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OH_OKAY_YEAH

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Hey all, been a PCF lurker for about 14 years...? I think I may have had an account long ago, but here is my new account! Here is my poker story, for those interested:

I got into poker chips shortly after getting into poker with some friends at the ripe age of 11 when Texas Hold'em was blowing up with Chris Moneymaker's 2003 WSOP win. It was playing poker, and watching it especially, that made me fall in love with chips. As a kid, I could only afford so much. Started with dice chips. Then in high school, maybe freshman or sophomore year, our group began playing more often, and so I saved up and got some Dunes China Clays. If I remember, they were through The Chip Room sometime around '07 or '08? Some veterans might remember. I still have this set, as it is an amazing quality CC set. Not long after, though, I think in '08, I bought a 500 chip set of Paulson Pharaohs. They were my prized possession as you could probably guess.

After high school, our group kind of fizzled out. People had just moved away. Games happened occasionally. Then I had a rough couple of years personally 2012-2013, and hit financial hardship, and as such had to sell my Pharaohs in 2013. If that hurts just hearing about it, imagine my dismay in the last couple years, after getting back on my feet, and seeing what those chips go for now. I think I sold them for about $540, to give you an idea.

Anyway, some of our old middle school & high school poker friends were settling down after college around 2016, and with a few additions from college-made friends, we started playing poker again. Now, we had always played tournaments. But at that time, with life being more complex and schedules being more diverse, we decided to play cash games so people could come and go as they pleased. As the only set I had were the Dunes CC's, and it was a tourney set, I did some research and ordered a custom set of ceramic Tiki's. We played often, and in 2017 I began planning a fully customized set of CPC chips with a theme and custom inlay. That was interrupted when I met a woman who is now my wife. I moved from Omaha, NE to Tampa, FL to pursue her, and we married in 2018. We have a house now, and things are going well! Very blessed!

As such, I've been poker-starved since moving late 2017! Thinking of getting back into chips, perhaps with a nice set of Paulsons, or nice BCC if I can find some I like (I may actually prefer BCC chips). I'm also considering picking up my plans to customize some chips. Idk if CPC chips though. Ordered some samples of the Royals from Apachepoker, so might look into those, but ideally looking for a Paulson or BCC set to cherish for years to come to replace my beloved long lost Pharaohs.

Thanks for reading! And if you live in the Tampa Bay area and host low-stakes cash games or tourneys, please hit me up! I am very poker-starved haha!

Blessings,
Matt
 
We got games in OMAHA.
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Welcome back !

Enjoyed the read. Love the backstory!

You can always patiently and slowly rebuild the lost Pharaoh's. You will absolutely find what you seek here.

CPC customs are always a possibility. Why not? They are still making chips and they have a fabulous design tool for you to fool around with to help you get your feet wet and there are multiple designers around here to help you with labels as well.

Have fun rebuilding your chipsets! Post pictures of your exploits please!
 
Thanks, all! I lived in the Omaha area for 16 years (a few of those in Missouri Valley, IA), but alas, I am in Tampa now. I love the Florida weather, but I miss Omaha the city.

Anyone in Tampa?

Though I cherished the Pharaohs, I think I'm craving something new. I tried very hard to buy one of the wonderful sets of Jack chips that Jim at The Chip Room sent - this was a few months back I think. It was my favorite set I've seen in some time. I clicked the sale link literally the second it went live, but forgot to pre-login to PayPal... And that may have been the difference.

As for a custom set of CPC's, I was going to do it in 2017. I ordered a lot of samples then and was pretty pleased with them. More recently I ordered a sample set of fully made chips, and when I received them they were warped and the quality was actually quite bad. That scared me off the CPC option if I'm being honest. Would appreciate input from others on their experience with custom CPC's.

Edit: I can post some pics of what I'm talking about with the warped CPC's when I get home.
 
Thanks, all! I lived in the Omaha area for 16 years (a few of those in Missouri Valley, IA), but alas, I am in Tampa now. I love the Florida weather, but I miss Omaha the city.

Anyone in Tampa?

Though I cherished the Pharaohs, I think I'm craving something new. I tried very hard to buy one of the wonderful sets of Jack chips that Jim at The Chip Room sent - this was a few months back I think. It was my favorite set I've seen in some time. I clicked the sale link literally the second it went live, but forgot to pre-login to PayPal... And that may have been the difference.

As for a custom set of CPC's, I was going to do it in 2017. I ordered a lot of samples then and was pretty pleased with them. More recently I ordered a sample set of fully made chips, and when I received them they were warped and the quality was actually quite bad. That scared me off the CPC option if I'm being honest. Would appreciate input from others on their experience with custom CPC's.

Edit: I can post some pics of what I'm talking about with the warped CPC's when I get home.
Golly, warped CPCs!!

Shoot man! I'm a newbie, I'd love to see pics. I haven't had that experience. I've got a few samples and a whole 800 piece "stock" set. I've never gone custom and I'm at ground level of doing CPC small crown customs. By ground I mean I'm nowhere. Lol..just got Small Crown samples on the way to see if I like them. I've sampled all the other molds I'm interested in.

Pics please. I'd love to see this. I honestly haven't heard of this. I am stunned a bit.
 
Golly, warped CPCs!!

Shoot man! I'm a newbie, I'd love to see pics. I haven't had that experience. I've got a few samples and a whole 800 piece "stock" set. I've never gone custom and I'm at ground level of doing CPC small crown customs. By ground I mean I'm nowhere. Lol..just got Small Crown samples on the way to see if I like them. I've sampled all the other molds I'm interested in.

Pics please. I'd love to see this. I honestly haven't heard of this. I am stunned a bit.

Yeah I was really surprised. I'll find em tonight and send pics.
 
Welcome to posting! Love your story, I'm thrilled to see you regaining speed in poker interest. Btw @Ben8257 and I LOVE BCC sets, so happy to see a fellow BCC enthusiast. Looking forward to updates from you, and enjoy your poker journey in the leg of life!
 
Welcome to posting! Love your story, I'm thrilled to see you regaining speed in poker interest. Btw @Ben8257 and I LOVE BCC sets, so happy to see a fellow BCC enthusiast. Looking forward to updates from you, and enjoy your poker journey in the leg of life!

Curious to hear what makes you love BCC chips. For me, the feel is "right." They are the best chips for shuffling I have by far (I have quite a number of shuffling stacks, two or three BCC stacks). Besides that, they seem to be harder than Paulsons. No cross-wear (can't remember the lingo - is that it?) whatsoever, whereas Paulsons cross-wear terribly. So those are the reasons I personally really like BCC chips.

Attached some pics of some CPC samples I have where you can clearly see how not-flat they are. That's the best way I could think to show what I mean.
 

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Curious to hear what makes you love BCC chips. For me, the feel is "right." They are the best chips for shuffling I have by far (I have quite a number of shuffling stacks, two or three BCC stacks). Besides that, they seem to be harder than Paulsons. No cross-wear (can't remember the lingo - is that it?) whatsoever, whereas Paulsons cross-wear terribly. So those are the reasons I personally really like BCC chips.

Attached some pics of some CPC samples I have where you can clearly see how not-flat they are. That's the best way I could think to show what I mean.
100% agreed that they feel "harder" than paulsons. They appear to be denser imo, and the edges are so sharp when they are new, but after some use they wear down to a smooth superb feel when shuffling. Also I find the edges seem to last a life time longer than paulsons, but that may be they get less use? Not sure. We have a set of Mardi Gras and they are by far one of our top 3 favorite chip sets, might be number one! Lol

Ah warping, I've come to understand all chips suffer from warping, some worse than others, mostly hot stamps suffer from this, but occasionally labeled chips will have this issue. You cam flatten them, but I dont recommend it with CPCs they arent as hard as paulsons and will soften too much and smash in the clamps.
 
Ah I see... I have never encountered such warping in Paulsons or BCC's though, so I was caught off guard.

You are NOT wrong about BCC edges lasting a lifetime longer than Paulsons. I am a PC gamer, and I shuffle a stack of 14 chips whenever I game, and have done this for probably 10 years. I've shuffled through many different chips. Paulsons wear quickly - a single stack wearing past "optimal" shuffling feel within a couple months. BCC chips never wear past a point where I'm no longer satisfied with them. They have the best feel for me. Agree with your comments on the feel of the edges reaching a smooth superb feel. Lovely.

A few years ago, I almost pulled the trigger on a set of 500 Desert Palms BCC's on Apache. I now really regret not having done so :(
 
Actually have found that warping in paulsons is more common than one would think. Even some directly from factory. Cant see I've ever found a warped BCC unless it was previously damaged.

That's a lot of shuffling! I do agree paulson edges tend to wear away much quicker unfortunately. Havent shuffled enough CPCs to get a solid judge of those.

Ouch that's a bummer, the are quite beautiful chips. If you spend some time around here there are several BCC sets that pop up periodically. Especially in the recent weeks it seems
 
I've personally got a few AS Tournament stamps that are "warped".

Just the nature of the beast. They aren't as warped as you've pictured, but ever so slightly.

One has to patiently sift through my entire set, but they are in there and other players have come to my games and I've felted them and nobody would notice. But ya...Paulsons warp and I have only a small amount of them given what others have.

I don't have warped CPC however. I've been through my set many times, or perhaps I haven't owned them long enough. No warping yet, of my CPC.
 
Welcome to PCF @OH_OKAY_YEAH. Great story and glad you finally jumped in and joined us. BCCs are great chips, I own a set of Inplays that I really love.
Have had the pleasure of getting to play with some Riverboats on the web mold owned by another member from Michigan, epic chips indeed.
There are some members here from the Tampa area that may be able to steer you to a game eventually. @Anthony Martino is a member here and plays regularly in your area, he may be able to help.
Best of luck in your endeavors and happy chipping to you.
 
Hey Matt, welcome to the site!

I live in Odessa, just north of Tampa. I usually play PLO at the Hard Rock and Luckys

I'm actually closer to Silks Poker Room, but they don't get PLO very often

Thanks for the warm welcome, all!

I actually have a friend who works at the Hard Rock. Just haven't been yet, myself. I'm more of a home-game guy though generally. I'd never heard of Silks though. Going by the website, it looks pretty nice. Maybe I'll have to check it out when things open back up!
 
Thanks for the warm welcome, all!

I actually have a friend who works at the Hard Rock. Just haven't been yet, myself. I'm more of a home-game guy though generally. I'd never heard of Silks though. Going by the website, it looks pretty nice. Maybe I'll have to check it out when things open back up!

Silks has more of a home game feel to the room, but as far as events they put on, they have failed to innovate or compete against the larger rooms (hard rock and derby lane) which both offer more creative and appealing tournaments, if that's your thing

Silks does have nicer chips than Derby Lane, their chips are straight up trash
 
I clicked the sale link literally the second it went live, but forgot to pre-login to PayPal... And that may have been the difference.

There are a few chipper rules that we must live our lives by... and this is one.

10_Judge.gif


After owning Pharaohs, I don't think you can go back to cheap chips. There are great options for mint Paulson RHCs, old school leaded THCs and of course, fully custom CPCs. You can even customize Paulsons will milling (@Josh Kifer) and relabeling (@Gear).

I ordered a lot of samples then and was pretty pleased with them. More recently I ordered a sample set of fully made chips, and when I received them they were warped and the quality was actually quite bad. That scared me off the CPC option if I'm being honest. Would appreciate input from others on their experience with custom CPC's.

Rejects are often used for samples. Don't let the warped samples scare you. CPC quality is top notch.

Thanks for sharing your journey. As for locals, there is a small contingent of PCFers in the Tampa area. See what I did there @Anthony Martino?
 
That is helpful, thank you. I'll put the CPC option back on the table.

With CPCs, does oiling bring out the colors better? I find the colors muted with my samples. I've not oiled any chips.

It is hard indeed to play with CCs after having used the Pharaohs for several years... Possibly I'll get a cheap cash set of Dunes CCs while I wait for a nice set of Paulsons / BCCs to show up. Of the CCs, I really like the Dunes.

There are great options for mint Paulson RHCs, old school leaded THCs and of course, fully custom CPCs. You can even customize Paulsons will milling (@Josh Kifer) and relabeling (@Gear).

I have no experience with milling or relabeling. What's the cost?
 
I've seen color and edge spot rejects used for free samples... never in sample sets purchased from ASM/CPC, but it wouldn't shock me if warped chips found their way to the sample bin.
 
Picked these up from letgo app tonight. Not sure what they are, but they are pretty neat! Feel like a light CPC chip with lots of impurities. Unless the black stuff on em is just hardened dirt - I'm not sure, just got em tonight and no time to mess with them.

Looks like they may be MD-32 on this site:

http://www.antiquegamblingchips.com/molddesign_suits.htm#md32
 

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