If you build it.... will they come? (3 Viewers)

1pocket

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What a great site and group of individuals making up this forum. Glad I found it!

I am new to the chip world. Will be purchasing a set very soon (more on that in a bit).

To give you some context...

I haven't ran a home game in 15 years. Haven't been to a home game in 6 years. Haven't played poker @ the casino for over 6 years. Did I mention I got married 6 years ago?

Recently, I got a great deal on a B&O Poker Table that now sits in our loft. A room that we haven't utilized in the past 5 years. So we are loving it. Card games played with the in-laws and family weekly during this pandemic.

So... some how some way I am back baby! I have laid the ground work to start hosting poker games again. I don't even have enough friends that play poker to fill the seats yet. But I am confident that if I build it, they will come.

I am about to buy a 1000 chip set. I don't even know if I need 1000 chips. Let me correct that. I don't need 1000 chips, but I like to be prepared... lol. Also, I am a cheap bastard. Will spend money on nice stuff, but I want a deal and 1000 chips gets me to the price point per chip I am comfortable with. I will create a separate post on chip count/denom I am thinking of. But ideally it should cover small stakes for family games, $300 buy-ins for home cash games and t2000 tournament for 8 players max. (is my lingo right, learned this stuff here)

I have also bumped up my budget. from .14/chip to .60-.70/chip. I blame you PCFers. I was perfectly happy with .14/chip selection before reading through vast number of threads and becoming chip educated. I am digging Paulson's but going from dice chips straight to Paulson's seems like another psychological issue all together.

I am looking at DDLM. I like that each chip is unique design, the color selection and customizable. It's like little pieces of art. Although, I traditionally would have chosen more serious looking casino style chips.

If anyone wants to try and save me and talk me off the ledge, please do so. :)

Thanks and hello everyone.
 
Welcome! Check out the cards mold ceramic chips if you want a more serious casino style look that is budget friendly. The only limit is your imagination. Full customs for around .30/chip

full
 
Welcome! Check out the cards mold ceramic chips if you want a more serious casino style look that is budget friendly. The only limit is your imagination. Full customs for around .30/chip

full
Stay on the ledge, but get samples before you jump.

The card molds honestly feel amazing, and I wish I followed @LotsOfChips advice and saw all of these options before I fell down the rabbit hole LOL. Follow the advice of the wise men above ^

And Welcome!!
 
Welcome!! Love hearing things like this. I feel like I’m in the same boat. But just recently started in the casino.

BF5D7575-5C15-4823-A0B0-B6C59094BD5A.gif
 
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Welcome! 1000 chips is the perfect number to get a good cash set and a good tournament set for one table. 300-400 chips will cover a single table tournament, and the rest can be cash.
 
I would still advise against reusing the same exact chips for both cash and tournament. Obviously with the DDLM, you can customize them to have currency symbols on some and no cash value on the others. I think that's fine, but I would be worried about security if I was reusing the same exact chips for cash and tournament.

Also here's a little shove off that ledge:
00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200905233000392_COVER.jpg
 
Check out @SUN-FLY Poker Chips, I just got a full custom set for $.62/chip and no waiting on group buys
Say what now! Is that with shipping calculated in? Normally, that's what removes SunFly from contention unless it's a group buy.

But I also agree that SunFly chips are fantastic (especially their Polyinno hybrid ceramic/label chips). But if the goal is full-face gorgeous art (like DDLM), I like the fully ceramic options without a smaller label.
 
Say what now! Is that with shipping calculated in? Normally, that's what removes SunFly from contention unless it's a group buy.

But I also agree that SunFly chips are fantastic (especially their Polyinno hybrid ceramic/label chips). But if the goal is full-face gorgeous art (like DDLM), I like the fully ceramic options without a smaller label.
Shipping to me (Iowa, USA) was an additional $250 for 2200 chips.
 
Just a warning, people here do not talk you off the ledge of purchasing vast quantities of amazing chips. They give great advice and awesome experience and all these amazing ideas which pretty much makes you take a running header right off that ledge.

Wouldnt change it for the world.
 
What a great site and group of individuals making up this forum. Glad I found it!

I am new to the chip world. Will be purchasing a set very soon (more on that in a bit).

To give you some context...

I haven't ran a home game in 15 years. Haven't been to a home game in 6 years. Haven't played poker @ the casino for over 6 years. Did I mention I got married 6 years ago?

Recently, I got a great deal on a B&O Poker Table that now sits in our loft. A room that we haven't utilized in the past 5 years. So we are loving it. Card games played with the in-laws and family weekly during this pandemic.

So... some how some way I am back baby! I have laid the ground work to start hosting poker games again. I don't even have enough friends that play poker to fill the seats yet. But I am confident that if I build it, they will come.

I am about to buy a 1000 chip set. I don't even know if I need 1000 chips. Let me correct that. I don't need 1000 chips, but I like to be prepared... lol. Also, I am a cheap bastard. Will spend money on nice stuff, but I want a deal and 1000 chips gets me to the price point per chip I am comfortable with. I will create a separate post on chip count/denom I am thinking of. But ideally it should cover small stakes for family games, $300 buy-ins for home cash games and t2000 tournament for 8 players max. (is my lingo right, learned this stuff here)

I have also bumped up my budget. from .14/chip to .60-.70/chip. I blame you PCFers. I was perfectly happy with .14/chip selection before reading through vast number of threads and becoming chip educated. I am digging Paulson's but going from dice chips straight to Paulson's seems like another psychological issue all together.

I am looking at DDLM. I like that each chip is unique design, the color selection and customizable. It's like little pieces of art. Although, I traditionally would have chosen more serious looking casino style chips.

If anyone wants to try and save me and talk me off the ledge, please do so. :)

Thanks and hello everyone.
Welcome to PCF! Feels like there's at least three different threads here but I will stick to the chips one (have a lot of thoughts about challenges in building a home game from scratch as well).

People have said this already, but before you set out to buy a full 1000 chip set, GET SAMPLES. What are samples? Generally 5-10 chips of a particular set that you can get relatively cheap that you can sample (shuffle, toss around, look at the colors in person etc) at home. You can put a wanted ad in the classifieds here asking for various samples (based on peoples suggestions here) and probably get some for very low cost (some might even generously send you some for free, just pay shipping!). Since you don't have an active game yet, you have TIME. Plenty of it. Use that to your advantage by getting 5-6 sample sets and move from there.

What chips to get? I agree with @JeepologyOffroad and others that cards mold ceramic chips make a lot of sense, both for your cost range, but also for customization options, if that is important to you (maybe it's not?). At a relatively low cost, this is a great entry point. Me personally? I have a harder time, after seeing a full rack of Paulson's, purchasing any other chips, but therein lies the beauty and the beast of PCF. Be careful of sampling things that are TOO nice because... you will want them. When I started on PCF, I was hoping to purchase some Paulsons for ~$1-$1.50 a chip for maybe 500 chips... ended up spending $30k on chips in the first year here lol - no joke. It's true what they say, very addicting once you find the good stuff. So yes, stick to your price range but... grab at least one sample set of Paulson's just so you really understand the difference.

A lot of people purchase that first big set without samples or without research and honestly, they end up selling (or even giving away) that set within a few months. What seems like a "good deal" quickly becomes kind of a lost cause as they realize they want something else. You say you don't mind spending on nice things. Consider this chip set a nice thing. The one major plus of purchasing Paulson's, is that there is always a market for them, so unlike the cheaper stuff, you can actually sell them back if you regret the purchase or end up not using them. That's a worse case scenario, because you will love them guaranteed lol.

So I guess I'm all over the place on this but... sample the wares, understand what's out there, time is on your side, don't feel like you have to jump in just yet!
 
What part of LA are you in? If you don’t mind the drive down to Orange County, you could come check out Paulson sets at one of our next games. @WhiteMamba1646 and I each host pretty regularly down here and have a few sets of paulsons. Here’s a couple of our sets:

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/best-relabel-chipset-of-2020-final-four-on-the-strip-cash-v-havana-card-room-cash.73857

I started off with a set of claysmith plastics. They were a massive upgrade over dice chips. Just getting denominations on the chips is huge. But after sampling paulsons, I knew that’s what I really wanted and eventually gave away my claysmith chips.

I personally don’t like ceramics. They look nice but tend to be a little slippery and how chips shuffle is important to me. But you may like them. I agree with prior recommendations — handle some samples before you dive in.

Also if you want one set that can handle both cash and a single table T2000 tourney, you could probably do a budget Paulson set at around your $700 budget. I think the minimum you’d need is:

$1 x 200
$5 x 200
$25 x 100
$100 x 80
$500 x 20

You can find $1s, $5s and $25s at under a buck a chip. $100s are probably closer to $2/chip. $500s closer to $3. Still that’s around $700. Hell, if you priced out a used Jack set from the chip room, you could build that set for around $600:

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/jack-cincinnati-sale.70695/

If you want a frac, you could add a rack. Maybe add more $1s or $5s. Maybe more upper denominations if you want to handle rebuys. But it’s possible to do Paulson in your price range.

Good luck!
 
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Hey there.. Do you have any pics of your set you can share? Would like to see them. I’m also considering purchasing a tourney set and may go the same route.
Thread 'Dug's Poker Pit: The Pr0n' https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/dugs-poker-pit-the-pr0n.73658/

Would definitely recommend. SF was great to work with, quality is excellent, and less than a month from ordering to receiving (including a second round of prototypes after I had an issue with the first set).
 
Just a warning, people here do not talk you off the ledge of purchasing vast quantities of amazing chips. They give great advice and awesome experience and all these amazing ideas which pretty much makes you take a running header right off that ledge.

Wouldnt change it for the world.
Truth. I came here just looking to add on to an existing set lol
 
Welcome! Check out the cards mold ceramic chips if you want a more serious casino style look that is budget friendly. The only limit is your imagination. Full customs for around .30/chip

full
Where are these chips from? The poly clay I see from sun fly are 99 cents per.
 
  1. Get Samples before you buy a whole set
  2. Do not use cash game chips for a tournament and vice versa. Forget "security". Accidental mistakes can happen. Also, it just looks better when you sit and know what game you are playing by looking at the chips.
  3. Buy more than you need. Chips can break, get lost, or your group can grow. Would you rather spend $40 more, or turn away a friend because you didn't have enough chips.
  4. Get samples. Yep, can't say this one enough.
  5. Buy more than you need - this also bears repeating. If you decide to add a second table, or play higher stakes, the add-on chips may not look quite the same. Manufacturers change, the formula for dyes change, ingredients change, and sometimes places go out of business. Getting everything to match may or may not be an option. Don't leave it to chance.
 
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  1. Get Samples before you buy a whole set
  2. Do not use cash game chips for a tournament and vice versa. Forget "security". Accidental mistakes can happen. Also, it just looks better when you sit and know what game you are playing by looking at the chips.
  3. Buy more than you need. Chips can break, get lost, or your group can grow. Would you rather spend $40 more, or turn away a friend because you didn't have enough chips.
  4. Get samples. Yep, can't say this one enough.
  5. Buy more than you need - this also bears repeating. If you decide to add a second table, or play higher stakes, the add-on chips may not look quite the same. Manufacturers change, the formula for dyes change, ingredients change, and sometimes places go out of business. Getting everything to match may or may not be an option. don't leave it to chance.
6. Buy a hot dog roller.
 

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