Custom Chip Set Questions

[Jeff76]

Hello all. I am considering buying a custom poker chip set from www.pokerchips.com, but I'd like a little advice before I do.

First off, let me be clear about my goals. I want to have a fun, non-serious poker game for some friends of mine. These will be micro stake buy in tournaments for people who know little about poker, but don't mind paying $5 or $10 for an evening of fun.

I have been playing poker online for a little over a year (never in a live cardroom) and won a few bucks, but due to a change in schedule really don't have time to play consistently any more. However, I will be able to run a poker game every once in a while for my circle of friends, most of whom are really terrible at poker.

Obviously for this group I don't really need a killer chip set, but I'd like one anyway because that's just the kind of guy I am. Even if high quality chips and cards will be lost on this game, they won't be on me [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Besides, this will be a nice little reward to give myself for the money I was able to win online over the past year and a half.

I've run a couple of tournaments for this group with my current 600 piece composite chip set. It's always just a single table, so I have a pretty easy structure that starts with T400 and blinds of 1/2 and lasts about 4 hours. The reason for the T400 rather than something bigger is that using non-standard values for the colors weirds me out, and the biggest chip I have is $100. This is something I will change with the new chip set.

So here are my questions:
1. What kind of starting stack should I shoot for? I've been leaning toward T2000 with 5/10 blinds, but I'm also considering a more WSOP style T10,000 with 25/50 blinds. Honestly I'm plenty content with T400 and 1/2 blinds, but for some reason it seems to make some kind of difference to a lot of the players who like the idea of playing with big chip values. The benefit of playing T2000 stacks is that if I ever need to supplement my chips then I have a source in my current set (at least for the smaller values).

2. For the T2000 tournament, what do you think of these colors? (Yes, I realize the 1,000 chips are not really necessary, but I want a few anyway [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] )

$5- Red w/ Peach edge spots
$25- Dk Green w/ Lt Green edge spots
$100- Black w/ Yellow edge spots
$500- Purple w/ Pink edge spots
$1000- Yellow w/ Orange edge spots

If I go the T10,000 route I'd be looking at adding a $5,000 chip and dropping the $5 chip. I have no idea what color a $5,000 chip should be, though.

3. Should I get the values printed on the chips? I know the "home poker tourny" page says "no" because you might want to change the values later on, and that makes some sense to me. However, given that this group is fairly new to the game, it would be easier for them to see the values on the chips. Plus, I think it looks more "official" that way. OTOH, if I ever want to play a micro-stakes cash game with these chips it will be easier to make the $5 chips be $0.05 chips if there isn't a value printed on them. I don't see myself playing cash games, but you never know. Obviously if I DO decide to run a cash game at some point, I always have my current composite set to turn back to.

4. Since I get to put a custom design on the chip, anybody got any ideas? My last name is "Sylvester", which has led to my Stars name being "SlyJeff". I sort of like the idea of incorporating this into the chip design, say "Sly's Card Room" or "House of Sly", but the reality is that I'm hopelessly uncool and thus cannot seem to come up with a design idea that I'm confident I'll be proud of years from now.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about getting a nice set of chips, but this is no small amount of money so some external feedback on some of my choices would be appreciated.

[Lottery Larry]

First- If you have the cash to invest in it, you'll like the chips from there. I have 900 chips for my cash game set and they've been great.

My tourney set is a cheaper chip, since I have 1400 chips for that. Like you, I wanted standard colors, so I range from red $5 to gray $5K (and use blues for either $0.25 or $25K)
That covers me for about 40 players with T3-5K stacks on normal tourney nights. I also run a year-end invitational with stacks ranging from T10K- T60K.

Your best bet, due to the lead times needed to add new chips, is to estimate how big your group is likely to get and how big a starting stack you'll need on average. Just because you're playing for micro buyins doesn't mean you can't have mucho sized stacks.

Now- to your questions

[ QUOTE ]

So here are my questions:
1. What kind of starting stack should I shoot for? I've been leaning toward T2000 with 5/10 blinds, but I'm also considering a more WSOP style T10,000 with 25/50 blinds. Honestly I'm plenty content with T400 and 1/2 blinds, but for some reason it seems to make some kind of difference to a lot of the players who like the idea of playing with big chip values. The benefit of playing T2000 stacks is that if I ever need to supplement my chips then I have a source in my current set (at least for the smaller values).

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, not really, unless you have a LOT of greens. Save that set for the cash games. Besides, you don't want tourney chips disappering and getting cashed out for REAL money.

I think you will also enjoy playing with bigger stacks.

[ QUOTE ]
2. For the T2000 tournament, what do you think of these colors? (Yes, I realize the 1,000 chips are not really necessary, but I want a few anyway [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] )

$5- Red w/ Peach edge spots
$25- Dk Green w/ Lt Green edge spots
$100- Black w/ Yellow edge spots
$500- Purple w/ Pink edge spots
$1000- Yellow w/ Orange edge spots

[/ QUOTE ]

Make sure the dark green and black aren't easy to mix up, to avoid confusion/embarassment during a tourney.
Also, not sure how well the orange on yellow would work (and I'd make these T2K rather than T1K, unless you don't care about doubling the chips needed).

[ QUOTE ]
If I go the T10,000 route I'd be looking at adding a $5,000 chip and dropping the $5 chip. I have no idea what color a $5,000 chip should be, though.

[/ QUOTE ]

In Atlantic City, orange is T1k and gray is T5k

[ QUOTE ]
3. Should I get the values printed on the chips? I know the "home poker tourny" page says "no" because you might want to change the values later on, and that makes some sense to me. However, given that this group is fairly new to the game, it would be easier for them to see the values on the chips. Plus, I think it looks more "official" that way.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you are only putting the denoms on, I'd say no. If you're going with custom labels, then I'd say yes.


[ QUOTE ]
I don't see myself playing cash games, but you never know. Obviously if I DO decide to run a cash game at some point, I always have my current composite set to turn back to.

[/ QUOTE ]

Unless the group is really small, having a cash game to fall into when knocked out of the tourney will help retention, I think.


[ QUOTE ]
Room" or "House of Sly", but the reality is that I'm hopelessly uncool and thus cannot seem to come up with a design idea that I'm confident I'll be proud of years from now.

[/ QUOTE ]

pokerchips.com will have graphic designers. Also, check chiptalk.net- they have had lots of chip design contests and you can see what people came up with.

Good luck with starting up a home game. Keep us updated.

[stevea]

[ QUOTE ]
1. What kind of starting stack should I shoot for? I've been leaning toward T2000 with 5/10 blinds, but I'm also considering a more WSOP style T10,000 with 25/50 blinds. Honestly I'm plenty content with T400 and 1/2 blinds, but for some reason it seems to make some kind of difference to a lot of the players who like the idea of playing with big chip values. The benefit of playing T2000 stacks is that if I ever need to supplement my chips then I have a source in my current set (at least for the smaller values).


[/ QUOTE ]

What I like to do is structure my tournaments the same as my local casino's cheap buy in, and get enough extra larger denomination chips that can be used in case I want to to rebuys or a deep-stack tourney. My local casino runs $25 buyin tourneys where you start with T1500 and 25/25 starting blinds, and I sometimes run T2500 tourneys with 25/25 starting blinds.

[ QUOTE ]

2. For the T2000 tournament, what do you think of these colors? (Yes, I realize the 1,000 chips are not really necessary, but I want a few anyway [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] )

$5- Red w/ Peach edge spots
$25- Dk Green w/ Lt Green edge spots
$100- Black w/ Yellow edge spots
$500- Purple w/ Pink edge spots
$1000- Yellow w/ Orange edge spots


[/ QUOTE ]

For this I would lose the $5 chips, only because I like to keep my tourneys similar to what the casinos do.

[ QUOTE ]

If I go the T10,000 route I'd be looking at adding a $5,000 chip and dropping the $5 chip. I have no idea what color a $5,000 chip should be, though.


[/ QUOTE ]

I think burgandy may be the traditional color for 5K chips, but I don't think a $5000 chip is necessary unless you have large tourneys and need to color up chips.

[ QUOTE ]

3. Should I get the values printed on the chips? I know the "home poker tourny" page says "no" because you might want to change the values later on, and that makes some sense to me. However, given that this group is fairly new to the game, it would be easier for them to see the values on the chips. Plus, I think it looks more "official" that way. OTOH, if I ever want to play a micro-stakes cash game with these chips it will be easier to make the $5 chips be $0.05 chips if there isn't a value printed on them. I don't see myself playing cash games, but you never know. Obviously if I DO decide to run a cash game at some point, I always have my current composite set to turn back to.


[/ QUOTE ]

YES! I highly recommend getting denominations. If you want to switch this set between cash and tourneys, just don't get $ signs printed on them, then 25 can represent pennies too (or even 2.5 cents if you want to player SUPER micro stakes).

However, eventually I think you will start playing cash games (most people I know do), and you will want a second set for a couple of reasons:

1. You'll want to start up cash games as players bust out of the tourneys.
2. You don't want people smuggling tourney chips into cash games and stealing when they cash out.

[ QUOTE ]

4. Since I get to put a custom design on the chip, anybody got any ideas? My last name is "Sylvester", which has led to my Stars name being "SlyJeff". I sort of like the idea of incorporating this into the chip design, say "Sly's Card Room" or "House of Sly", but the reality is that I'm hopelessly uncool and thus cannot seem to come up with a design idea that I'm confident I'll be proud of years from now.


[/ QUOTE ]

Here are my chips: www.homepokertour.com/graphics/cash_set.jpg

I think Sly's Card Room is great.

[ QUOTE ]

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about getting a nice set of chips, but this is no small amount of money so some external feedback on some of my choices would be appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm a total poker chip junkie so I'm excited too [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Before you make any final decisions, I HIGHLY recommend getting samples from a number of different manufacturers. It sounds like clay chips are your preference (over ceramics), so I'd get samples from www.pokerchips.com and www.bluechipcasinochips.com.

I also recommend www.chiptalk.net if you want design help or have any chip questions (lots more chip junkies on this site).

Finally I must shamelessly plug my website, www.homepokertour.com. If you're starting a home game check it out (it is free) - it makes low stakes games a lot more interesting.

[sapsuckah]

Hey Jeff,

I have little to add to this discussion but I just wanted to say hello and tell you that you're missed on the MTT forum!

FWIW, I play a live game each week that typically starts with t2000 and 5/10... I have no complaints about the structure. And we often use chips with the denominations imprinted and everyone finds it much easier, of course.

But definitely go with others' advice over mine where this is concerned.

Nice to see you on the boards again,

Matt

[Jeff76]

Hey man- yeah, I've been missing the MTT forum- just no time anymore [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

BBV: I played a MTT today on Full Tilt and got 4th, so I've still "got it" [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Anyway, thanks for all the input on the chip sets. I'm going with "Sly's Card Room", and will see what kind of design I can come up with. Right now the plan is to get a 4 piece, 4 color set (Red, Green, Black, Purple) with the denominations printed on. I really like the look of the "Roman" chips on the linked site , so that's probably the direction I'll go with the 3 big edge spots.

Right now we're only doing single table tournaments and I get between 6 and 8 people. I'm going to get enough chips to run a 16 person tournament with T2000 starting stacks (and enough extra purples to allow me to do a T1000 rebuy+add on).

I'll let you know how it comes out.

[Taso]

Jeff, I got my chips from there as well, they are AMAZING, and great people to deal with. Gotta warn you though, when my chips came my brother and I stayed up till 7am playing heads up poker for NO money. That is the power of these chips. Sooo nice.

I'd actually recommend not getting the values...If you ever want to switch things up, it'll be a real pain in the ass. "I thought this was a $1,000 chip"

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]
I really like the look of the "Roman" chips on the linked site , so that's probably the direction I'll go with the 3 big edge spots.


[/ QUOTE ]

Here are my set, using the Roman mold. I love them, I'll take any chance to make a brag image post.

[thesilkworm]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I really like the look of the "Roman" chips on the linked site , so that's probably the direction I'll go with the 3 big edge spots.


[/ QUOTE ]

Here are my set, using the Roman mold. I love them, I'll take any chance to make a brag image post.



[/ QUOTE ]

Sweet.

[Jeff76]

Nice set. I must have some or I'm going to die.

I put the order in yesterday, now we're working on art. We have a couple different ideas, so we'll see what pops.

Also, my wife convinced me to spring for the dual edge spots, so these are going to look pretty sweet. I only wish they didn't take so long to manufacture.

I also didn't realize they have a really nice re-order policy. You can order as little as ten chips, in a new color even, if the artwork is roughly the same (i.e. I assume you can change the denomination).

So what I'll probably end up doing is expanding the set downward buy buying some $1 and $0.50 chips eventually- though I'll heed the warning of not using the set at the same time for both cash games and tournaments. If I run a cash game during the tournament (or after), I'll use my current set .

[Taso]

Jeff, what is their re-order policy? Cheaper?