Using Vegas Chips for Home Games

[Dieter01]

A few things to think about (in addition to the fact that people might steal chips or that you will end up with all of one color)...

- I dont think that even if you quit playing poker that you are going to return them. Besides, you never totally quit playing, and once you have some cool chips you hang on to them!

- Once you leave a table or cardroom they want to exchange your lower denomination chips into higher value ones. Although this might not be the biggest problem to overcome it is worth mentioning...

- The casino chips have rounded edges from wear and they are dirty. I bought some clay chips a while back. On my first visit to the casino afterwards I thought the company screwed me 'cause the casino chips looked so much smaller. Until I came across a new one and realized they where just used so much...

I really reckommend buying chips online instead of a casino... I bought mine at www.pokerchips.com for 45 cents a piece and love them! It does add up though, especially for as much as 800 chips. So if you don't want to fork out so much money they sell the 11.5g lead insert chips on E-Bay rediculously cheap. And then you get a suitcase to store them in to.

[jmark]

The 0.25 cent chips are usually very ugly. Somewhere on Boulder Highway (maybe Jokers Wild?) used to have quarter craps, I don't know if they do anymore. Also the Horseshoe used to have quarter craps.

[toots]

What is the average expected chip theft rate for a home game/tournament?

I recently spent a wad of money on some real Paul-son Hat & Cane chips, but now I'm maybe too afraid to use them in a real game for fear that someone will walk off with them and/or auction them on eBay.

After all, I know what the going price for new condition H&C chips is, and it's not bad (for the seller, that is).

[BuyPokerChips]

[SirRaleigh]

I just ordered a sample from your site. Why should I buy your brand over the set I have seen at 5star deal, type JamesBond. They seem to have good deals and include a nice looking case.

SirRaleigh

[bigsooner]

In no way is it against any law or even casino rules to take chips out of the casino/state. Las Vegans commonly keep some of thier bankroll in chips at thier homes. There is nothing that could possibly come of taking them out of state at the airport. They have to catch you using them as money outside the casino and its not even something they care about.

[slamdunkpro]

We count our chips in and out, and treat them like they are cash - So far after 6 months I've had zero loss. I had a few extra made up that I canceled by cutting notches in the edges. If someone is desperate for a sample on my chip design, I give them one of those.

[toots]

Thanks.

And, yeah, I've made it a point to have extra giveaway chips to add to the set.

[toots]

I liked the samples I got from his site. I've also got samples of the "James Bond" chips that 5Star is selling (the "Clay Pro" series made by Blue Chip, inc).

While the material in those "James Bond" chips is decent enough "clay chip" quality, I've found that unlike the same company's "Fan of Cards" series, the "James Bond" series uses stickers rather than inlays for the artwork.

That is while chips such as those offered by the vendor here, or even the blue chip "Fan of Cards" use inlays that feel like they've been stamped into the chip (or silkscreened on, the the case of the BuyPokerChips.com chips), the inlays on the James Bond chips have a definite edge, and leave me to wonder if they'll nick or peel off over time.

My own preference in descending order would be:

Very Best: Paul-Son - the gold standard

Next Best: The clay chips sold by BuyPokerChips.com or PokerChips.com - feel pretty much like Paul-Son, real edge spots, albeit with limited edge-spot choices

Good: The Clay Pro Fan of Cards or Viva Las Vegas - although the inlays tend to be off-center, and over time, they dimple in the middle, suggesting that there's actually a hole in the center of the chip under the inlay

Ok: The Clay Pro James Bond chips. Aside from off-center inlays, as I said, the inlays are stickers. On the plus side, real edge spots in multiple colors (as with the old Paul-Son chips)

Note that all of the chips above will feel significantly different new from the way a well-worn chip (such as you find at a casino) will. I've been putting as much wear and tear on my samples as possible to see how they break in, and so far, they're all favorable.

Overpriced: ChipCo Pro-Tech. Flat, featureless disks with no relief. Nice inlays - good silkscreen feel, but no ridges, no molding. The "edge spots" are just glued-on strips with some overlap where the strip begins/ends, and all the samples I've had so far have had noticable injection molding bumps on the edges. They should be durable, though, and you can certainly get them any way you want them. (Example: Crystal Oyster)

Pretty, but plastic: RT Plastics - like Bugsy's place or some of the newer "Welcome to Las Vegas" series chips. Feel ok, except they're clearly plastic

Plink: Those 11.5 gram "composite" chips with the metal slugs that don't intersect "clay" in any way imaginable. At least they're cheap and durable.

[technogeeky]

You seem to know a lot about chips.

Can you send me an email at drewday AT mindspring DOT com?

I wrote a chipguide

[/ QUOTE ] (link) and you might have some info that could help me improve it.

Thanks!

[ QUOTE ]
I liked the samples I got from his site. I've also got samples of the "James Bond" chips that 5Star is selling (the "Clay Pro" series made by Blue Chip, inc).

While the material in those "James Bond" chips is decent enough "clay chip" quality, I've found that unlike the same company's "Fan of Cards" series, the "James Bond" series uses stickers rather than inlays for the artwork.

That is while chips such as those offered by the vendor here, or even the blue chip "Fan of Cards" use inlays that feel like they've been stamped into the chip (or silkscreened on, the the case of the BuyPokerChips.com chips), the inlays on the James Bond chips have a definite edge, and leave me to wonder if they'll nick or peel off over time.

My own preference in descending order would be:

Very Best: Paul-Son - the gold standard

Next Best: The clay chips sold by BuyPokerChips.com or PokerChips.com - feel pretty much like Paul-Son, real edge spots, albeit with limited edge-spot choices

Good: The Clay Pro Fan of Cards or Viva Las Vegas - although the inlays tend to be off-center, and over time, they dimple in the middle, suggesting that there's actually a hole in the center of the chip under the inlay

Ok: The Clay Pro James Bond chips. Aside from off-center inlays, as I said, the inlays are stickers. On the plus side, real edge spots in multiple colors (as with the old Paul-Son chips)

Note that all of the chips above will feel significantly different new from the way a well-worn chip (such as you find at a casino) will. I've been putting as much wear and tear on my samples as possible to see how they break in, and so far, they're all favorable.

Overpriced: ChipCo Pro-Tech. Flat, featureless disks with no relief. Nice inlays - good silkscreen feel, but no ridges, no molding. The "edge spots" are just glued-on strips with some overlap where the strip begins/ends, and all the samples I've had so far have had noticable injection molding bumps on the edges. They should be durable, though, and you can certainly get them any way you want them. (Example: Crystal Oyster)

Pretty, but plastic: RT Plastics - like Bugsy's place or some of the newer "Welcome to Las Vegas" series chips. Feel ok, except they're clearly plastic

Plink: Those 11.5 gram "composite" chips with the metal slugs that don't intersect "clay" in any way imaginable. At least they're cheap and durable.