank ever does run short during play, you can always just allow $100 bills to play (unlikely to happen unless you bumped up to 1/2 stakes). This allows you to skip buying high-denomination chips now that you may never actually use.

With a maximum budget of $500, you're looking at 600 chips that sell for around 80c each or less. The good news is that there are a number of decent stock, semi-custom, and even full custom chips in that price range (and some that sell for as low as 40c to 50c),
mostly dye-sub printed ceramics and ceramic variations (molded ceramics and ceramic hybrids) plus some china clays (that don't seem to be very impressive to you based on the OP).

BRProPoker.com has a number of high-end ceramic sets with stock and semi-custom designs priced at either 80c-85c each or $495 for a 600-chip set including case (your choice of chip denominations and colors).

Sun-Fly (apollonchips.com) offers several ceramic stock designs on either regular ceramics (polychrome, 79c-89c/chip), molded ceramics (polyclay, 85c-99c/chip), or ceramic hybrids (polyinno, 89c-$1.10/chip), all with free shipping for orders of 300+ chips.

A less-expensive option is to order custom standard ceramics, molded ceramics (card mold), or ceramic hybrids from a Chinese distributor (Tina's company is often used by PCFers for group buys or direct orders). Theese products are slightly lower quality than BRPro or Sun-Fly, but pricing is generally only 30c to 45c per chip (depending on what and how many are ordered) plus shipping. Delivery times can also be considerably longer than the 1-2 weeks quoted by BRPro and Sun-Fly.

All ceramic chips are a white hard plastic formula (typically a nylon/polyester blend) that sounds like ceramic material, and features faces and edges that are 100% dye-sub printed in three steps (each chip face plus the rolling edge).

Molded ceramics also contain debossed images (cards, diamonds, etc. spaced around the outer area, plus an inner circular ring) which mimic a clay chip's construction and appearance, while ceramic hybrids have a molded recessed center area containing a separately printed and applied adhesive-backed laminated label (mimicking a clay chip's inlay). Both types are also dye-sub printed.
 
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Thanks for the reply,

I just ordered some samples from BRpro, so hopefully those turn out a bit better. If those don't work out, I think I'll just end up with some crappy cheap chips, because I can't fathom spending more than a dollar per chip.

Also, here's a picture of the cardroom chips that I've been holding onto. Looking closer, they really seem like pretty low-quality chips, with the stamping being uneven. There's just something about the glossy smoothness that feels so nice. I'm not even sure how I could research that further, any thoughts?
The pictured Oxford Downs chips appear to be standard ceramics of unknown origin.

Likely produced in 2016, they could be from GOCC/Chipco, ABC, ICON, Sun-Fly, or any number of other smaller foreign companies. Chances are the original finish has worn off due to heavy casino usage, leaving behind the smoothness you like, and the wearing down of the printed surface (the unevenness you mentioned).
 
Excellent. For a full cash table of ten players, I recommend a 600 chip set. For your stakes, I recommend the following set breakdown:

100 x 25c
200 x $1
200 x $5
100 x $25

That's a total bank of $3725, which is roughly 74 $50 buy-ins (100 big blinds each at your current stakes). It is also big enough to cover a potential future 50c/$1 game (37 $100 buy-ins per table, or 3+ per player). If the chip bank ever does run short during play, you can always just allow $100 bills to play (unlikely to happen unless you bumped up to 1/2 stakes). This allows you to skip buying high-denomination chips now that you may never actually use.

With a maximum budget of $500, you're looking at 600 chips that sell for around 80c each or less. The good news is that there are a number of decent stock, semi-custom, and even full custom chips in that price range (and some that sell for as low as 40c to 50c),
mostly dye-sub printed ceramics and ceramic variations (molded ceramics and ceramic hybrids) plus some china clays (that don't seem to be very impressive to you based on the OP).

BRProPoker.com has a number of high-end ceramic sets with stock and semi-custom designs priced at either 80c-85c each or $495 for a 600-chip set including case (your choice of chip denominations and colors).

Sun-Fly (apollonchips.com) offers several ceramic stock designs on either regular ceramics (polychrome, 79c-89c/chip), molded ceramics (polyclay, 85c-99c/chip), or ceramic hybrids (polyinno, 89c-$1.10/chip), all with free shipping for orders of 300+ chips.

A less-expensive option is to order custom standard ceramics, molded ceramics (card mold), or ceramic hybrids from a Chinese distributor (Tina's company is often used by PCFers for group buys or direct orders). Theese products are slightly lower quality than BRPro or Sun-Fly, but pricing is generally only 30c to 45c per chip (depending on what and how many are ordered) plus shipping. Delivery times can also be considerably longer than the 1-2 weeks quoted by BRPro and Sun-Fly.

All ceramic chips are a white hard plastic formula (typically a nylon/polyester blend) that sounds like ceramic material, and features faces and edges that are 100% dye-sub printed in three steps (each chip face plus the rolling edge).

Molded ceramics also contain debossed images (cards, diamonds, etc. spaced around the outer area, plus an inner circular ring) which mimic a clay chip's construction and appearance, while ceramic hybrids have a molded recessed center area containing a separately printed and applied adhesive-backed laminated label (mimicking a clay chip's inlay). Both types are also dye-sub printed.
Holy cow. Thank you very much for that in depth reply.

I've been searching for that information for weeks. No where else have I found such an elegant and concise answer.

I think my only decision now is choosing between BRpro - sunfly - and card mold. I've just ordered samples from BRpro and now Sunfly, but how would you recommend I get samples from Card mold? I've seen one sample set being offered in the classifieds, but I'm still a bit confused about the whole process of actually purchasing the chips if I were to pursue that option.

Sorry to continue wasting your time as a newbie, but hopefully others can read this and get takeaways as well.
 
Excellent. For a full cash table of ten players, I recommend a 600 chip set. For your stakes, I recommend the following set breakdown:

100 x 25c
200 x $1
200 x $5
100 x $25

That's a total bank of $3725, which is roughly 74 $50 buy-ins (100 big blinds each at your current stakes). It is also big enough to cover a potential future 50c/$1 game (37 $100 buy-ins per table, or 3+ per player). If the chip bank ever does run short during play, you can always just allow $100 bills to play (unlikely to happen unless you bumped up to 1/2 stakes). This allows you to skip buying high-denomination chips now that you may never actually use.

With a maximum budget of $500, you're looking at 600 chips that sell for around 80c each or less. The good news is that there are a number of decent stock, semi-custom, and even full custom chips in that price range (and some that sell for as low as 40c to 50c),
mostly dye-sub printed ceramics and ceramic variations (molded ceramics and ceramic hybrids) plus some china clays (that don't seem to be very impressive to you based on the OP).

BRProPoker.com has a number of high-end ceramic sets with stock and semi-custom designs priced at either 80c-85c each or $495 for a 600-chip set including case (your choice of chip denominations and colors).

Sun-Fly (apollonchips.com) offers several ceramic stock designs on either regular ceramics (polychrome, 79c-89c/chip), molded ceramics (polyclay, 85c-99c/chip), or ceramic hybrids (polyinno, 89c-$1.10/chip), all with free shipping for orders of 300+ chips.

A less-expensive option is to order custom standard ceramics, molded ceramics (card mold), or ceramic hybrids from a Chinese distributor (Tina's company is often used by PCFers for group buys or direct orders). Theese products are slightly lower quality than BRPro or Sun-Fly, but pricing is generally only 30c to 45c per chip (depending on what and how many are ordered) plus shipping. Delivery times can also be considerably longer than the 1-2 weeks quoted by BRPro and Sun-Fly.

All ceramic chips are a white hard plastic formula (typically a nylon/polyester blend) that sounds like ceramic material, and features faces and edges that are 100% dye-sub printed in three steps (each chip face plus the rolling edge).

Molded ceramics also contain debossed images (cards, diamonds, etc. spaced around the outer area, plus an inner circular ring) which mimic a clay chip's construction and appearance, while ceramic hybrids have a molded recessed center area containing a separately printed and applied adhesive-backed laminated label (mimicking a clay chip's inlay). Both types are also dye-sub printed.
This is an amazing reply, thanks. Would your recommendation change at all for someone with a budget of ~$2/chip? I'm willing to spend more up-front if chips hold their resell value in case things don't work out. Our current game uses a 300x set of dice chips which was hardly enough for a seven person game; we were constantly having to exchange chips. Everyone is new and doesn't have deep pockets so it's a $5 buy-in ($10 max w/ unlimited re-buys). $5 gets you $200 in chips (100 BB) and we run it as a $1/$2 to keep the math simple (and similar to a 1/2 casino table) then during cash-outs just convert. Is that a completely ridiculous way to run a game? How many people could reasonably play with x1000 chips? I'm currently considering getting a set of x1000 in denominations that work for a 1/2 NL cash game and just doing conversions instead of having low denomination chips, but my head is spinning with all of the research I've been doing and I feel more lost than when I started lol.
 
Almost all custom chips are likely to depreciate. That goes for clays at $3+ per chip or ceramics at .30 per chip. You just will lose money...but that's not why you get them. If youre getting a set that you know you may not keep, get one that is also desirable aroud here, and youll have no trouble getting a good chunck or maybe all of your monay back.
For cash game breakdown recommendations, I just saw this thread from a few years ago, and it's brilliant:
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...ut-a-cash-game-chip-set-5c-10c-to-5-10.30897/
Keep in mind, those recommendations are for 200bb buy-in, so if you want to cap your game at 100bb, it will need to be adjusted. Good luck!
 
This is an amazing reply, thanks. Would your recommendation change at all for someone with a budget of ~$2/chip? I'm willing to spend more up-front if chips hold their resell value in case things don't work out. Our current game uses a 300x set of dice chips which was hardly enough for a seven person game; we were constantly having to exchange chips. Everyone is new and doesn't have deep pockets so it's a $5 buy-in ($10 max w/ unlimited re-buys). $5 gets you $200 in chips (100 BB) and we run it as a $1/$2 to keep the math simple (and similar to a 1/2 casino table) then during cash-outs just convert. Is that a completely ridiculous way to run a game? How many people could reasonably play with x1000 chips? I'm currently considering getting a set of x1000 in denominations that work for a 1/2 NL cash game and just doing conversions instead of having low denomination chips, but my head is spinning with all of the research I've been doing and I feel more lost than when I started lol.
Paulsons don’t have to be expensive. Used HSI primary are usually in the $2/chip average range unless you want fracs or $100s and up.

1675982018394.jpeg
 
Almost all custom chips are likely to depreciate. That goes for clays at $3+ per chip or ceramics at .30 per chip. You just will lose money...but that's not why you get them. If youre getting a set that you know you may not keep, get one that is also desirable aroud here, and youll have no trouble getting a good chunck or maybe all of your monay back.
For cash game breakdown recommendations, I just saw this thread from a few years ago, and it's brilliant:
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...ut-a-cash-game-chip-set-5c-10c-to-5-10.30897/
Keep in mind, those recommendations are for 200bb buy-in, so if you want to cap your game at 100bb, it will need to be adjusted. Good luck!
That thread is very helpful thank you for sharing that. Yeah, my main goal is for sure to have quality chips to play with. It's still a very big investment for me so I don't just want to throw a couple thousand dollars away should I need to sell at some point. I've had a lot of people interested in our home game so far but I'm not sure I'll be able to keep the interest and run it for a long time but I certainly hope so! Can't get enough poker right now...
 
Paulsons don’t have to be expensive. Used HSI primary are usually in the $2/chip average range unless you want fracs or $100s and up.

View attachment 1077313
Those are very nice looking chips! Do the Paulsons vary a lot in feel? I know everyone says to get samples; how much does that matter if you're settling on some form of Paulson chips?
 

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