How has your Home Game evolved? Here’s mine (3 Viewers)

[Booshme]

And @Booshme that's always been a completely ridiculous rabbit hole for me. I can't fathom ever getting involved, maybe I'm just not artsy enough to paint all the dolls.

After binging YouTube videos, there’s a hack. Just get the oil varnish, makes it much easier. Not that I can do any of it any time soon though! Except maybe design a Warhammer poker set….

 

[BigGrizz]

I want to get into Warhammer 40k but I'm not rolled for it

40k is one of those hobbies that just torches money... Like people think chipping is bad, that's because they haven't seen 40k.

 

[PlaidDragon]

Long ago, during the before-times, there was a poor college student who enjoyed attending other people's venues for poker at nickel/dime/quarter stakes. The "chips" in use were... actual nickels, dimes, and quarters.

When one idiot (not me, I swear) insisted his giant stacks of pennies (from his nearly full 5 gallon water jug) were ok so long as he placed them in stacks/multiples of five, the game runner instead acquired a set of plastic chips. They were white, black, red, and green. They had no spots. They weren't even dice chips... and we thought they were fantastic! ...the "bees knees" even. Water-jug-boy even forwent any lamentations on the deprivation of his endless pennies. All was good as we let the plastic disks fly in denominations of white nickels, black dimes, red quarters, and green 50¢ pieces.

Then, one day, the game runner with the plastic chips graduated from college.... and summarily announced his departure to a faraway land in pursuit of new employment. The rest of us despaired and cursed our very existence as the man took his plastic chips with him. GONE, they were! We would again be relegated to the foibles of water-jug-boy and his endless pennies unless decisive action was taken.

But LO.... the aforementioned poor college student found himself, one day, in the most exquisite and posh of locales.... a "mall".

In this lustrous venue there were store-fronts aplenty, and food courts, and kiosk barkers, and countless other curiosities. The abundance and variations of the hawkers wares were boundless and magnificent, and the poor college student was in awe. Could this place, full of wonders, be the solution to his problems? Why yes... it could; for he found himself standing in the shadow of a new and towering mall edifice in all its splendor... "Casino Supply".

Could this be his redemption and escape from water-jug-boy's pennies? Indeed it was! The business was abound with near limitless choices. The ecstasy of options was nearly overwhelming for the poor college student... and there he found it! A selection of blank six-stripe chips, available in a plethora of colors...

"Why yes, these are real clay" said the hawker. "Why yes, we can stamp gold numbers on them to represent dollars and cents." "Why yes, you can order hundreds of whatever colors you want. We'll take care of everything!"

It was all the poor-college-student could do not to weep with joy, for he had found all he could have ever hoped for. He thus presented his overdrawn and abused plastic rectangle for payment... and it was good.

After a time, the new "clay" disks arrived and were cast upon the felt of the luxurious new octagonal folding table surface (that was also procured the same day as the chips) and IT.... WAS.... GOOD.

Thus the poor college student and his fellows doth did revel and cavort around this table and chips for years to come.

But, it was only after the poor college student became the "slightly less-poor college graduate" and also discovered LIE of these so-called "clay" chips that he looked to begin the quest anew to find even better alternatives.

However, THAT is a tale for another day.

 

[Old State]

Long ago, during the before-times, there was a poor college student who enjoyed attending other people's venues for poker at nickel/dime/quarter stakes. The "chips" in use were... actual nickels, dimes, and quarters.

When one idiot (not me, I swear) insisted his giant stacks of pennies from his nearly full 5 gallon water jug were ok so long as he placed them in stacks/multiples of five, the game runner instead acquired a set of plastic chips. They were white, black, red, and green. They had no spots. They weren't even dice chips... and we thought they were fantastic! ...the "bees knees" even. Water-jug-boy even forwent any lamentations on the deprivation of his endless pennies. All was good as we let the plastic disks fly in denominations of white nickels, black dimes, red quarters, and green 50¢ pieces.

Then, one day, the game runner with the plastic chips graduated from college.... and summarily announced his departure to a faraway land in pursuit of new employment. The rest of us despaired and cursed our very existence as the man took his plastic chips with him. GONE, they were! We would again be relegated to the foibles of water-jug-boy and his endless pennies unless decisive action was taken.

But LO.... the aforementioned poor college student found himself, one day, in the most exquisite and posh of locales.... a "mall".

In this lustrous venue were store-fronts aplenty, and food courts, and kiosk barkers, and countless other curiosities. The abundance and variations of the hawkers wares were boundless and magnificent, and the poor college student was in awe. Could this place, full of wonders, be the solution to his problems? Why yes... it could; for he found himself standing in the shadow of a new and towering mall edifice in all its splendor... "Casino Supply".

Could this be his redemption and escape from water-jug-boy's pennies. Indeed it was! The business was abound with near limitless choices. The ecstasy of options was nearly overwhelming for the poor college student... and their it was! A selection of blank six-stripe chips in a plethora of colors...

View attachment 1675424

"Why yes, these are real clay" said the hawker. "Why yes, we can stamp gold numbers on them to represent dollars and cents." "Why yes, you can order hundreds of whatever colors you want. We'll take care of everything!"

It was all the poor-college-student could do not to weep with joy, for he had found all he could have ever hoped for. He thus presented his overdrawn and abused rectangular plastic means of payment and ordered... and it was good.

After a time, the new "clay" disks arrived and were cast upon the felt of the luxurious new octagonal folding table that was also procured the same day as the chips and IT.... WAS.... GOOD.

Thus the poor college student and his fellows doth did revel and cavort around this table and chips for years to come. But, it was only after the poor college student became the "slightly less-poor college graduate" and also discovered LIE of these so-called "clay" chips that he looked to begin the quest anew to find even better alternatives.

But THAT is a tale for another day.

I don’t think younger people understand how crazy it was to have anything like this back in the day.


By buddy and college roommate somehow sourced these chips, a blackjack felt, and an actual casino 6 card shoe in 1995 for a black jack game we ran




People were absolutely blown away at all of this! The game was great and I didn’t touch my savings account the whole year we were the “house”. I bought my own set a few years after and still have them.

Fast forward to 2001 and the same buddy has a poker game and surprises everyone with full custom clay (ASM) chips. I can’t not exaggerate the shock effect of seeing someone with legit custom clay chips in 2001! They were the coolest thing I ever saw.

A little later three more of us bought sets. My chips came right in time for the Poker boom and we played with them all the time. People were absolutely blown away. New players would say “how the hell do get something like this?” And of course “how much did these cost?!” $1 a chip for the 321 pattern. The only pattern offered and you could only pick one edge spot color



I originally built a poker table from my Grandmother’s old kitchen table. It was padded and I thought it looked like an old cowboy saloon table . I just brought this out of the shed for over flow at my last cash game. Picture below. Replaced in 2004 buy the race track table my Grandfather built for me. Still use that as it’s sentimental.

To kicked it up even more when I sourced Kem cards from the only place I could find them..Gamblers General Store in Vegas. The original 2002 set warped when I left them out of the box on the table in my basement for a week. The 2003 bridge cards never warped. All pictured below

These things that are common place for us now were amazing 25 years ago! Most new players to my game now barely comment on anything…maybe when they realize my chips are custom…but not even that usually

 

[Mojo1312]

Let it begin.

 

[toothpic]

Initially we started playing with dice chips like anyone else, but I had a facination with poker chips from casinos so I started searching and that's when I found the blue wall forum (Chiptalk.net). I got my hands on to some ceramics, later some bud jones chips and lastly my PNY set which I used for a while. We started playing tiny $20 tournaments before going out and hitting the bars. I took a break for a while when I was busy with the family but started back up again around 2019. My group of friends who play poker converted over to playing 0.25/0.50 NLHE instead of tournaments.

Most of my journey during that time was through new chip sets as I slowly accumulated and upgraded sets

Once in a while I'd get a group that would play 1/2 NLHE

Later on I inherited a poker table from my cousin when he no longer hosted. We played on that for a while

but it was eventually time to clean it up and redo the felt. My chips did also change over time with my first creation of a CPC set to match my theme.

Then we started getting into circus games after I attended a few meet ups and slowly introduced games to the crew. We started with double board PLO bomb pots, Pineapple, SOHE, SHESHE and then SCARNEY

As we started playing more circus games which play best 6-7 handed, I commissioned a local table builder to make me a 58" round table

My son's best friend's dad and I were chatting at a get together a while back. Turns out he's a poker player as well. Over time we started to hang out more and I started joining their poker games where they play 0.25/0.50 with bomb pots. If there's 7 people or more they run two bomb pots. They are a good group of guys who frequent poker clubs but get together weekly as a way to hang out and have fun. Meeting them increased my poker games substantially! We usually finish the night with a couple rounds of baseball flips

 

[PlaidDragon]

I don’t think younger people understand how crazy it was to have anything like this back in the day.


By buddy and college roommate somehow sourced these chips, a blackjack felt, and an actual casino 6 card shoe in 1995 for a black jack game we ran

These are them! These look like the same plastics my college buddy initially bought. Nice blast from the past.

 

[Old State]

Initially we started playing with dice chips like anyone else, but I had a facination with poker chips from casinos so I started searching and that's when I found the blue wall forum (Chiptalk.net). I got my hands on to some ceramics, later some bud jones chips and lastly my PNY set which I used for a while. We started playing tiny $20 tournaments before going out and hitting the bars. I took a break for a while when I was busy with the family but started back up again around 2019. My group of friends who play poker converted over to playing 0.25/0.50 NLHE instead of tournaments.

Most of my journey during that time was through new chip sets as I slowly accumulated and upgraded sets

Once in a while I'd get a group that would play 1/2 NLHE

Later on I inherited a poker table from my cousin when he no longer hosted. We played on that for a while

but it was eventually time to clean it up and redo the felt. My chips did also change over time with my first creation of a CPC set to match my theme.

Then we started getting into circus games after I attended a few meet ups and slowly introduced games to the crew. We started with double board PLO bomb pots, Pineapple, SOHE, SHESHE and then SCARNEY

As we started playing more circus games which play best 6-7 handed, I commissioned a local table builder to make me a 58" round table

My son's best friend's dad and I were chatting at a get together a while back. Turns out he's a poker player as well. Over time we started to hang out more and I started joining their poker games where they play 0.25/0.50 with bomb pots. If there's 7 people or more they run two bomb pots. They are a good group of guys who frequent poker clubs but get together weekly as a way to hang out and have fun. Meeting them increased my poker games substantially! We usually finish the night with a couple rounds of baseball flips

That green fabric is what I used to use all the time on my tables! I cant find it anymore now that Jo Ann Fabrics is OOB. I was super cheap and I would just replace it every so often. It’s whats on the pics of my table above. Never felt the need to get anything else as it did the job and cards slid on it.

I recently used something else when I had to cut a hole for a Deck Mate

View attachment 1675767

These are them! These look like the same plastics my college buddy initially bought. Nice blast from the past.

Yup. These predate dice chips. In the 90s these were about as good as it got.

 

[Coyote]

I actually joined this forum to see if dice chips could be customised

 

[Old State]

Crazy memory just hit me….those diamond chips posted above were once pretty expensive. I want to say around .25 to .30 cents each….in 25 + years ago money! Only after a few years into the poker boom ehen all types of chips hit the market did they settle into about .08 cents a chip!

 

[Booshme]

Initially we started playing with dice chips like anyone else, but I had a facination with poker chips from casinos so I started searching and that's when I found the blue wall forum (Chiptalk.net). I got my hands on to some ceramics, later some bud jones chips and lastly my PNY set which I used for a while. We started playing tiny $20 tournaments before going out and hitting the bars. I took a break for a while when I was busy with the family but started back up again around 2019. My group of friends who play poker converted over to playing 0.25/0.50 NLHE instead of tournaments.

Most of my journey during that time was through new chip sets as I slowly accumulated and upgraded sets

Once in a while I'd get a group that would play 1/2 NLHE

Later on I inherited a poker table from my cousin when he no longer hosted. We played on that for a while

but it was eventually time to clean it up and redo the felt. My chips did also change over time with my first creation of a CPC set to match my theme.

Then we started getting into circus games after I attended a few meet ups and slowly introduced games to the crew. We started with double board PLO bomb pots, Pineapple, SOHE, SHESHE and then SCARNEY

As we started playing more circus games which play best 6-7 handed, I commissioned a local table builder to make me a 58" round table

My son's best friend's dad and I were chatting at a get together a while back. Turns out he's a poker player as well. Over time we started to hang out more and I started joining their poker games where they play 0.25/0.50 with bomb pots. If there's 7 people or more they run two bomb pots. They are a good group of guys who frequent poker clubs but get together weekly as a way to hang out and have fun. Meeting them increased my poker games substantially! We usually finish the night with a couple rounds of baseball flips

I love the progression, and you putting your own personal touch with those nice CPCs. I have a set designed, very hopeful they're back up and running this year. I also love the round table, I ended up choosing an octagon, Triton, since they didn't have a round option. How do you like it compared to the normal 9-10 person table??

 

[Booshme]

I actually joined this forum to see if dice chips could be customised

Did you ever do it? I'd love to see if you pulled it off! I bought Nexgens, the newer kind, 1000 for about a quarter each, and will likely gift half of them to whoever would be grateful for them. Whatever remains I'd like to put a cool custom design on it, and have it be my back-up for when I ever get two tables running. Right now I have two DDLM sets I use, one that can run up to .25/.50, and another up to .10/.20, so I needed a third set for the second table without wanting to break the bank.
I do have my Milanos.... But MOAR chips mean they must solely be used for tournaments lol

 

[Booshme]

Crazy memory just hit me….those diamond chips posted above were once pretty expensive. I want to say around .25 to .30 cents each….in 25 + years ago money! Only after a few years into the poker boom ehen all types of chips hit the market did they settle into about .08 cents a chip!

I didn't know other poker chips existed when I started playing. I would sneak into the Seminole Hard Rock as a teenager, but I was so nervous I didn't even pay attention to the chips aside from their denims

 

[Booshme]

Mine did too

The fastest way to destroy a game is to raise the stakes. 20 years ago our game moved from $2/4 or $3/6 limit to NL $1/2 with a similar buyin to AC casinos at the time (lower than now) and it ruined it.

Every groups has a sweet spot. Too low and some lose interest or dont play seriously. To high and people only come once or twice a year.

I found that with my group (90% have been playing for a very long time and often play at casinos) that $1/1 $120 max is the absolute perfect stakes for a regular monthly game. I was doing .50/1 and actually had .50 chips but decided it was too much clutter and removed them.

I got some people to move up from .50/.50 $80 max and others to come down from $1/3 $500 and even $2/5 $1000. They all seem to enjoy the $1/1 $120.

I do have one long time player that always asks to raise the stakes and I’ve explained to him that I want play every month not once a year…which is how often his $2/5 home game ends up happening. He is a gambling type and every time he has a bad night I’ll say to him “see, you can still lose $800 at $1/1 $120

This player always asked to rebuy for more. For the longest time I never allowed more that $120 rebuy or top off. Never a “match the stack” which I feel just raises the stakes without increasing the blinds. I tell everyone we play Borgata rules (our home casino since it opened) but there was so much money on the table last week I may have to come up and alternative. I was allowing $200 half way through the night as the average stack was over $400

If everything clicks, I can have enough guests for two tables (an octagon plus a 6-person dining room table). Our normal game is .25/.25, but there are a couple guys who'd be a-ok with .25/.50 or .50/1 (me included). But there are also a few other non-regulars who are WAY more likely to show up for a .10/.10 game (and I'd love playing at that table, too). I'm hoping giving extra options for the stakes will attract non-regulars, I guess we'll see how it goes

 

[toothpic]

I love the progression, and you putting your own personal touch with those nice CPCs. I have a set designed, very hopeful they're back up and running this year. I also love the round table, I ended up choosing an octagon, Triton, since they didn't have a round option. How do you like it compared to the normal 9-10 person table??

For games 7 handed or less the round table is superior. Easier to deal, easier to push chips around and much more social since it’s easier to hear everyone. I only use the oval table when we are 8-9 handed for the extra space

 

[Booshme]

For games 7 handed or less the round table is superior. Easier to deal, easier to push chips around and much more social since it’s easier to hear everyone. I only use the oval table when we are 8-9 handed for the extra space

6-8 is my sweet-spot. The Triton octagon has been good to me, I just wish it was round for more even distribution when we're only 5-7 players. I don't know if I'll ever go for an oval, unless it's designed for just 8 players but with a dedicated dealer seat. Honestly, I'd rather play 4-handed than 9, more action, don't have tighten up so much, etc