Patiently waiting on my first real poker set! (1 Viewer)

[MAJ_Buckingham]

Hello PCF members!

I'm new to chips. I was looking to upgrade my poker set of dice chips. I have about 10 to 16 college buddies who like to have poker night every 1-3 months. We rotate between about 5 hosts. Everyone has dice chips or Las Vegas chips, LOL (ignorance is bliss). We usually have about 10 show up. I can only recall maybe twice in all these years (we all graduated from college in the 1990's) that all 16 of us showed up, and we had to do two tables. We ended up mixing dice chips and Las Vegas chips. We have maybe a 4 hour tournament then a cash game after. It's a lot of fun. When looking into a new set, I was amazed to find out about this poker chip culture and different levels and types of chips to choose from for purchase. I've watched many poker chip reviews by Hobbyphilic on YouTube. I absolutely fell in love with the Valentino Ceramic chips. I must admit I made the cardinal sin of not ordering samples!! Went straight to BRProPoker.com and placed my order right before Christmas. And what a ride since then! The staff over there are very professional, and dealt with my 20 changes to my order with such grace. Initial order was a semi-custom tourney set of about 760 chips of T25-T5000. Slept on it, and decided I wanted a cash set also. Decided on 325 chips of 100 x 25 cent, 150 x $1, and 75 x $5 chips. Ordered a 1000 chip case from Amazon to hold the chips. Went down the rabbit hole here on forum discussing High roller tourney sets. Not long after I found myself craving higher denominations! Well I decide that I can expand my Tourney set to 1000 to fill my case and just purchase a smaller 400 chip case for my cash set. Before long I have added T10000, T25000, and T100000 chips! Oh no, what is happening? Read through a few more posts, and discover plaques! Well I might as well add a few plaques. I ask to have 10 x $500,000 plaques added to my order, and find out the minimum order is 12, so I now have plaques added to my set. This is the cliff notes version of the 56 emails back and forth over the last few weeks. I've read numerous threads on optimal starting stacks and maybe half of the emails are to change the chip counts of the different denominations. Oh well ended up with the whole spectrum of the Valentino chips from 25 cent all the way up to $500,000 plaques! I'm still not sure I have the numbers correct but I had to stop the madness. As the last change I tried to make, I was informed that once the chips are printed I can not reduce the quantities. I tried to reduce the T25 chips since I added the high roller denomination. Oh well I'll just shift those chips to my cash set. It will be overkill since I ordered 200 of them! I'm sure I'll need help with starting stack sizes based on the final chip count I ended up with, so I'll post here for help. At least we'll have the flexibility to run base T25 up to base T1000 I think. Now I'm just excitingly waiting for my chips to arrive! Let the scolding of how backwards I did this begin.

 

[allforcharity]

Hello and welcome!

If you're spending a lot of money, you might just be doing it right.

 

[FordPickup92]

Welcome! Sounds like you jumped right in! Hope you enjoy your new chippies!!

 

[Teach42]

There's no wrong way to do it. Can't wait to see pics!

 

[Phish1321]

Hello and welcome

 

[Beakertwang]

Welcome!

You’re getting nice quality semi-custom ceramics from a great vendor, in what appears to be a versatile breakdown. You’re light years ahead of where I started.

 

[NotABot]

Welcome. Nice more Wisconsin chippers. Playing any of the circuit events in February?

 

[MAJ_Buckingham]

There's no wrong way to do it. Can't wait to see pics!

I will definitely post pics as soon as my chips arrive. The chip pr0n on here looks like full blown photo shoots. Looks like the minimum requirements are pics of the chips in stacks and a pic of chips all splashed together in a pile. Sounds like a lot of work to clean up chips after the photo shoot, but hey anything for the forum!

Welcome. Nice more Wisconsin chippers. Playing any of the circuit events in February?

What circuit events in February? I’ll have to look into this. I’ve played in one $100 buy-in tournament here at our local casino and took 2nd place. I think it was beginners luck. I usually only stick to our home games as family life with wife and kids dominate my time.

Welcome!

You’re getting nice quality semi-custom ceramics from a great vendor, in what appears to be a versatile breakdown. You’re light years ahead of where I started.

Well I filled my 1000 piece case with some of my dice chips and each row actually holds 107 chips. So I ordered 70 x T100,000 chips to completely fill the case. My final chip distribution ended up being

150 x $25 (actually have 200 but moved 50 to my cash set)
200 x $100
100 x $500
200 x $1000
100 x $5,000
150 x $10,000
100 x $25,000
70 x $100,000
12 x $500,000 plaques.

I didn’t find out about the inefficiency of 2x jumps until it was too late, so I now know the T10000 chips are not needed. I guess I can look at it as having essentially 300 additional T5000 chips or the T5000 chips as an additional 50 x T10000 chips.

 

[NotABot]

What circuit events in February? I’ll have to look into this. I’ve played in one $100 buy-in tournament here at our local casino and took 2nd place. I think it was beginners luck. I usually only stick to our home games as family life with wife and kids dominate my time.

Potawatomi has WSOP Circuit events. I was gonna play a couple in this one coming up but I think I’ll wait till the next one, September or whatever. I won a bit in cash the other night there, first time going to that one.

 

[sheikh617]

WELCOME!!! Samples are great but if you were fine with dice chips the ABC ceramics are an absolute HUGE upgrade and the Valentino design is super classy looking. They are the go to vendor for anything ceramic and as you mentioned, Gene and Kristil are just amazing to work with. Welcome to the community man. I've met some super cool people here that I hope to share a beer and some chips with someday!

 

[binisha]

Man is it nice to see more wisconsin people showing up every day.

 

[MAJ_Buckingham]

Man is it nice to see more wisconsin people showing up every day.

Wow, you're from Milwaukee also, awesome! I actually live in Brown Deer, but still Milwaukee County.

WELCOME!!! Samples are great but if you were fine with dice chips the ABC ceramics are an absolute HUGE upgrade and the Valentino design is super classy looking. They are the go to vendor for anything ceramic and as you mentioned, Gene and Kristil are just amazing to work with. Welcome to the community man. I've met some super cool people here that I hope to share a beer and some chips with someday!

Okay, cool. Looks like I made the correct choice. Thanks for the confidence.

Potawatomi has WSOP Circuit events. I was gonna play a couple in this one coming up but I think I’ll wait till the next one, September or whatever. I won a bit in cash the other night there, first time going to that one.

Wow. I'll have to ask the guys if they are interested in entering.

 

[binisha]

Wow, you're from Milwaukee also, awesome! I actually live in Brown Deer, but still Milwaukee County.

Technically I'm Germantown but close enough.

 

[Beakertwang]

150 x $25 (actually have 200 but moved 50 to my cash set)

Most of us would recommend not having any crossover between your cash and tourney sets. If someone purposefully or accidentally pulls a $25 chip from the tourney, and puts it in on the table during the cash game, your bank will be short.

Sure, you’re all good friends, and there’s hasn’t been an issue yet (probably won’t be), but it’s not a problem till it’s a problem.

 

[JustinInMN]

Welcome to PCF, I will tell you a couple secrets.

When looking into a new set, I was amazed to find out about this poker chip culture and different levels and types of chips to choose from for purchase. I've watched many poker chip reviews by Hobbyphilic on YouTube.

@Hobbyphilic has an account here .

I absolutely fell in love with the Valentino Ceramic chips. I must admit I made the cardinal sin of not ordering samples!! Went straight to BRProPoker.com and placed my order right before Christmas.

Gene at @ABC Gifts and Awards operates BRProPoker and ABC, and he is a well respected forum vendor. Not surprised you had such a good experience. If I didn't have my heart set on Hybrids, I probably would have ordered my customs from him. At least I was able to order the racks I needed from him .

 

[abby99]

Welcome to Wonderland! Looks like you've already eaten some kind of mushroom.

Congrats on your recent purchases. Looking forward to your pr0n of the mandatory splashed pot as well as in stacks, racks, or whatever catches your fancy. If your lighting is good, most cell phone cameras are fine.

Now we need to talk about custom dealer buttons, bounty chips, cut cards, and maybe even custom cards. It never ends, but it's a fabulous journey.

I'm also a native cheese head -- grew up first in Milwaukee and then in Brown Deer (I know it well). I moved out of state when I was 36 and don't plan to move back, but I visit family in Saukville and Port Washington. It's nice to see more Wisconsinites, particularly from the Milwaukee area, joining the forum.

 

[MAJ_Buckingham]

Welcome to Wonderland! Looks like you've already eaten some kind of mushroom.

Congrats on your recent purchases. Looking forward to your pr0n of the mandatory splashed pot as well as in stacks, racks, or whatever catches your fancy. If your lighting is good, most cell phone cameras are fine.

Now we need to talk about custom dealer buttons, bounty chips, cut cards, and maybe even custom cards. It never ends, but it's a fabulous journey.

I'm also a native cheese head -- grew up first in Milwaukee and then in Brown Deer (I know it well). I moved out of state when I was 36 and don't plan to move back, but I visit family in Saukville and Port Washington. It's nice to see more Wisconsinites, particularly from the Milwaukee area, joining the forum.

Lol, yes I have eaten some kind of mushroom for sure! I will definitely post pr0n. I forgot to mention in my original post that I did order two matching 60 mm dealer buttons. I've also ordered 2 sets of Desjgn Classic Victorian Jumbo Index (Both color sets). So I'm well on my way! Hmmm....."even custom cards" have peeked my interest. It would be nice to have a custom deck to match maybe my plaques. Food for thought.

Most of us would recommend not having any crossover between your cash and tourney sets. If someone purposefully or accidentally pulls a $25 chip from the tourney, and puts it in on the table during the cash game, your bank will be short.

Sure, you’re all good friends, and there’s hasn’t been an issue yet (probably won’t be), but it’s not a problem till it’s a problem.

Wow, I didn't consider this! I was too occupied with completely filling my case with 1070 chips by adding all the high roller chips! Well seems I can resolve this issue by moving all T25 chips to my cash set, and only host tourneys using base T100 and higher. But now my cash set has an overkill of 200 x $25 chips! What have I done? First world chip problems!

Ok, so based on my chip distribution below, what high roller tourney starting stack and break down do you recommend for a 1 table 10 player tourney to get my $500,000 plaques in play? Do I issue one to each player in their starting stack? Is that bad? Or do I bring them in when it gets head up by coloring up the final two players?

200 x $100
100 x $500
200 x $1000
100 x $5,000
150 x $10,000
100 x $25,000
70 x $100,000
12 x $500,000 plaques.

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[Beakertwang]

Wow, I didn't consider this! I was too occupied with completely filling my case with 1070 chips by adding all the high roller chips! Well seems I can resolve this issue by moving all T25 chips to my cash set, and only host tourneys using base T100 and higher. But now my cash set has an overkill of 200 x $25 chips! What have I done? First world chip problems!

Or...you add some $20’s to the cash set, and keep the $25’s for tourney.

Ok, so based on my chip distribution below, what high roller tourney starting stack and break down do you recommend for a 1 table 10 player tourney to get my $500,000 plaques in play? Do I issue one to each player in their starting stack? Is that bad? Or do I bring them in when it gets head up by coloring up the final two players?

200 x $100
100 x $500
200 x $1000
100 x $5,000
150 x $10,000
100 x $25,000
70 x $100,000
12 x $500,000 plaques.

Thanks in advance for your input.

For a high roller event, I’d start with stacks of 800,000, blinds at 2K/4K. That’s 200 big blinds, and you avoid the dreaded 100% leap between L1 and L2. When the tourney is down to 3 or 4 players, it will make sense to add in the plaques.

T1000 x 20
T5000 x 6
T25000 x 10
T100000x 6

It would be nice to have more 25K’s for coloring up, but this should work fine.

 

[BGinGA]

Keep all 200 of the $25 chips in the tourney set, and ditch/sell those $10000's.

 

[MAJ_Buckingham]

Hello and welcome!

If you're spending a lot of money, you might just be doing it right.

Well It started out at 64 cent a chip. After Gene sent me a photo of the Valentino chips with edges aligned vs non alignment, I was sold on edge alignment. Well that added 20 cent a chip. Once I added the cash and high roller denominations I was able to save 2 cent a chip from 84 to 82 cents a chip, Yay!!! So yeah, I spent a lot of money, and wasted some money on T10000 chips. Maybe there is a way I can design a structure that has the T10000 as my work horse chip?

Keep all 200 of the $25 chips in the tourney set, and ditch/sell those $10000's.

Is it not feasible to mix in the T10000 chips with the T5000s? So I have 5 colors in my starting stack instead of 4, since I have the chips already? Do you think it’s possible to design a structure that has the T10000 chip as the work horse?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[MAJ_Buckingham]

Or...you add some $20’s to the cash set, and keep the $25’s for tourney.


For a high roller event, I’d start with stacks of 800,000, blinds at 2K/4K. That’s 200 big blinds, and you avoid the dreaded 100% leap between L1 and L2. When the tourney is down to 3 or 4 players, it will make sense to add in the plaques.

T1000 x 20
T5000 x 6
T25000 x 10
T100000x 6

It would be nice to have more 25K’s for coloring up, but this should work fine.

Is it possible to have a (8-10 player) one table T1M event? Do I have an adequate number of chips?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Beakertwang]

I don’t mind a 10k chip, off it’s going to be the largest chip. I suppose with a 2-table T25-base tourney, you could replace some of the 500’s and some of the 1000’s with 10K’s late, but you certainly won’t need 100 of them.

 

[Beakertwang]

Is it possible to have a (8-10 player) one table T1M event? Do I have an adequate number of chips?

Thanks for your help.

Sure. Sort of. This would exhaust your 25K’s and 100K’s. You can color up the 1K’s with 5k’s, but it would be nice to have some more 100K’s to color up the 5K’s, but I’m sure you could make it work.

20x1000
6x5000
10x25,000
7x100,000

 

[MAJ_Buckingham]

Sure. Sort of. This would exhaust your 25K’s and 100K’s. You can color up the 1K’s with 5k’s, but it would be nice to have some more 100K’s to color up the 5K’s, but I’m sure you could make it work.

20x1000
6x5000
10x25,000
7x100,000

Okay, so I’ll exhaust my 25Ks and 100Ks with a 10 player event, but I’ll be fine when I play the friendly family 6 player event with my wife and 4 kids ( who all love playing poker since I introduced them to the game)

Thanks.

 

[MAJ_Buckingham]

Or...you add some $20’s to the cash set, and keep the $25’s for tourney.

I considered this, but for our cash game we all buy in for $20 (we issue any 20 chips to each player because no one has a dedicated cash set) and play blinds of $1/$2. We may have one or two guys buy back in once for another $20, but that's it. After reading up on this forum I now realize that is terrible because it's only 10 big blinds. Needless to say our cash games are over pretty quickly. So I purchased this cash set of .25, $1, and $5 in hopes that I can convince the guys to play .25/.50 or .50/$1 blinds to get a little more mileage out of our $20 buyin. We'll see.

Sure. Sort of. This would exhaust your 25K’s and 100K’s. You can color up the 1K’s with 5k’s, but it would be nice to have some more 100K’s to color up the 5K’s, but I’m sure you could make it work.

20x1000
6x5000
10x25,000
7x100,000

What if I do starting stacks of 10/10/7/10/10/6 of T500-T1000-T5000-T10000-T25000-T100000? Basically replacing one T100000 with 10xT10000. Then use the extra freed up T100000 chips to color up the 5K's and 10K's? Or is having 6 denominations in the starting stack a no, no?

 

[Beakertwang]

I considered this, but for our cash game we all buy in for $20 (we issue any 20 chips to each player because no one has a dedicated cash set) and play blinds of $1/$2. We may have one or two guys buy back in once for another $20, but that's it. After reading up on this forum I now realize that is terrible because it's only 10 big blinds. Needless to say our cash games are over pretty quickly. So I purchased this cash set of .25, $1, and $5 in hopes that I can convince the guys to play .25/.50 or .50/$1 blinds to get a little more mileage out of our $20 buyin. We'll see.

Yeah, with a $20 buy-in, I’m playing .25/.25 NL at the most. It gives a lot more room to play post-flop. My game is 5¢/10¢, and we buy in for $10-20. With 7-8 players, we’ll get $200 on the table.

 

[Beakertwang]

What if I do starting stacks of 10/10/7/10/10/6 of T500-T1000-T5000-T10000-T25000-T100000? Basically replacing one T100000 with 10xT10000. Then use the extra freed up T100000 chips to color up the 5K's and 10K's? Or is having 6 denominations in the starting stack a no, no?

Sure, you can do that. The 500/1000 and the 5k/10k combos clutter things up a bit, but it’s your game, your chips—use them if you like them. However, I’m always looking for and discovering ways to improve my game. It looks like your right smack dab in the middle of that process yourself.

 

[toothpic]

I like how you wrote up the history of your chip purchases because that's exactly how life here will end up for most people. It becomes a big blur and before you know it you have several thousand chips you don't remember buying recently along with chips you just got but now you're changing your mind about your 3rd cash set and not sure if you really want that hot stamp set or not but let's build it out anyway and you now need primary and secondary chips just in case (security right?). Well what if your game gets bigger and you go to larger stakes so now you want bigger denom cash sets and might as well get some 43 mm chips, plus now you decided that having the same style chips for tournament and cash isn't your thing so let's get a new tournament set that can handle multiple tables.

It's still fun and you'll smile every time you see your chips so you'll know it was worth it.

 

[MAJ_Buckingham]

I like how you wrote up the history of your chip purchases because that's exactly how life here will end up for most people. It becomes a big blur and before you know it you have several thousand chips you don't remember buying recently along with chips you just got but now you're changing your mind about your 3rd cash set and not sure if you really want that hot stamp set or not but let's build it out anyway and you now need primary and secondary chips just in case (security right?). Well what if your game gets bigger and you go to larger stakes so now you want bigger denom cash sets and might as well get some 43 mm chips, plus now you decided that having the same style chips for tournament and cash isn't your thing so let's get a new tournament set that can handle multiple tables.

It's still fun and you'll smile every time you see your chips so you'll know it was worth it.

LOL. That's exactly how I'm feeling right about now. It's already been brought to my attention that I don't even need the T10000's, but heck I just got new chips so they are getting worked in some how!

 

[toothpic]

Mega stack tournaments starting up soon lol