The birth of a set - Cavalry Club cash (1 Viewer)

[Psypher1000]

"It started with a chair"

Errr...chip. It started with a *chip*. I had seen some of the old Horseshoe Club chips in pictures - mostly the plain $1's and the common blue $5 bike tire chips on the horseshoe mold - and liked the look of the mold but never thought much of it. But then I saw an eBay listing for one of these...

...and my heart went...

so I bid. And bid again. And "It sold for how much???" thus paying too much for it, and bought it. Tadaa!!

This did two things: it set the hook for the horseshoe mold, and for the Horseshoe Club chips. The $500 led to a $5 and a $1, which led to a nicer $5, then a frac, and then I got water on them or fed them after midnight or something and...

Yeah. And then I found out there were variants, so science demanded...

Meanwhile, a seller appeared to be liquidating the entire Horseshoe Club rack - either from the old place itself or a collector wanting to remain semi-anonymous - chip-by-chip. I reached out to the seller to see if they had sufficient quantities for a playable set and, if so, what that might run me. They said they would look at their inventory and see what they could do.

Silence.

I hit them up again with a friendly reminder. Weeks went by. Still more silence. Guess I had the only answer I needed. Sucked for me, but oh well.

Some time later I was scrolling through the Chip Guide and found this image...

...and my heart went...

Not sure how I had missed this before - I'd looked at the Horseshoe page plenty of times before, but I absolutely LOVED that inlay (minus the picture of Benny, but even that was acceptable for the time period). I didn't see it in my Chip Rack so I knew it had to be a newer image or discovery. When I reached out to folks with the latest edition of the chip rack, they confirmed it was in there with a price range of * listed. Normally there's a letter, with A being the cheapest range and Z being the most expensive. This chip was more expensive than that, or at least had no known market.

And then I was sad.

 

[Psypher1000]

"A man's got to know his limitations."

At this point I had to accept that barring a change of circumstance, a Horseshoe Club set would not be within my grasp. I've neither the funds nor the patience to buy out this guy's inventory chip by chip, nor to search through the convention and club participants inventory for chips. And even if I did, the $5's would be so worn that I'm not sure it would be worth it (I love me some used chips, but I do have my limits).

I'd have to be happy with my Paulson horseshoe mold sample set, of which my $500 was frequently used as a card capper. I'd also have to be content with knowing that I simply can't afford * and that the alternate arrowdie design $5 chip is not likely to ever be mine. C'est la vie.

Then one day I was tired and bored and started playing around with that infernal chip designer, and this happened...

which led to this...

and then this...

and finally a disturbance in the account balances. I could feel @David Spragg yet again trying to find his way into my bank account and remove funds I didn't have, but it was right in front of me - the set I wanted would never be mine, but I could have the next best thing made, and it would be fantastic. Y'know, except money.

*****

"You're either in or you're out."

Not too long after that I was approached by some folks who knew I was into poker and asked if I would deal their games after golf. We had some discussions and came to an agreement. That led to a small infusion of cash, and between that and some sets I would sell (*tears*), that helped me get the ball rolling on my not-horseshoe set. Woot!

(At this point let me interject and offer the same advice I've given others. If you've been thinking about customs for a while but have yet to pull the trigger, don't wait. I'm not at all saying that CPC is in bad shape, but simply that you never know when tragedy could strike and our only option for custom compression clay chips is suddenly gone again. There will always be more casino chips tomorrow; get your customs today!)

That, of course, led to an email to J5, along with an order being placed with CPC, followed by the all-too-familiar wait in J5's queue...

...which transitioned to this thread...

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/that-feeling-when.23995/

...and then here we are today!

 

[Psypher1000]

So, without further adieu I present to you the Cavalry Club cash chips!

The set itself isn't exactly a marvel of creativity. It was never intended to be. Rather, its basically a pastiche. I took the original 1984 Horseshoe chip lineup and applied a few tweaks to make it my own. I had J5 apply the basic layout of the * chip inlay, apply my logo, and borrow the numeral style from the 1984 chips. The flourishes bracketing the denom were a bit of a puzzle at first, but chevrons compliment both the military and heraldic themes while still feeling appropriate for the design as a whole, and the fact that they're modular allows for easy expansion of space for the denominations as numerals are added. The font for the location is hand-drawn by J5, as was the lettering in * chip.

It's interesting to me that the 1984 chips use at least two, if not three, distinct styles on the numerals. Of those, the blockier numbers seemed to fit better with the design. I think John did a little custom work on the 2 to make it fit better, but I could be mistaken there.

For a time we explored dual-sided chips, but many of the options felt like they might be forced, and ultimately they weren't needed or even wanted (no disrespect to John, of course...the designs were fine, just not necessary). I'm quite pleased with where the inlay ended up.

The Armory is a place to procure tools for protection and assault. It's lower stakes. The Cavalry Club is what you graduate to after you've been bloodied a few times an no longer wet yourself when stepping into the field of battle, thus a set for bigger stakes. The set will handle up to $2/$5 for 8 players. I almost didn't even make a rack of fracs or a third rack of $1's given the set's primary purpose, but figured what the hell. Besides, for the most part I still belong in the Armory, Maybe tomorrow I'll graduate to the Cavalry Club. And when I do, this set is ready.

Of these chips, only the frac, $1, and $5 are included in the sample sets. Other NCV chips were made to round out the samples, and those chips will be posted a week from today. The NCV chips are samples only - I kept none back for myself save for a few random extras that CPC provided. In total, 22 people will have a complete NCV sample set including myself. A few will get a chip or three from the extras as time goes on.

All sample sets will ship out Monday, January 29th.

Here's the customs next to the originals for comparison, as well as the * arrowdie chip.

And now for the rest of the pr0n (more may well be taken later, but this is the best I can do with one broken wing and one assistant)!

 

[Psypher1000]

 

[Venturalvn]

B-E-A-U-tiful. Excited to have gotten in on the samples.

Love the write up here, too. I actually like the "not creative, not supposed to be" attitude. IMO the Horseshoe Club is one of the coolest, if not most iconic, legacy chips out there. To be able to have a playable set made is awesome.

Congrats! And make sure to post in-game pics the first time the "big game" runs with these.

 

[Tommy]

Wow, those look fantastic! (y) :thumbsup: The $500 is my favorite.

 

[liftapint]

Bravo! Those are fantastic!!

 

[Gunnar]

This amazing set! Congratz man! Be proud, I would be exited to rebuy at your game to get more chips

 

[AWenger]

Awesome set and story. Well done.

For the upper denom chips, I like the way the middle spot looks on the CPC set better than the original chips. For whatever reason, that little 'dot' of a spot on the original chips just doesn't look quite right to me. Giving that spot a little more length looks better, IMO.

While I'm a little ODC on some things, I wouldn't mind seeing some chip pr0n of how the chips look in a rack with a random alignment of the spots, but don't mess them all up just for my sake, though, but maybe you could do it for the one rack of $500s & $1000s.

 

[Psypher1000]

I wouldn't mind seeing some chip pr0n of how the chips look in a rack with a random alignment of the spots

Not a bad idea. Will look at doing that in a few weeks.

 

[Tommy]

I wouldn't mind seeing some chip pr0n of how the chips look in a rack with a random alignment of the spots, but don't mess them all up just for my sake, though

Ha...I was thinking the same thing!

 

[Kain8]

That $100 is sah-wheat!!!

 

[ChaosRock]

Ha...I was thinking the same thing!

I third that!

 

[BNM]

That $1 is sublimely perfect. And i like the 500 WAY more than i ever thought i could like that color combo. Bravo, sire!

 

[ChaosRock]

 

[justsomedude]

Gorgeous set, Scott!

Quick question... is the $1 base White or Bright White?

 

[Psypher1000]

Gorgeous set, Scott!

Quick question... is the $1 base White or Bright White?

thanks! white is base. bright was reservrd for...something else.

 

[Psypher1000]

Gorgeous set, Scott!

Quick question... is the $1 base White or Bright White?

Abby's first question when she saw the $1s: "Why do these look dirty?"

 

[Tommy]

Abby's first question when she saw the $1s: "Why do these look dirty?"

For the theme, I think white was the right choice. I had the same decision to make for my Broken Bells. White is was.

 

[ChaosRock]

For the theme, I think white was the right choice. I had the same decision to make for my Broken Bells. White is was.

100%!

 

[Psypher1000]

For the theme, I think white was the right choice

without question.

 

[slisk250]

Nice stealth set drop Scott. You should have put your face in there in place of Benny's!

 

[Psypher1000]

Nice stealth set drop Scott. You should have put your face in there in place of Benny's!

The thought crossed my mind. Also thought of including Grandma Beck’s mug on one as a joke.

 

[Payback]

Beautiful! The hundo is my favorite. Love the simplicity of the whole thing. Very nicely done.

 

[Venturalvn]

Also gotta agree with those above - we needs pics of randomized stacks.

 

[k9dr]

Beautiful chips - I am amazed you were able to align them so well with only one hand (y) :thumbsup:

 

[Psypher1000]

Beautiful chips - I am amazed you were able to align them so well with only one hand (y) :thumbsup:

Oiling and alligning was actually easy. Placing them on the photo surface, moving them, etc...that was a bitch. Had an assistant, though.

 

[Psypher1000]

Awesome set and story. Well done.

For the upper denom chips, I like the way the middle spot looks on the CPC set better than the original chips. For whatever reason, that little 'dot' of a spot on the original chips just doesn't look quite right to me. Giving that spot a little more length looks better, IMO.

While I'm a little ODC on some things, I wouldn't mind seeing some chip pr0n of how the chips look in a rack with a random alignment of the spots, but don't mess them all up just for my sake, though, but maybe you could do it for the one rack of $500s & $1000s.

Ha...I was thinking the same thing!

Quick crappy phone pic.

 

[Tommy]

(y) :thumbsup:

 

[BELGRADE]

Beautiful (y) :thumbsupy) :thumbsupy) :thumbsup: