Advantages of denominations on chips

[Bad_Apple]

I was going to make some labels for some nexgen chips and am considering wether or not to put denominations on them. What are your guy's thoughts on the advantages and disadvanges of doing this.

[jojobinks]

advantage:
you don't have to tell people how much they're worth all the time

disadvantage:
less flexible. you need more chips or to change the denomimations for cash game/tournaments.

[hachkc]

Personally, I prefer denominations especially in cash games.

Advantages
===========
1. Never any question on what a chips worth. No more telling drunk Bob at the end of the table Green is $25 for the 100th time.

2. Easier for new or novice players to pick up.

3. Great for those color blind folks.

4. Denominated chips look better, IMHO

Disadvantages
=============
1. No real flexibility in chip values. Imagine trying to tell drunk Bob that just becase it says 1 its really worth 100; don't go there.

2. Less room for designs in custom inlays or labels.

3. You might need more chips especially if you are using the same set for cash and tournaments.


If you are going to get denomitations, I would recommend that you drop the $/c symbols (if you can) that way the 25 chip could be could be $25 (tournament) or 0.25 (cash game).

[Fins]

Denoms for sure otherwise you're a conformist (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1521720&page=0&view=colla psed&sb=5&o=&vc=1).

Without denoms they're just glorified pogs or pretty shotglass coasters. Besides I've never played in a casino where they hand you a red chip and say "These are $5's today".

- Fins

[SamIAm]

I play a weekly homegame with a bunch of good players. We're all positive players online at $2/$4 or $5/$10 (and one $30/$60 player who thinks he's hot shit. /images/graemlins/smile.gif )

The thing is, we're still mostly grad-students, so we don't really want to take eachother's money. The game's really fun, though. We found that $0.20/$0.40 was about the smallest limit where people could still care about the game. It's hard to play PURELY for pride-points.

So, (my point is) putting denominations on the chips would just be embarassing. I mean, it's a shame when the price of your currency is more than it's value. (I refuse to write "10cents" on a chip.)
-Sam

[hachkc]

Just make the chips say $10, $100 or even a $1,000. You just need to remember at cash in/out time that they are only 1/100, 1/1000 or 1/10000 of the face value; I don't see anyone screwing that up.

[mrmookid]

[ QUOTE ]
No more telling drunk Bob at the end of the table Green is $25 for the 100th time.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know where you live (I'm from New Jersey) but I think a guy who plays in my games, Drunk Jeff is related to Drunk Bob. Tell Bob Jeff said, "Hi".

Oh and to stay on topic: I don't like the denominations printed on the chips. I have two 8.5x11 posters hung on the wall that I will re-arrange just for Drunk Jeff if need be.

[hachkc]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know where you live (I'm from New Jersey) but I think a guy who plays in my games, Drunk Jeff is related to Drunk Bob. Tell Bob Jeff said, "Hi".

[/ QUOTE ]

Michigan and I'll pass it on.

For those folks that know me (a couple of you follow this site including a Non-Drunk Bob that hopefully will still let me play in his tournament this weekend after this thread), I changed the name to Bob to protect the guilty.

[MSPatton]

[ QUOTE ]
Denoms for sure otherwise you're a conformist (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1521720&page=0&view=colla psed&sb=5&o=&vc=1).

Without denoms they're just glorified pogs or pretty shotglass coasters. Besides I've never played in a casino where they hand you a red chip and say "These are $5's today".

- Fins

[/ QUOTE ]

Fins....POGS!!!! God I have not seen anyone mention those forever
Though I think they would serve a "slammers" more than POGS

I wish I could sell as many chips as I did POGS back in the day. I'd be retired and golfing every day!

.......Sorry!, end of threadjack /images/graemlins/smile.gif

/images/graemlins/spade.gif

[TenPercenter]

If it's a toss-up, I say use denom, and make one or two chips without. That way you always have "wildcrads" to complete any situation.

Ten

[fishfeet]

[ QUOTE ]
If it's a toss-up, I say use denom, and make one or two chips without. That way you always have "wildcrads" to complete any situation.

Ten

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this.
When I create my labels Ill have values for the tourny chips (since thats what we mostly play.. although im trying to get more cash games going)

and then use 2 other colors bland for cash games.. and I can reuse the $1 chip from the tourny set as well in the cash games.

Denominations on chips look better, IMO. It completes the chip.
When I did my designs, I did them with and without denoms.. and without just looked bland and empty.


The chip says to the denominations "You complete me"
The denominatinos say "you had me at hello"

/corny

[E Hanhan]

In our usual home game we have 50 cent/$1 or 25/50 cent. I dont think it would be hard to use a $25 chip for 25 cents but raises other questions. I just got some samplse of the home paulsons and i liek the demonms, i just worry it might confuse the home gamers

[Fins]

[ QUOTE ]
I dont think it would be hard to use a $25 chip for 25 cents but raises other questions.

[/ QUOTE ]
Like what?

- Fins

[Johnny5]

[ QUOTE ]
Like what?

- Fins

[/ QUOTE ]

There's one. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

J5

[slamdunkpro]

The biggest disadvantage is that you have to inventory your chips after EVERY game. If I play a $1/$2 game on Tuesday and blues are $1 and reds are $5; a Tournament on Thursday where you start with T500 for $20 and blues are T5's and Reds are T25; and a micro limit game on Friday where Blues are $.10 and Reds are $.50 - without denominations sooner or later some bright squid is going to start pocketing reds on Thursdays and Fridays and cashing them on Tuesday. Don't laugh, I've seen it happen too many times.

[Lottery Larry]

I'd want to inventory them anyway, ESPECIALLY for the cash game, unless your custom chips can't be duplicated and snuck into the game.

The concerns are much higher for cash games than tournaments. That's why I say you should never use the same chips for cash games as tourneys.

One minor exception would be nl cash games where you inflate the chip value, similar to tournaments. That way, cheating doesn't cost you the face value of the chip.

[Art Vandelay]

[ QUOTE ]
Denoms for sure otherwise you're a conformist (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1521720&page=0&view=colla psed&sb=5&o=&vc=1).

Without denoms they're just glorified pogs or pretty shotglass coasters. Besides I've never played in a casino where they hand you a red chip and say "These are $5's today".

- Fins

[/ QUOTE ]

I live in LA and convinced some of my home game guys that we needed to play in a live tourney. These guys were skeptical, so I scoped out a $20 buy in $10 rebuy event at the Club Caribe on Saturday afternoon. We show up and the tourney chips have no denoms on them! To top it off, blue were 5, tan were 25, and black were 100. I actually had to ask the dealer how much chips were worth.

Good news is, we had 5 total people and 3 of us made the final table out of ~45 people. I was out in the 20s so I had 3 people cash in their first live tourney. I now have a hooked group of live tourney goers whenever I feel the need to have someone with me to support my gambling addiction.

[alittle]

I went without denoms for my nexgen labels, but for "serious" custom chips, I probably would use denoms. I don't know exactly why I think this, but figuring out my thought process is beyond the scope of this forum.

Anyway, I think the the ONLY way to get by without denominations on your chips is if you stick strictly to the standard casino colors of red, green, black, purple (and maybe yellow) only. For tournaments, it makes perfectly normal sense, and if you get a bunch of white or blue for $1's, your cash game should be fine also. Of course this depends on your cash game limits, but anything higher than $1 is fine, and if you need to go lower, I wouldn't have nickel, dime, quarter demoms anyway - you just need to scale down what you have.

[Hedge Henderson]

Without. No matter how constant your game is at the moment, your need for denominations may change in the future. Our game had $5 buy-ins for over a year. Today, the average is about 5 times that.

We do 16-player tourneys, 4-player mini-tourneys, and all sorts of ring games for different groups. I've got a big dry-erase board that has chip values, blinds, and special rules for whatever "event" is happening that particular night. It's visible to everyone in the room. It might not help "drunk Bob" much but, when you get right down to it, very little ever does.

[ QUOTE ]
Besides I've never played in a casino where they hand you a red chip and say "These are $5's today".

- Fins

[/ QUOTE ]

True, but I've never played in a casino that doesn't take a rake (or time charge), lets you BYOB, provides a full ice chest for the beer you bring, lets you smoke cigars, lets you contribute your own music to the mix, lets you choose the game for the orbit, lets you vote on the stakes and structure for next weekend's game, and lets you deal the cards when you've got the button. C'est la vie.

When I'm trying to recreate the casino experience for my home game, chip values are pretty low on the list of priorities.