What chips do you play with while saving money for better chips? (1 Viewer)

[TrainerRed]

I just realized that I didn't buy poker chips because I wanted to save money to buy a better set...which leaves me without chips to play poker.
What chips should I play meanwhile? I've heard I should avoid the dice mold chips, but they're like $40 for 500, or less than $10 for 100 at any wal-mart. Lol.
So then, what exactly do people buy/play while saving money for their dream set?

 

[philhut]

This is a difficult question to answer without knowing your budget or if you have any type of set picked out already. If you have a set picked out that you can afford "buy it" as it will likely never be cheaper than it is today (given inflation, scarcity etc...). buying any interim sets on your journey to the set you want will just add to the final cost of chipping.

As for me I don't care much on how fancy chips are. My main considerations are
- do they stack without falling over easily
- are they roughly the same size so side/side stacks can be compared
- I prefer denominations but these can be assigned per color
- chip security....I do not need customs just chips that others are less likely to have for most games.

for ~200 you can get a fairly nice 500 piece set.

 

[MrWitti]

Used ceramics or china clays maybe an option.
Good chance that when reselling biggest writedown already made.
I think any chips with denoms on it are already a major step above dice chips

 

[LeLe]

How much money are you willing to spend? If you willing to spend $100-less than $200

Apache China Clay
Card Mold Ceramic
BJ roulette set (they come with no denom and once in a while in classified)

If you only Wan to spend less than $100

Metal Slugged Chip from DiscountPokeShop
Metal Slugged Chip from Apache
Or Used China Clay set from Classified

Don’t need to get a full set about 400 chip is good if they are just placement chip till you get better chip

Milano China Clay was my workhorse set before I upgraded ; I sold them off later recouping about 60% of the cost

 

[ktran]

I just realized that I didn't buy poker chips because I wanted to save money to buy a better set...which leaves me without chips to play poker.
What chips should I play meanwhile? I've heard I should avoid the dice mold chips, but they're like $40 for 500, or less than $10 for 100 at any wal-mart. Lol.
So then, what exactly do people buy/play while saving money for their dream set?

TLDR explore the vast types of chips, get samples and weigh out what meets your needs and pockets.

Always get samples! Since your new, you have to explore and form your own opinions and needs. Yeah you can take people's word for it, but samples are solid in hand experience and let's you compare the vast types of chips. There a plenty types of chips as you explore and discover through this forum. You taste might change when you discover something new or decide it's not worth the price tag. Like poker be patient, weigh your options and make a choice. If I had gotten more samples, been patient and explored more about the types of chips, I'd probably have a better set now (aka GPI Monaco's). If I have gotten Monaco's, I'd probably still sell it, but more on the side of keeping them. It depends on the priority and it might change over time. I've gotten to the point where I realized I shouldn't be paying crazy amount for them because I look for more functional chips with a decent design than rare or in "high demand" chips. I mean you could get a nice set now and break even selling it later. But in order for you to make the best decision, you would have to know the option of chips that are out there. It's kind of like building a PC. You have to know what parts you prioritize and budget it to your wants. Options would sharp edges, a certain weight, design, etc and each spec quality will tack on or minus the price tag. For me it's Weight>Stacking>Design>Sharp Edges.

If you need something in the mean time, I've got these for sale.
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/cheap-pip-dice-chips.82667/

 

[Thomacetti]

I just realized that I didn't buy poker chips because I wanted to save money to buy a better set...which leaves me without chips to play poker.
What chips should I play meanwhile? I've heard I should avoid the dice mold chips, but they're like $40 for 500, or less than $10 for 100 at any wal-mart. Lol.
So then, what exactly do people buy/play while saving money for their dream set?

95% of PCF has no clue what saving for a set is.

Dont overspend on cheap chips or samples, buy a set of sluggos on CL to get you over.
Buy a set during one of Jim's TCR sales

Delete your account and be happy with your set of (used) real casino chips...don't look back

some of PCF most classic GIF's

 

[CrazyEddie]

I just realized that I didn't buy poker chips because I wanted to save money to buy a better set...which leaves me without chips to play poker.
What chips should I play meanwhile?

Absolutely any chips you can get that fit your "no money" budget. They'll all play just fine. Spending a little more money will get you chips that are a little nicer, but that's up to you to decide whether to spend a little more now or keep saving up to get something a lot nicer later.

Even dice chips will work just fine. If you've got absolutely no budget, pick up dice chips and enjoy playing poker instead of worrying about what chips you're using.

That said, it's probably worth spending a little bit more to get chips with denominations on them. That'll save you and your players some aggravation.

Check out Amazon, eBay, and https://www.discountpokershop.com/ to see what they have for ultra-cheap, and pick something that you like the looks of. Then relax, and be happy, and go win your friends' money so you can buy better chips sooner!

 

[upNdown]

For some people here, a dream set could cost $500. For some people, it could be $50,000 - no exaggeration. So it's tough to answer your question.
If you've got a couple hundred to spend on chips to tide you over, I'd suggest some decent ceramics. If that's too much, I'd agree with what other people have written - any chips will do, preferably chips with denominations on them that stack reasonably well.

 

[Samuel]

To piggy back onto the above sage advice:

If you want to go cheap cheap but good enough to just play poker - buy ktran's set (and a couple of sharpies if you want denominations). I still have my first dice set and up until very recently that's all me and my buddies played with (they all have dice sets too).

Otherwise, you pretty much get what you pay for. How much do you want to spend?

Take a look at some of the videos that review poker chips, like Hobbyphilic's YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_-NxjalCm94U90WnB_fv1Q

Definitely buy/borrow some samples, it will save you money in the long run!

Figure out what you need before buying (e.g. how many chips, what denominations, cash or tournament, extras for loss or damage or growth of your game, etc) and then buy all of them at once to reduce the chance of manufacturing variances (colors, sizes, finish, etc) or lack of supply in the future.

After "cleaning up" about 1700 chips individually by hand, I will Never again buy any chips that have significant manufacturing defects (flashing/slag, etc).

If you find some chips that you like (weight, feel, size, color scheme) but aren't crazy about the look/design, re-labelling may be an option as well.

Btw, in my travels/purchases, I have come across dice mold chips that are good (my first set - all matching, finished, even, flat, no flashing, etc) and dice mold chips (often in the 200/300/400 sets) that look like someone dumpster dove from the rejects of the good dice poker chip factory (rough, unfinished, warped, flashing, imperfect coloring, etc).

 

[utgtrash]

don’t stress about it! my first set of chips I was really happy with was gpi elites and I still use it. I host games with even nice leaded thc and the players hardly give a shit. my “dice” phase was the nexgen plastics and I didn’t love them but they played great in terms of denominations and usability by the group. I’ve also played with cheap Monte Carlo sets and they seem pretty nice also for one of those easily available anywhere type chips.

 

[Mr Winberg]

Buy the dice chips. You can probably get a second hand set for a song. It's just temporary.

 

[ktran]

Buy the dice chips. You can probably get a second hand set for a song. It's just temporary.

I wouldn't necessary that for everyone. If I bought dice chips instead of china clays, I probably would ended up with GPI Monacos. I was satisfied with china clays at the moment, but if I had dice chips and samples, I'd probably got GPI when they were in stock.

 

[allforcharity]

Buy whatever you want, with the fewest chips/denoms that will get you by, and at the cheapest price possible, because you know you're going to be moving on fairly quickly. Your temporary chip set won't be an investment, so whatever you spend, consider it money burned. If that means dice, then so be it.