Best Practices? (2 Viewers)

[chipchipchip]

I've spent a few months now researching how to proceed with a custom set. I'm torn between harvesting live chips for murder/relabel and doing a full CPC set from scratch. When doing a set from scratch, is there any resource out there that outlines "best practices" or "lessons learned" in design? I know it's all super subjective, and I know the traditional color progression and there's at least some semblance of a traditional spot progression. Just wondering if there's a primer out there to get a good sense of a foundation in set design.

I'll be doing a strictly cash set FWIW. .25/1/5/25/100

I think my main issue is that there are so many ideas I'd love to have in a chip, it's very hard to make all of them gel in a full lineup, so what sorts of design elements really make a set fit together? I'm sure this isn't a new problem lol

Gratuitous pr0n (this is my logo -thanks J5!- and my initial plan if I go the harvest route):

 

[SteveEH]

Maybe I should put a lessons learned CPC custom thread together as I've done it 4 times and post the same stuff in multiple threads...

- get colour samples as the chip designer colours vary based on your screen. Look at the colours in your poker room's lighting as well as natural light

- get shuffle stacks of molds you're considering as they all feel different. With and without inlays impact sound.

- make sure your theme is on point and works with the mold (see https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/custom-cpc-vs-rounders-replica-set.97184/page-3#post-2023276)

- get a realistic breakdown based on your games stakes, avg number of players and buy ins. Are you ever going to get $100s on the table? If not you could do a barrel of membership/bounty/special chips instead. Consider your workhorse chip(s) carefully as you'll see the most of these on the table at once.

- spot progression is really up to you.

- look at existing set pr0n posted on PCF

- be patient and ask for feedback from the community.

 

[chipchipchip]

Maybe I should put a lessons learned CPC custom thread together as I've done it 4 times and post the same stuff in multiple threads...

This is what I've run into! I'm sure everything I'm asking is out there, and I've found pieces of it buried in a hundred other threads. Once I get a basic layout ready I'll post for individual feedback as well.

 

[bernielomax]

If you do a custom CPC set start a thread with the title being something like "Rising Tide Poker - CPC custom - Feedback Requested"

There are a number of people on PCF including @SteveEH who commented above that have done multiple CPC sets and can help with color choices, spot patterns etc.

 

[chipchipchip]

If you do a custom CPC set start a thread with the title being something like "Rising Tide Poker - CPC custom - Feedback Requested"

There are a number of people on PCF including @SteveEH who commented above that have done multiple CPC sets and can help with color choices, spot patterns etc.

Thanks, I plan on doing that. I was hoping for a good primer or something to get me a little nudge in the right direction, but maybe it's just a matter of starting with what looks good to me and expanding from there.

One thing I saw that was great advice is to figure out what the workhorse chip is and make that one *perfect* first, then build around that to suit.

 

[bernielomax]

That's exactly what I did. I am building my relabel project around the the Paris $1 chip.

 

[SteveEH]

If you do a custom CPC set start a thread with the title being something like "Rising Tide Poker - CPC custom - Feedback Requested"

Good call. I didn't do this as Ive been doing this since the early 00s. Also there are others here who've been around here longer than me who've made more sets. I like to highlight my learnings from my failures specifically on theme.

I updated my first reply

 

[Highli99]

One mistake new folks make is trying to make one set cover tournaments and cash games. The consensus here is to do those seperate.

I’d also recommend doing denominations and staying way from non denominated chips except perhaps for a limit set.

 

[arch3r]

Maybe I should put a lessons learned CPC custom thread together as I've done it 4 times and post the same stuff in multiple threads...

- get colour samples as the chip designer colours vary based on your screen. Look at the colours in your poker room's lighting.

- get shuffle stacks of molds you're considering as they all feel different. With and without inlays impact sound.

- make sure your theme is on point and works with the mold (see https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/custom-cpc-vs-rounders-replica-set.97184/page-3#post-2023276)

- get a realistic breakdown based on your games stakes, avg number of players and buy ins. Are you ever going to get $100s on the table? If not you could do a barrel of membership/bounty/special chips instead. Consider your workhorse chip(s) carefully as you'll see the most of these on the table.

- spot progression is really up to you.

- be patient and ask for feedback from the community.

^^^^^
1000% this.


The only other advice I would have is 'you do you'. Don't get locked into the "accepted norms" of chip colors or spot progressions or whatever. I think some of the best CPC sets I've seen ignore all that and think outside the box when it comes to those norms. Have fun! If your favorite color is orange ( and it should be, orange is the best color ever ), and your workhorse chip is the $1, design an orange $1 with awesome spots and build the rest of the set around that chip. I never understood making the higher denoms the sexy chips when they barely get into play. I would much rather have a sexy frac, $1 and $5 and a less sexy/boring $25 and $100 since most of the chips on the table are the lower denoms. But there I go, suggesting what you should do. Seek advice absolutely, but ultimately you need to love the chips you design, regardless if it follows any standard design pattern or not. ENJOY!

 

[MeridianFC]

- get colour samples as the chip designer colours vary based on your screen. Look at the colours in your poker room's lighting as well as natural light

Read this.

Read it again.

Years ago I had a set of brilliant ASM (now CPC) chips made. Each chip looked great on it's own, the thing is in my actual playing basement lighting conditions three of the chips kinds of blended together because of the hue of the particular base colors chosen. I ended up having to redo 300 of one of my two workhorse chips. I'm just now after 10 years and several hundred dollars later getting around to fixing the third one. Don't be like me.

 

[allforcharity]

Most customizers end up getting a CPC set eventually, so you might as well bite the bullet and start at the top.



If you really want to go all in, get custom cut cards, dealer buttons, high denom plaques, custom felt for your table, ultrasonic cleaner, hot dog roller...
I'm sure I missed something.

 

[chipchipchip]

Most customizers end up getting a CPC set eventually, so you might as well bite the bullet and start at the top.



If you really want to go all in, get custom cut cards, dealer buttons, high denom plaques, custom felt for your table, ultrasonic cleaner, hot dog roller...
I'm sure I missed something.

Lol I’ve got the hot dog roller already. That’s such an elegant solution to feeding 10+ people over 6+ hours with minimal mess and zero midgame upkeep.

 

[MeridianFC]

I would reiterate that you should do what you want, it's your spendoolies after all, but definitely run your mockups by folks here. There's a wealth of experience, good and bad. I'm glad I did. Even in the recent redo it was pointed out that the base color I was considering, while definitely different, was probably too dark for the differentiation I was needing. Went to my sample set (you do have samples right?) and low and behold the brain trust here was correct.

 

[MrRossKeys]

Read this.

Read it again.

Years ago I had a set of brilliant ASM (now CPC) chips made. Each chip looked great on it's own, the thing is in my actual playing basement lighting conditions three of the chips kinds of blended together because of the hue of the particular base colors chosen. I ended up having to redo 300 of one of my two workhorse chips. I'm just now after 10 years and several hundred dollars later getting around to fixing the third one. Don't be like me.

I started my journey designing a CPC custom set as my first "real" set of chips. A tourney set of all quarter-pie chips. I love every single chip individually, but this bit of feedback from @MeridianFC is the reason why I continue to make more custom sets... the chips feel and play well, and everyone loves them... except, they aren't the easiest chips to tell apart in the lighting AND on the felt we play on.

The longer I play poker the more I realize that telling chips apart is a huge aspect of player comfort at a game. Creating a set that has "pretty" chips is now an equal mission to creating a set that "is easy to identify denominations." My current endeavor his placed so much emphasis on telling the chips apart easily that I've made over 2,000 revisions and over 30 mockups of different angles, on the felt graphics, just so that I can be as sure as possible that they will be easily identifiable.

So yes, get sample colors, compare, contrast, mockup, and take your time when finalizing your colors. If you're anything like me you'll get really excited when a chip seems to "come together" into a beautiful chip... but don't finalize until you're sure they all fit together and are easy to tell apart.

Good luck, and definitely share your progress!

 

[MrRossKeys]

Oh, and also, you may already know this but a lot of CPC colors look good on screen but in reality run a bit dark. In the vain of dirty stacks and telling chips apart I think I've started leaning towards brighter chips being easier to tell apart than darker base colors (think lighting conditions where your poker is played). I would only choose 1 or MAYBE 2 darker colored chips in a cash set .25¢ to $100. If one of those chips is white and one is black (or any dark color) you should be able to use 1 other bright colored chip and 2 medium colored chips for the other denominations.

 

[chipchipchip]

So much great feedback in here guys, thanks a lot! And I *do* have a color sample set from CPC. Just got it yesterday which got me kickstarted on thinking more seriously about this.

 

[TX_Golf_N_Poker]

I've spent a few months now researching how to proceed with a custom set. I'm torn between harvesting live chips for murder/relabel and doing a full CPC set from scratch. When doing a set from scratch, is there any resource out there that outlines "best practices" or "lessons learned" in design? I know it's all super subjective, and I know the traditional color progression and there's at least some semblance of a traditional spot progression. Just wondering if there's a primer out there to get a good sense of a foundation in set design.

I'll be doing a strictly cash set FWIW. .25/1/5/25/100

I think my main issue is that there are so many ideas I'd love to have in a chip, it's very hard to make all of them gel in a full lineup, so what sorts of design elements really make a set fit together? I'm sure this isn't a new problem lol

Gratuitous pr0n (this is my logo -thanks J5!- and my initial plan if I go the harvest route):

View attachment 1052434

What stakes are you expecting to be most commonly played? Are you dead set in the $25 chip camp? I play mostly micro states games up to $.0.25 / 0.50. My buy-ins and rebuys are typically in increments of $20 bills. ($20, 40, 60) For this reason ALL my cash sets use $20 chips instead of $25. And for one set that I'm relabeling a few higher value chips, I'm going to top it off at a $50 chip instead of a $100. For me, I don't see ever needing a $100, although most of my other sets do have a barrel or two of them.

If you're a higher stakes player and only occasionally plan to use your quarters, feel free to disregard this.

 

[chipchipchip]

What stakes are you expecting to be most commonly played? Are you dead set in the $25 chip camp? I play mostly micro states games up to $.0.25 / 0.50. My buy-ins and rebuys are typically in increments of $20 bills. ($20, 40, 60) For this reason ALL my cash sets use $20 chips instead of $25. And for one set that I'm relabeling a few higher value chips, I'm going to top it off at a $50 chip instead of a $100. For me, I don't see ever needing a $100, although most of my other sets do have a barrel or two of them.

If you're a higher stakes player and only occasionally plan to use your quarters, feel free to disregard this.

Interesting. I hadn’t considered the easier logistics of a $20 vs $25 with typical cash buy ins. I’ve wondered why $20’s seen so popular and that makes a lot of sense. This would grant me some liberties for colors other than green. Not that a $25 *has* to be green but I’m leaning towards traditional colors with a bright red $5 to match my boat.

And for the $100 chip that’s more of a novelty I think. But I suspect if I’m going through all this for a “forever” set I’ll be happy to have a barrel ready. We play .25/.25 now and if be shocked if this ever got bigger than .50/1. But I can dream!

 

[TX_Golf_N_Poker]

Interesting. I hadn’t considered the easier logistics of a $20 vs $25 with typical cash buy ins. I’ve wondered why $20’s seen so popular and that makes a lot of sense. This would grant me some liberties for colors other than green. Not that a $25 *has* to be green but I’m leaning towards traditional colors with a bright red $5 to match my boat.

And for the $100 chip that’s more of a novelty I think. But I suspect if I’m going through all this for a “forever” set I’ll be happy to have a barrel ready. We play .25/.25 now and if be shocked if this ever got bigger than .50/1. But I can dream!

Alright! A new member to club $20! LOL. Yes, I stumbled into some people here who explained this logic to me very early in my journey. I understand why $25s are much more common in casinos, but for smaller stakes home games, I love using $20s instead. My favorite colors for $20s are yellow, various shades of purple and lavender, and black. There are some cool uses of brown too. As in the secondary Tigers and some older Cali card room chips.

 

[chipinla]

1. Go with CPC 1000% instead of relabel
2. Visit the custom chip database to see what others have done with their CPC sets to give you some ideas of colors and edgespots.
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/chipdb/categories/custom-sets.2/

 

[jr8719]

I'm a big Paulson murder / overlabel advocate, so will always recommend that route over CPC, personally.

Looks like you've already got some chips in mind with Paris and Venetian $1s and, seeing as the prices for both seem to be at an all-time low (as well as availablity high), that's another thing to consider, too.

 

[tooth_doc]

Most customizers end up getting a CPC set eventually, so you might as well bite the bullet and start at the top.



If you really want to go all in, get custom cut cards, dealer buttons, high denom plaques, custom felt for your table, ultrasonic cleaner, hot dog roller...
I'm sure I missed something.

Don't temp me with the CPC......please . I'm trying to talk myself into GB CM and eventually CPC....augh