JustinInMN
4 of a Kind
In truth this is the main reason I am way more into this hobby for custom sets rather than casino-used. Unless you do something to make your chips distinct (relabel or maybe some mark?), this will be a risk using anything widely available.
I love this, BRPro did my tournament set (semi-custom) a year ago and @SUN-FLY Poker Chips did my cash set 4 years ago. This may sound strict, but to me, if you are putting denominations out larger than singles, they should probably be customs, never stock chips.
I have to laugh when people on here are saying they have 1-2 home games and want breakdown advice for stock chips with a budget of $100. If you can afford to play 1-2, you can at the very least afford semi-customs from @BR Pro Poker , which is the minimum security level you should consider for that kind of money. A 600 chip set is less than a 300BB losing session.
My Sunfly chips came in about 0.80 each (late 2019) when all was said and done after shipping and design (paid two designers because sadly, Moscow was my first designer) So my 0.50 fracs are technically cheaper and I would eat some loss if those where harvested. However, I would be in the black if anything else got harvested. This just illustrates with customs, you really only then have to worry about someone taking chips from the box or counting errors. It's next to impossible for chips to be snuck into a game.
This is 100% true so long as the chips in question are never harvested and out of circulation
.I do something similar without needing lammers. I know my drawer always starts with $1950 in chips (300*5, 400*1, 100*0.50) and $50 in cash in small bills. My cash + chips should always equal $2000.
But here's my general advice.
1) Know your set, count every chip after cashing everyone out. If you keep your chips in racks, this is pretty easy.
If your bank is short and you have extra chips, that means someone slipped some in. The set is compromised, you will have to retire it, or find a way to change the chips you have to make them distinct (some mark or a relabel)
If your bank is heavy and you are down chips, this means someone harvested. This isn't so bad unless the chips are valuable as collectors items. (Sorry @ovo , he gives the classic example of this in #6)
Any other bank issue is probably a counting error, either too many chips left the bank or too little cash came in. (Or someone had their hands in the box that shouldn't have.) I keep my chips in a file cabinet next to my seat at the table.
2) Limit higher denominations
I very rarely put chips higher than fives on the table. If you don't put 25s or 100s out, it's a lot harder for an unscrupulous player to slip those denoms into a game if you know as banker you never issued those. Sure you can get hit with some fives coming in. But its far less of an avenue of damage than a barrel of 25s would be.
These chips are only for color ups.
(And again, if you ate a barrel of 25s, you would have been way better off getting customs from BR Pro for the amount of that loss.)
I didn't mean to type so much, hope some of this helps anyone reading this.
