Hairy_Crocodile
3 of a Kind
Hey all!
The owner of my local bar poker league has been asking me about where to buy chips and the best (Cheapest is what I assume he means) place to buy labels and chips. His chips are old, the denominations have worn off almost completely, the chips are mismatched....its bad. He is wanting to have his own logo put on his chips. The problem is, every time I bring up price, he shudders at some of the things I have found so far ("Hot stamped" dice chips, poopy 19¢ claysmith(?) stuff, showing him labeling options, etc).
I'm sure he will find something eventually, but it has me thinking about what kind of chips I would get if I started my own league when I move. He also said that he may be taking some time off (a few months) and allow myself and another dealer to take over until his return. I may make myself a cheapo bar poker set to use in his absence that actually has labels and denominations on them.
What kind of chips would be best for bar poker? I dont think Id mind having some minor customization (custom labels for example), but do not want to go the full custom route such as ceramics and such, I just ordered stuff for my personal cash/tournament sets and am getting Gear Labels for my paulson Tournament set.
I also do not want to go the route of "Nicer chips", I would hate to spend 800+ or so bucks on a set of chips or whatever just to have them get lost, stolen, etc over time.
I was thinking options such as the Nextgen Lucky Bee chips, some of the claysmith chip options, etc for re-labeling.
---Are there any other cheap options for bar chips? I have been finding options for anywhere from 14¢-20¢ a chip so far.
---Where Do you buy things like Lucky Bee chips? I can't seem to find a vendor.
---What options do you recommend for labels? I am ordering Gear labels for my nice stuff, but has anyone had any experience with BRPro or the other sites like StickerMule?
---For those that run their own leagues, what is your set breakdown? Starting stacks? Re-buys? How many tables do you normally support? I'd love to compare and contrast evryone's game so I can find the best way to run my own when I move, or tweak this league if the owner keeps asking me for more ideas.
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Some background of his set up in case you wanted to know. The players don't seem to mind how it runs.
He has a set of 1200 chips he uses for 4 tables, and only 1 occasion with 5 tables max. Starting stacks are 4/4/3/3/1, dealers all have change trays and try to utilize chip control to keep as little chips in front of the players as possible to make counting all ins and such easier for them. Dealers make change from their trays and color up the pots while players are thinking. Pretty much every bar near me thats runs a bar poker game has a breakdown that is very similar and also use trays filled with spare chips. The bar I just went to for the first time had stacks of 4/4/3/2 for their stacks. Heck, even the friendly home games I have visited run by players do 4/4/3 stacks for their 25¢/50¢ cash game starting stacks (buy-ins of $20, they dont like any more than that) and only have up to 50 quarters at the table for 9 players...and they are all addicted to limping, so lots of change making once one player gets all the fracs.
The guy that runs the league that I am a substitute dealer for has this for his set breakdown, no "re-buys" for the free bar poker league at this place.
250x 25
250x 100
250x 500
250x 1000
100x 5000
100x 10,000
Do you think that these types of breakdowns are relatively ok for bar poker because these bars have dedicated dealers with change in their trays ready? No fuss about making change with players, just using the tray, and it stretches your sets out to support more tables with less chips (I actually wonder if regular 8/8/6/6/x breakdowns require less chips but mean that the dealer must rely on making change between players as opposed to a tray).
As I have found, most of the players at these bars are very casual, and cannot be trusted to make change between themselves, hoard blind chips until they are asked to exchange them for larger chips by the dealer, communicate action properly, etc, etc, so eliminating the need to rely on them for change seems like a plus to me.
Even at the casino 2 weeks ago, I about had an annyuerism waiting for this player to bumble along and understand what the dealer was telling him. All he had to do was give him a yellow and a purple chip.....when players are ordering rounds of shots, getting wasted and having fun, I feel like not having to try and work with them for change, its better to just have it in the tray so you can get back to the action faster. Normally when I deal for this bar league, I color up chips from the pot to refill my tray if I am running low, and rarely have to ask players to exchange chips with me.
The owner of my local bar poker league has been asking me about where to buy chips and the best (Cheapest is what I assume he means) place to buy labels and chips. His chips are old, the denominations have worn off almost completely, the chips are mismatched....its bad. He is wanting to have his own logo put on his chips. The problem is, every time I bring up price, he shudders at some of the things I have found so far ("Hot stamped" dice chips, poopy 19¢ claysmith(?) stuff, showing him labeling options, etc).
I'm sure he will find something eventually, but it has me thinking about what kind of chips I would get if I started my own league when I move. He also said that he may be taking some time off (a few months) and allow myself and another dealer to take over until his return. I may make myself a cheapo bar poker set to use in his absence that actually has labels and denominations on them.
What kind of chips would be best for bar poker? I dont think Id mind having some minor customization (custom labels for example), but do not want to go the full custom route such as ceramics and such, I just ordered stuff for my personal cash/tournament sets and am getting Gear Labels for my paulson Tournament set.
I also do not want to go the route of "Nicer chips", I would hate to spend 800+ or so bucks on a set of chips or whatever just to have them get lost, stolen, etc over time.
I was thinking options such as the Nextgen Lucky Bee chips, some of the claysmith chip options, etc for re-labeling.
---Are there any other cheap options for bar chips? I have been finding options for anywhere from 14¢-20¢ a chip so far.
---Where Do you buy things like Lucky Bee chips? I can't seem to find a vendor.
---What options do you recommend for labels? I am ordering Gear labels for my nice stuff, but has anyone had any experience with BRPro or the other sites like StickerMule?
---For those that run their own leagues, what is your set breakdown? Starting stacks? Re-buys? How many tables do you normally support? I'd love to compare and contrast evryone's game so I can find the best way to run my own when I move, or tweak this league if the owner keeps asking me for more ideas.
************************
Some background of his set up in case you wanted to know. The players don't seem to mind how it runs.
He has a set of 1200 chips he uses for 4 tables, and only 1 occasion with 5 tables max. Starting stacks are 4/4/3/3/1, dealers all have change trays and try to utilize chip control to keep as little chips in front of the players as possible to make counting all ins and such easier for them. Dealers make change from their trays and color up the pots while players are thinking. Pretty much every bar near me thats runs a bar poker game has a breakdown that is very similar and also use trays filled with spare chips. The bar I just went to for the first time had stacks of 4/4/3/2 for their stacks. Heck, even the friendly home games I have visited run by players do 4/4/3 stacks for their 25¢/50¢ cash game starting stacks (buy-ins of $20, they dont like any more than that) and only have up to 50 quarters at the table for 9 players...and they are all addicted to limping, so lots of change making once one player gets all the fracs.
The guy that runs the league that I am a substitute dealer for has this for his set breakdown, no "re-buys" for the free bar poker league at this place.
250x 25
250x 100
250x 500
250x 1000
100x 5000
100x 10,000
Do you think that these types of breakdowns are relatively ok for bar poker because these bars have dedicated dealers with change in their trays ready? No fuss about making change with players, just using the tray, and it stretches your sets out to support more tables with less chips (I actually wonder if regular 8/8/6/6/x breakdowns require less chips but mean that the dealer must rely on making change between players as opposed to a tray).
As I have found, most of the players at these bars are very casual, and cannot be trusted to make change between themselves, hoard blind chips until they are asked to exchange them for larger chips by the dealer, communicate action properly, etc, etc, so eliminating the need to rely on them for change seems like a plus to me.
Even at the casino 2 weeks ago, I about had an annyuerism waiting for this player to bumble along and understand what the dealer was telling him. All he had to do was give him a yellow and a purple chip.....when players are ordering rounds of shots, getting wasted and having fun, I feel like not having to try and work with them for change, its better to just have it in the tray so you can get back to the action faster. Normally when I deal for this bar league, I color up chips from the pot to refill my tray if I am running low, and rarely have to ask players to exchange chips with me.