Using $100 and $500 as cents (1 Viewer)

[euvi]

Hey all. This is my first post here, so apologies in advance if I've missed anything about anything.

I'm looking to get a set of chips for 5c/10c microstakes cash games, and I'm pretty much set on getting china clay Pharaoh's when they restock (samples first of course). The two options I've seen people do are either getting 5c, 25c, $1, $5 denoms or $5, $25, $100, $500 denoms and counting everything as cents.

My question is: is it reasonable to mix nickels and quarters with $100 and $500 chips? I consider this because personally I like the colors of the Pharaoh's nickel and quarter chips, as well as the $100 and $500, but not so much the $1/$5/$25. I think the $1/$5 are too boring for what will be rare/high value chips in a microstakes game, and the $5/$25 are meh to use as blinds/workhorse chips. Maybe I am weird for thinking that the fracs look more interesting than the $1/$5.

I know there are standard colors associated with these denoms, but personally I don't mind and I don't think my players will either (we are all amateur college students playing for fun). I am worried about possible confusion from the different units and wide gap in actual value, but I'm thinking it won't be that hard to read every number as cents. Realistically, I am wondering if this is a sin that will land me in PCF hell. Has anyone done or thought of doing this before? Please let me know. Thanks a bunch!

 

[OKYJJ]

Hmm. It’s always up to you, and you can generally find people to affirm your choices if you look hard enough But I think most would say “be consistent.” So if you are going to use dollars as cents, do so for the whole set. Mixing “real” nickel and quarter denoms with “fantasy” high-dollar denoms just kind of stretches the imagination and lacks consistency.

There are other solutions, like:

Mixing sets! Find a better $1 chip that looks more dignified. The Majestic $1 also from Apache is one great choice there. It can work fine with Pharaoh’s nickels and quarters. And the same goes for the $5 chip. You might like the Majestic better, or find one from a completely different set that you like. There are several options nowadays. Personally I like the Pharaoh’s $5 very much, especially after a good oiling to get the dust off. (Rinse in a mixture of water and mineral oil, rub dry. There are lots of posts about it on here if you search.)

As for the Pharaoh’s quarter, I like it too, but personally it always seemed “too nice” for a quarter, so I have made it into a 50c piece. I use Majestic quarters. I use Milano gray chips with custom labels for dimes. And I use the Pharaoh’s nickels, because they are brilliantly plain, as nickels should be. (Not all at once; depends on stakes and logistics. I like nickels - quarters - dollars, or dimes - halves - dollars. Sometimes nickels - dimes - quarters - dollars for old times sake.) One weakness of my set is I don’t like the way the salmon Majestic quarters look with the red Pharaoh’s $5s. But I like the way every other chip I have combos. All this talk, I should post some pics soon.

For a long time I thought about doing similar thing as you are contemplating. I thought of getting metallic paint markers to make decimal points on $1000 chips to make them $10.00. I even experimented with surgically switching the denominations of $25 and $5000 pharaoh’s labels. But in the end I went for custom labels to make things nice and consistent.

 

[Fishman]

Anything is possible, as long as everyone agrees and it's not confusing. The brainlets I play with (at their house rules, not my house) double dice non-denoms and then halve the total chip $ for the cash $ upon payout.

So instead of playing 25c/50c/2.50/5 we end up betting 50c/1/5/10 ...

I think they really like math. And scratching their ears by reaching over their heads.

 

[euvi]

Thanks for the insight! I agree, I think even if ultimately people may not care consistency always makes things easiest.

Mixing sets! Find a better $1 chip that looks more dignified. The Majestic $1 also from Apache is one great choice there.

Personally I don't think I'm a fan of mixing sets, or the Majestics in particular. I think the colors are great but there's no edge spot progression. Also the labels (obviously) don't match with the Pharaoh's. I think I will prefer having all chips in one unified set. Again, consistency.

Personally I like the Pharaoh’s $5 very much,

As for the Pharaoh’s quarter, I like it too, but personally it always seemed “too nice” for a quarter, so I have made it into a 50c piece.

And I use the Pharaoh’s nickels, because they are brilliantly plain, as nickels should be.

My samples came in and I agree with you on all of these. I really like how the nickels and quarters look. And the $5s/$25s are quite nice as well. The issue I have with them is we will be mostly playing with quarters, and now I'm used to watching videos of people play $1/$2 and have tons of red chips and just a few green chips. It feels a bit odd. I guess the standard colors did get to me.

I do think the quarters are maybe too nice as well, which makes it harder to find a $1 chip that's nicer, and an even nicer $5 chip. Unfortunately relabeling would be out of my budget for time and money, and most likely oiling too. I know what it's like to do meticulous things for tons of individual objects (I lubed every switch for my keyboard by hand) but I simply do not want to get too invested and end up with my life savings turned into Paulsons lol.

I let some of my friends check out the samples and the general consensus is they prefer the 5c-$5 denoms. I just can't get over the super boring (imo) $1 chip and bland color palette that will be on the table. Mostly blue, white, and beige compared to green and red with some nice pops of color (especially the $100 chip). I think I'm leaning towards the $5-$500, but I feel like it's a shame that they made microstakes fracs just for games like mine and I'm choosing not to use them. I just like the colors so much more. I guess I have until July to decide.

 

[euvi]

Anything is possible, as long as everyone agrees and it's not confusing. The brainlets I play with (at their house rules, not my house) double dice non-denoms and then halve the total chip $ for the cash $ upon payout.

So instead of playing 25c/50c/2.50/5 we end up betting 50c/1/5/10 ...

I think they really like math. And scratching their ears by reaching over their heads.

This sounds terrible lol. Thank you for the example of what not to do, which is equally valuable.

I'm just not really a fan of the 50c in general tbh. Seems inefficient and I think I would rather move stakes to either .25/.25 or 1/1.

 

[OKYJJ]

Here are my chips. Not sure if I will ever go to the effort of fully staged pics of the whole collection, but this gives an illustration of what I’m talking about.

 

[BGinGA]

Relabel the Pharaoh's Club $100 and $500 chips as $1 and $5 chips. Problem solved, and welcome to Team Black Dollar.

 

[euvi]

Relabel the Pharaoh's Club $100 and $500 chips as $1 and $5 chips. Problem solved, and welcome to Team Black Dollar.

This just might be my solution. Maybe I will order the high roller chips now and relabel in the future if/when I can afford the time and money. Thanks for the insight.

 

[allforcharity]

Abandon CCs.

Get custom ceramics with actual denominations you need.

You will save money, arguably get a better quality chip, and no confusion with denoms, and get something personalized.

 

[BGinGA]

Abandon CCs.

Get custom ceramics with actual denominations you need.

You will save money, arguably get a better quality chip, and no confusion with denoms, and get something personalized.

^ This. Design your own individualized Ancient Arabic Leaders set.

 

[euvi]

Abandon CCs.

Get custom ceramics with actual denominations you need.

You will save money, arguably get a better quality chip, and no confusion with denoms, and get something personalized.

Maybe I am too quick to judge, but CCs seem good enough for me. I got samples of the Tikis and although I know there's so many different ceramics out there, i'm not really a fan. They are slippery (just a fault of the Tikis, I'm sure there's better molds) and have a bright plasticky sound that I don't really like. They are reminiscent of my dice chips.

I have looked into custom ceramics a tiny bit like Sunflys, but I don't think there's any out there that can beat 49 cents a chip, so no saving money here. If I am wrong please let me know.

I don't mind spending good money for good quality, but for my case, I don't see the value getting any better here. Consumer chips with maybe a quirk in the denoms is something I can settle for for what I am willing to pay.

Thank you anyways for your time and insight! I appreciate you.

 

[Labrat]

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/web-mold-greek-mold-pre-designed-sets.115859/

44 cents a chip plus around $19 shipping depending on how many you order.

 

[Roslindale]

I've used a 500 tournament chip as a nickle before

 

[upNdown]

I don’t know why people buy chips with numbers on them, if they’re going to pretend some of the numbers mean something different than what they say.

My advice is usually that you should do what you want; it’s your game, do what works for you.
But if you’re afraid that people will think it’s stupid to say that .05 is .05, but that $100 is really $1.00, fear no more! We do! And listen, I could understand if you inherited these chips or something, and you’re just making do with what you have. But if I’m playing your game and I found out that you had the chance to order $1.00s, but you ordered $100s instead because you thought they were prettier, I would think you’re a whacko.

Please don’t worry about PCF hell. Don’t do anything to please a bunch of poker chip nerds. But my god, numbers have meanings.

 

[BGinGA]

I don’t know why people buy chips with numbers on them, if they’re going to pretend some of the numbers mean something different than what they say.

It's sorta like pretending that your wife is Jenna Haze.

It's a short con, and harmless. Do whatever makes your home game work.

 

[euvi]

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/web-mold-greek-mold-pre-designed-sets.115859/

44 cents a chip plus around $19 shipping depending on how many you order.

Thank you for directing me to this! Looks like I just missed this month's group buy. I will order samples (https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/samples-web-greek-cards-no-mold.117345/ - I assume this is the place; please let me know if otherwise) and keep an eye on this for next month.

I don’t know why people buy chips with numbers on them, if they’re going to pretend some of the numbers mean something different than what they say.

There's many cases of people buying dollar denoms to represent cents. From what I've gathered it seems like it's either because there isn't a frac that exists for their set (like a nickel) or they simply like the colors better. My question was simply if it was really that unreasonable to expand on this and mix a little bit of both.

But if I’m playing your game and I found out that you had the chance to order $1.00s, but you ordered $100s instead because you thought they were prettier, I would think you’re a whacko.

Good thing I don't think you'll ever be over here playing in my game. But in any case, I appreciate your insight so thank you. lol

 

[Labrat]

Thank you for directing me to this! Looks like I just missed this month's group buy. I will order samples (https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/samples-web-greek-cards-no-mold.117345/ - I assume this is the place; please let me know if otherwise) and keep an eye on this for next month.

Here's the June group buy

 

[euvi]

Here's the June group buy

Appreciate ya.

 

[upNdown]

Good thing I don't think you'll ever be over here playing in my game. But in any case, I appreciate your insight so thank you. lol

Hey, you asked.