Darson's Great Poker Chip Adventure (1 Viewer)

[Darson]

May 2018 - Outlaws
I joined this madhouse in May last year and have accumulated several sets and thought I would document them as I'm now past the pure acquisition phase and am starting to let some go to make room for others.

This all started when I volunteered to host a game after the first one at a buddy's place. I needed some chips and fast and watching @Hobbyphilic videos let me to the Outlaws. I quickly bought a couple of standard 500 count sets which had 150x$1, 150x$5, 100x$25, 50x$50 and 50x$100. I then joined PCF and found that this breakdown is basically useless for a tourney style game but I also found you could buy the Outlaws individually and in other denominations. I finally ended up with 1500 chips that look like this:

With the game coming up and 10 people confirmed, I set about building a table which you can read about here. Following @Trihonda advice, I ignored the small chips and spread a T1000 game with the 5/25/100/500 chips. The game was a great success and fostered a monthly game that we're still playing.

Since I had a whole bunch of singles, I though I would see if I could build a cash set with the lower denoms but I was missing a 5c chip. This led to my first relabel project converting the useless $50 chips into 5c.

By now I had firmly caught the PCF bug so it will not surprise you to hear that the Outlaws never hit the felt again.

 

[detroitdad]

congrats on getting a monthly game going. This is a fantastic hobby.

 

[Trihonda]

Congrats man! Next step is attending a meetup. .

 

[Hobbyphilic]

Party!!!

 

[Darson]

May/Jun/Dec 2018 & Feb 2019 - Royal Yak
Joining PCF was a bit of an overload for me seeing all these lovely chip sets. I followed advice and ordered some samples from ABC & Apache and once I got them in hand, I found that I liked the feel and look of ceramics more than the few clay samples I had. At the time, I liked the durability as the ceramics looked new and the clay samples were Horseshoe Cinci casino used. Almost immediately I saw a set of Royal Yaks posted for sale at a very good price so I jumped on them. Once in hand, I really liked these though there were no fracs so I put out a wanted ad for fracs and managed to get a rack. Over time a few more sets became available and I couldn't resist snapping up any I could find.

So far I have:
400x 5c
200x 25c
540x $1
500x $5
160x $20 (100 yellow and 60 orange)
5x $100 (not pictured)

All in all a pretty decent cash set covering micro stakes up. I probably have a couple racks too many 5c and would like to build out the orange $20 to a rack but I'm pretty happy with the haul as is.

 

[Darson]

June 2018 - Sunfly Radisson Aruba
This was the point I discovered the vendor area in PCF. Jim@TheChipVault was offering the Radisson Aruba chips and there was a set of 1700 new ceramics for $400. What a bargain price per chip! I was a little reluctant given the breakdown of only 500/1000/5000 denoms but an offer of a trade from @Lucks7Shadow and that was soon put to rest. I bought the chips Jim had for offer and traded to get to the following:

175 x $25
125 x $100
200 x $500
600 x $1000
600 x $5000

Note that this was my first PCF trade and @Lucks7Shadow is a fine gentleman who significantly increased the my confidence in the members of the chipping community.

I also posted a thread asking for advice on how to use the higher denoms for a game and had my first experience of @BGinGA giving breakdown advice. His T100k 20/20/14 starting stack is now a firm favourite of mine and we've played several games with these chips - doling out the rebuys with 20x T5000 chips is super convenient when one has been drinking! This is one set that I'm definitely holding on to.

I could spread a T10k tourney with these also since I have some of the smaller denoms but the T100k is just too much fun!

Some in-game pics:

This was a crazy game with lots of rebuys - I had almost all the 5k chips on the felt at the end!

 

[SeanGecko]

Looking forward to the ABC chips.

 

[SeanGecko]

Also LOVE the MOAR OUTLAWS set.

 

[Darson]

June 2018 - Dirty Drew
So having scored some more ceramics, the lust was heightened so I scoured the vendor area for any more opportunities. At he time, my Yak set didn't have fracs and I wanted some since we're more likely to play smaller games. I found an old posting from 2015 of stock chipco sets in David's secret vault. I tried my luck and emailed him and managed to score some more chippies!

Here's the pic from the sale thread:

And here they are at home:

These have become the "home game" chips when playing with the kids. They sit in the nice acrylic case in the dining room out in the open to encourage use. There are 50x of each of the fracs and 75x of the other denoms. Not exactly an ideal breakdown but colourful, robust and fun to play with. Works well when there are 3 or 4 of us at the table. I have since added a rack of Intercon Chipco $20s but they've yet to be used in a game.

I wonder who Dirty Drew is?

 

[Darson]

July 2018 - Kenmore Lanes & Peppermill
After loading up on ceramics, I wondered if I shouldn't give clays another shot. I also saw all the auctions going on and wanted to try my luck also.

I ended up with this ASM set of Kenmore lanes:

Since these were casino used, they also spawned my purchase of an ultrasonic cleaner! One lesson to be learned here is that cleaning chips is a labour of love - it's not a quick or easy thing! I was surprised by how much they improved, an example of the cleaned/uncleaned fracs:

What a difference a bit of scrubbing makes!

In the end, these never saw the felt and were put in the cupboard to collect dust. Recently I sold most of them to a new chipper but I still have four racks of fracs at home. These will be advertised soon I guess.

Wanting to get some newer Paulsons in hand I also bid on these Peppermill NCVs:

Nice chips and an impulse purchase for sure but I have no idea what I'm going to do with them now! Maybe bounty or rebuy chips or maybe just released back into the wild. They look pretty though...

My main learning from this experience is that I'm only ever gonna buy mint/excellent clays, if at all.

 

[Darson]

GOCC - August 2018 & January 2019
Now we start getting to a completely unnecessary impulse buy. I saw a set of these ceramics in the classifieds and made an offer even though I had plenty of chips and had absolutely no reason to buy them. The first lot was 2 racks of $1, 5 racks of $5 and a rack of $25. Some of the chips show signs of use and other look new. Then in January this year, another lot was posted with 5 racks of $5 and a rack of $100 so I had to add these too! 1400 chips, probably ideal for a 1/2 game but I've never used them and likely never will!

I think these were originally made by GOCC and some seem to have seen a reasonable amount of use so probably used in a card room somewhere. The $1s are interesting as they don't have the typical chipco style white circle on the edge and have aligned edgespots and the blank seems smoother. There were many racks of $5s for sale on eBay, not sure if there still available.

Breakdown:
200x $1
1000x $5
100x $25
100x $100

I did design a frac and was going to get some made by ABC but decided against it as it's unlikely these will ever see play - too many chips and not enough games!

 

[Darson]

October 2018 - Dia De Los Muertos
I'm sure you've all seen @Puzzlemonkey Dia De Los Muertos chip design and I was following the thread for a while. Then suddenly they became available! An discounted too. So I knew I had to have a set and went with a cali colour inspired semi-custom breakdown:

Unboxing:

And the chippies!

These now live in my Nanuk 910 as one of my portable sets - the main reason was the Halloween game last year was at a pal's house so I brought these along for that.

Happy winners!

 

[Darson]

October 2018 - Tiki Kings
I always liked the look of the Tiki chips. They're another Puzzlemonkey design so October was the Puzzlemonkey month when a STT set of these were posted in the classifieds and I snapped them up.

The breakdown was:
$5 x100
$25 x150
$100 x150
$500 x50
$1000x 50

I wanted this set to cover T2k starting stacks with 10/14/16 and was short of 10x 100s so I asked Gene to make some extras. We also have a 2x rebuy limit so 20x semi-custom Tiki rebuy chips were also requested with 10x bounty chips for good measure.

These have yet to hit the felt but will definitely be put in play at the next opportunity. At some point an extra rack of $1000s will be added so this set can be used for our more usual T10k game.

Edit: finally got these in play last night!

 

[Darson]

November 2018 - Radisson Limit
This was another totally idiotic purchase. I don't play limit, I have never played limit live (only played limit online twice) and I can't see myself ever hosting a limit game BUT I still had to buy a limit set. Fortunately, these were a bargain which is probably half the reason I bought them. The other half is because they're very good condition chipcos which I'm addicted to.

1000x $2
200x $20

There's also a rack of worn $1s somewhere but I may have tossed it. I think I keep these in the birdcage because they're more for looks than actual play.

Damn you PCF!

 

[Darson]

November 2018 - ASM FDL "The Bacement" hot stamps
So after my disappointment with casino used clays, I thought I would try again and this set came up at a good price so I pulled the trigger. Just in time for this post, I learned the origin of these chips - they were made by @Cliff and you can see all his other Bacement sets which are very cool. He bought the 3V12 FDL blanks from ASM and did the hot stamping himself!

I really like these chips and they're nice and crisp and the colours work well. The lavender T500 is my favourite. They haven't seen the felt yet but will do soon. I'm toying with the idea of a mill and relabel to personalise them. Still probably a long way off but I have played with a few ideas:

A leading idea is to make them into a Colonial Marines set from the movie Aliens:

 

[Darson]

November 2018 - 8V China Clays
I followed the rules, I bought samples and I decided long ago that I didn't like china clays. But Gene was blowing out the 8Vs, the price was very low and I thought it would be a good idea to get some chips to give as gifts.

1800 chips and 5 months later they are just collecting dust in a drawer. I wonder if I'll actually get round to this project (I have designed a few labels) or if they'll stay in the dark...

 

[SeanGecko]

November 2018 - 8V China Clays
I followed the rules, I bought samples and I decided long ago that I didn't like china clays. But Gene was blowing out the 8Vs, the price was very low and I thought it would be a good idea to get some chips to give as gifts.

1800 chips and 5 months later they are just collecting dust in a drawer. I wonder if I'll actually get round to this project (I have designed a few labels) or if they'll stay in the dark...

View attachment 274217

View attachment 274231

Ohhh or sell them to me

 

[Saoliver]

July 2018 - Kenmore Lanes & Peppermill
After loading up on ceramics, I wondered if I shouldn't give clays another shot. I also saw all the auctions going on and wanted to try my luck also.

I ended up with this ASM set of Kenmore lanes:
View attachment 261406
View attachment 261407
View attachment 261408

Since these were casino used, they also spawned my purchase of an ultrasonic cleaner! One lesson to be learned here is that cleaning chips is a labour of love - it's not a quick or easy thing! I was surprised by how much they improved, an example of the cleaned/uncleaned fracs:
View attachment 261414

What a difference a bit of scrubbing makes!

In the end, these never saw the felt and were put in the cupboard to collect dust. Recently I sold most of them to a new chipper but I still have four racks of fracs at home. These will be advertised soon I guess.

Wanting to get some newer Paulsons in hand I also bid on these Peppermill NCVs:
View attachment 261416

Nice chips and an impulse purchase for sure but I have no idea what I'm going to do with them now! Maybe bounty or rebuy chips or maybe just released back into the wild. They look pretty though...

My main learning from this experience is that I'm only ever gonna buy mint/excellent clays, if at all.

Those Kenmore Lanes chips bring back such memories for me. That was the first cardroom that I ever played in, while in college. It was 18+ at the bowling alley. Learned limit there and did quite well.

 

[Darson]

January 2019 - PCF Promo Tourney set
Until now I hadn't spent more than around $400 in one go on a purchase. That all changed when this PCF promo set came available - I liked them, liked the colours and did I mention those yellows?

These were put into play as soon as I could. There were some grumbles that they were a bit lighter than usual but that quickly went away when people started building stacks.

And one very happy lad with his pile of chips after winning a three-way all in:

These are sweet - I don't know why I bought the two additional racks of 5s other than I like the colour. These are going to see a fair amount of use I think...

 

[jazzV3]

Ohhh or sell them to me

@SeanGecko @Darson

lol - just getting around to come up with a label for three 8V sets (Cash/Tourney/Limit) myself.
Either of you guys need some extra purples...? I think I have 200 extra purples.

 

[SeanGecko]

Which purple?

 

[jazzV3]

The purple purple ones...

Not sure what the difference is.
Did Gene have 2 versions?

 

[Darson]

January 2019 - Burro's Horseshoe Sunfly hybrids
I did follow the Mountain Top group buy carefully and thought long and hard about participating but decided not to. I did want a set of hybrids to check out and when this Burro's Horseshoe set came up for sale, I snap called. Personally I really like the simplicity of the design and the consistent edgespots - this is a really well thought out execution of a tribute set.

Currently this is how they live - in 12/12/5/6 starting stacks in plastic tubes, cased up for travel with a Matsui rack to carry the colour-up and rebuy chips.

I managed to trade for a dealer button (thanks @Godzilla28 ) and I have explored expanding this set without success. This is probably one of my favourite tourney sets and if we have 8 or less around the table, there is a high chance these chips will get used.

I've stopped looking to expand this set as one thing's for sure - a custom set of 43mm Sunfly hybrids is in my future.

 

[Darson]

February 2019 - ABC Secret Menu Apes ceramics
When I first saw the Mapes TRKs I fell in love. The colours and the black inlay just did something for me. But sadly they are unobtanium so I decided that I'll never realistically own a set with those lovely ones. But they are an inspiration so I did a lot of playing around with the Mapes label and came up with my Apes version:

And being a fan of ChipCo, when Gene made his offer, I jumped to use the Apes inlay on a set of cash chips. This was my first home design actually going into production and Gene was great printing samples so that I could get a feel for how they'd look:

A few tweaks and here's the set fresh off the production line:

As much as I love them, I realised I didn't order enough so I added a few more 1s and ended up with this lot:

I'm super happy with these - they're unique to me, lovely colours and handle really well. The first game with these on the table and I cashed out for double my buy-in.

I was supposed to post this 2 days ago as my 1 year anniversary on PCF but here we are! I'm so happy to have found this community, the last year has been great fun. I've enjoyed meeting @Ethan @crussader and @Coyote in Houston for a few beers and cash game and I'm highly looking forward to attending my first formal meetup at San Antonio in August.

 

[Ethan]

February 2019 - ABC Secret Menu Apes ceramics
When I first saw the Mapes TRKs I fell in love. The colours and the black inlay just did something for me. But sadly they are unobtanium so I decided that I'll never realistically own a set with those lovely ones. But they are an inspiration so I did a lot of playing around with the Mapes label and came up with my Apes version:
View attachment 285934

And being a fan of ChipCo, when Gene made his offer, I jumped to use the Apes inlay on a set of cash chips. This was my first home design actually going into production and Gene was great printing samples so that I could get a feel for how they'd look:
View attachment 285935

A few tweaks and here's the set fresh off the production line:
View attachment 285936

As much as I love them, I realised I didn't order enough so I added a few more 1s and ended up with this lot:
View attachment 285937

I'm super happy with these - they're unique to me, lovely colours and handle really well. The first game with these on the table and I cashed out for double my buy-in.

I was supposed to post this 2 days ago as my 1 year anniversary on PCF but here we are! I'm so happy to have found this community, the last year has been great fun. I've enjoyed meeting @Ethan @crussader and @Coyote in Houston for a few beers and cash game and I'm highly looking forward to attending my first formal meetup at San Antonio in August.

Gorgeous set! The nickels are by far my favorite. We will need to get another game together soon!

 

[Darson]

April/May 2019 - Matsui WPS Horseshoe
I got a sample set of these from the 1st GB and knew I wanted some so when the 2nd GB happened I jumped. I think my order went from 600 to over 1000 while the thread was open. These are lush - I don't know why I like them so much. I'm not a huge fan of clays (TRKs being the exception) so perhaps it's not surprising that I like some of the most expensive plastic chips available.

As soon as they arrived they were put in to play and my guys loved them. And, of course, I stacked the stacks so that there were a full two racks of yellow in play by the end!

My only problem was that I was majorly on tilt that the rack of v2 25ks had beveled edges. Well someone was listening and I managed to get an add-on set to get me to the @BGinGA approved 200/200/100/200/200/100 with an extra rack of 5s for bounties etc.

Today is my birthday and they just arrived - what a great birthday present. Happy birthday to me!

 

[Darson]

April 2019 - Monaco cash set

A fellow PCFer had some Monaco $1s available at a price too good to turn down so I decided to get them and build myself a travel set. I have far too many of them but the idea is something like 60 facs, 80 $1 and 60 $5 for a portable 200 chip set. Now I bought 600 chips so I'm not sure how my maths works but the colours are lovely and who can resist minty clays with the bonus that they're lighter and easier to carry.

Did I mention those yellows??? Yum!

 

[Ethan]

Looks like a great special guest set for one of my home games...

 

[Jockkin777]

So many awesome sets!

 

[Darson]

April 2019 and onward - TRKs!

I made a mistake buying a TRK single to see what all the fuss was about. Once I had it in my hand and felt the buttery smoothness, I knew I had to have some. Mapes are my true heart's desire but they are far too expensive and anyway unavailable so I kept my eyes open for other options. The first buy was three racks of Nevada Bay/Lodge 1s, shortly followed by a rack of well worn yellow roulettes. The plan was to build a small cash set around these chips.

A little disheartened by the lack of options, I secured a set of solids with the idea of mill and relabel to make other denominations.

Then these mint Nevada Lodge 5s became available and I begged to get them.

I thought I was well on my way when a set of Money Tree 5s popped up and I snap called.

With the Money Trees next to the Nevada Lodge, I decided that the bright orange was for me so I let the Nevada Lodge chips go.

I managed to get some red solids and some spotted bright green 25 NCVs and here's where we are today:

Other than the 1s, they all have crisp edges. I'm pretty happy with this set. The plan is to mill the reds for quarters and label with my "Apes" design.

I'm a little reluctant to relabel the 25s but since they are NCV chips, this may have to be done eventually. I'm thinking of another fantasy take on a historical casino - I've mocked up a "Mick Dobson" play on Pick Hobson's Riverside but we'll see. Quarters first!