Monaco Casino - super impressed with these budget chips (1 Viewer)

jasonrd

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I have been looking for a set for a while.

I can't justify spending the kind of money it would take to get a Paulson or CPC set so I decided on a china clay set. I ordered some Pharaoh samples pre-covid and they seemed great.

But those are out of stock and I'm impatient.

I watched a budget chip review on youtube (hobbyphillic's channel) that mentioned the Monaco Casino chips from Discount Poker Shop. They were in stock, in the denominations I wanted, at a very affordable price. So I pulled the trigger on 500 of them blind.

UPS just delivered them and holy cow they are great. They have a nice, understated design. They aren't slippery when stacked, they shuffle great. They don't smell weird.

They are kinda heavy and the brown quarters are a little ugly. But those are very small complaints. Couldn't be happier with them.


chips.jpg
 
I absolutely agree. I've owned mine for only a few months, and then recently picked up some Outlaws from DPS, and I didn't realize that I was spoiled by the quality and consistency of the Monaco Casino chips. The Outlaws were great and if I had gotten them first, I'd be properly impressed, but their edges were a bit uneven compared to the Monaco.

See this thread for more on the Outlaws. Note I ended up very lightly oiling the edges of my Monaco chips, not because their colors were uneven, but just to get the little bit of dustiness off, and in going through all 500 of my Monaco chips to clean them and oil the edges, I was again struck by how consistent the colors and build quality was. I bought a good amount so that I could have all my chips of a denom be from a single production batch (I assume), and if I wanted to add more/higher denoms I don't have to worry as much about colors not matching existing denoms.

Also, I found an example them being relabeled (by @Quicksilver-75 / @Potsie1) a while back, so if I get tired of their design, I always have that option.

They look a bit Archetype, don't they?
In a positive or negative way? :unsure: To me, at 12¢/chip, they're the perfect upgrade from cheap dice chips and their ilk, and with potential relabeling options, they can be very flexible for the cost.
 
I absolutely agree. I've owned mine for only a few months, and then recently picked up some Outlaws from DPS, and I didn't realize that I was spoiled by the quality and consistency of the Monaco Casino chips. The Outlaws were great and if I had gotten them first, I'd be properly impressed, but their edges were a bit uneven compared to the Monaco.

See this thread for more on the Outlaws. Note I ended up very lightly oiling the edges of my Monaco chips, not because their colors were uneven, but just to get the little bit of dustiness off, and in going through all 500 of my Monaco chips to clean them and oil the edges, I was again struck by how consistent the colors and build quality was. I bought a good amount so that I could have all my chips of a denom be from a single production batch (I assume), and if I wanted to add more/higher denoms I don't have to worry as much about colors not matching existing denoms.

Also, I found an example them being relabeled (by @Quicksilver-75 / @Potsie1) a while back, so if I get tired of their design, I always have that option. But to me, at 12¢/chip, they're the perfect upgrade from cheap dice chips and their ilk.
The edges are dusty. My guess is that it helps the plastic packaging go on easier. Maybe someone knows for sure. A wipe with a damp towel took off most of the dust.
 
The edges are dusty. My guess is that it helps the plastic packaging go on easier. Maybe someone knows for sure. A wipe with a damp towel took off most of the dust.

Yes, I did a wipe and that helped, but the (very light) oiling (with "food grade" mineral oil, and let sit and wipe off excess) helped even more. :)
 
I have been looking for a set for a while.

I can't justify spending the kind of money it would take to get a Paulson or CPC set so I decided on a china clay set. I ordered some Pharaoh samples pre-covid and they seemed great.

But those are out of stock and I'm impatient.

I watched a budget chip review on youtube (hobbyphillic's channel) that mentioned the Monaco Casino chips from Discount Poker Shop. They were in stock, in the denominations I wanted, at a very affordable price. So I pulled the trigger on 500 of them blind.

UPS just delivered them and holy cow they are great. They have a nice, understated design. They aren't slippery when stacked, they shuffle great. They don't smell weird.

They are kinda heavy and the brown quarters are a little ugly. But those are very small complaints. Couldn't be happier with them.


View attachment 794883
Definitely a good step. Once you have some and want to invest you will join the Dark Side.
 
I bought a 2-table tourney set, and I was very happy with them. In my experience, they’re the best low-budget chip. You’re right about them not being slippery and stacking well. Excellent budget chips.

Some negatives I experienced: the weight (but heavy slugged cheap chips are the standard, for some reason), some minor color variance, particularly in the gold $1000’s, and the pink $5000’s were much more slippery, and felt harder than the rest of the chips. They almost seemed to be made of a completely different material.

Overall, I was really pleased, and I regularly recommend them to anyone on a tight budget.

I also considered that one could purchase the blue $10’s or $50’s, and just transfer the 25¢ labels over, because that baby poop brown is ugly.
 
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I started with similar chips….your satisfaction will dissipate if you choose to stay on PCF. Be happy with your chips and run away. Don’t look back.
Hahah, right! I collect electric guitars and it's the same way. Wow this $500 mexican import Fender sounds great, plays great, no one in a live setting gives a crap that it was only $500...but I really want the $3000 custom shop.
 
I owned a tourney set of these after being very impressed with a sample I bought prior. The way they feel, handle, stack, their quality control and colors were very impressive. I would totally get a travel set of these if I could relabel the $50's into $0.25's; the brown chips are just ugly and I love blue fracs.

Hate these mass stock produced sets that have brown quarters, just not an good color to have with other more vibrant colors.
 
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They have a nice, understated design. They aren't slippery when stacked, they shuffle great. They don't smell weird.

They are kinda heavy and the brown quarters are a little ugly. But those are very small complaints. Couldn't be happier with them.
Thanks for sharing. Seems like a very good chip for the price point. They have very rich saturated colors, and the white seems to be a very bright white. Good to know they aren't slippery and don't smell.
 
I ordered a sample set of these and I absolutely loved the color and look of these chips, but couldn't get used to the weight :confused back to stalking the classifieds section for me
 
I ordered a sample set of these and I absolutely loved the color and look of these chips, but couldn't get used to the weight :confused back to stalking the classifieds section for me
They are heavy. It's not really a problem during a game but when I'm moving even just a rack of them it's very noticeable.
 
They are heavy. It's not really a problem during a game but when I'm moving even just a rack of them it's very noticeable.
Yeah, that's my main concern. I planned on carrying a 500-600 chip set in 2 chip cases and it seemed like it'd be way too heavy.
 
I absolutely agree. I've owned mine for only a few months, and then recently picked up some Outlaws from DPS, and I didn't realize that I was spoiled by the quality and consistency of the Monaco Casino chips. The Outlaws were great and if I had gotten them first, I'd be properly impressed, but their edges were a bit uneven compared to the Monaco.

See this thread for more on the Outlaws. Note I ended up very lightly oiling the edges of my Monaco chips, not because their colors were uneven, but just to get the little bit of dustiness off, and in going through all 500 of my Monaco chips to clean them and oil the edges, I was again struck by how consistent the colors and build quality was. I bought a good amount so that I could have all my chips of a denom be from a single production batch (I assume), and if I wanted to add more/higher denoms I don't have to worry as much about colors not matching existing denoms.

Also, I found an example them being relabeled (by @Quicksilver-75 / @Potsie1) a while back, so if I get tired of their design, I always have that option.


In a positive or negative way? :unsure: To me, at 12¢/chip, they're the perfect upgrade from cheap dice chips and their ilk, and with potential relabeling options, they can be very flexible for the cost.
Did you have a link to the post of them relabled?
 

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