2016 HOF Voting Thread (1 Viewer)

[Mr Tree]

Hear ye hear ye!

Voting for the 2016 custom chip set Hall of Fame class is now open. After careful deliberation and much arguing the committee is submitting fourteen sets for your consideration. Four will be enshrined.

It was requested that this year we provide a writeup for each set detailing our thoughts on why it was worthy of HOF consideration. In the fourteen posts below this one you will find a writeup on each set and associated pron to whet your appetite.

IMPORTANT NOTE! You can only vote once so please make all four of your selections before you submit to the poll. Only members with at least ten posts may vote. Voting will be open through January 24. The top four vote getters will then be enshrined.

I would like to thank Bergs, Links_Slayer, Jbutler, Poker Zombie, and Toby for all their work in putting a list together this year.

Now please read through below, this is a tough decision!

 

[Toby]

Steel City Club
Owner: gcrissman
Artist: roxtarbaer
Manufacturer: BCC, 2009
Flame mold

The headlines…

• Beautiful colors, including Blaze Orange, Blurple, Horizon Blue
• Fantastic edgespots including 1-1, 3 moon, 3T18, 614, 414818 and 4T18
• Strong, bold logo design
• Flame mold fits the steel/forge theme
• Design celebrates Pittsburgh, the "Steel City", and creator's close family ties to the steel industry
• Great primary and secondary chips
• Wonderful testament to what BCC could produce

Steel City Club full set. Primaries: 314 green 25 chip, 618 black 100 chip, 3T18 blurple 500 chip, 614 orange 1K chip, 5k grey 414818 chip, 4T18 red NCV chip.
Secondaries: 1-1 green 25 chip, 3 moon black 100 chip, 358 blurple 500 chip.

Racks, from left to right and front to back: NCV 4T18, 1K 614; 500 primary 3T18, 100 primary 618, 25 primary 314; 25 secondary 1-1, 500 secondary 358, 100 secondary 3 moon

Stacks: 5K 414818, 100 secondary 3 moon, 500 primary 3T18, 1K 614. Look at those moons!!!

20K starting stack

Primary chips plus the 100 3 moon secondary chip, front and back inlays. Other secondaries and NCV not shown

The Steel City Club (SCC)

I love the strong industrial logo design of the SCC set, which celebrates gcrissman's family's roots in Pittsburgh and the steel trade.

The inlay is simple, bold, relevant, personal and not overwrought, with a uniform look and feel across the set.

The steel theme works nicely with the flame mold, reflecting the heat of the forge.

Popping colors

When I look at this set I am reminded of all the wonderful colors available via BCC. I chickened out getting a BCC set done, something that I will regret for a long time to come.

If you placed an order with BCC around this time, you rolled the QA dice. For every success story, it felt like someone else took delivery of boxes of expensive doorstops.

Happily, SCC fell into the former camp. Fantastic edgespots that can't be repeated. Glowing, rich colors you just can't get on the home market any more.

Spots not to like..?

This set has some of my favorite spot patterns that were available from BCC and has the greatest spread of those spots in any set that I can call to mind. 1-1, 3A12, 618, 3 moon, 614, 414818, 4T18…

A really nice progression across both the primary and secondary chips. I’d happily rotate the primary and secondaries in and out of play as I love all of them.

This is one set that I wish that I owned. Gorgeous.

 

[Toby]

Suicide Queen
Owner: k9dr (formerly meatboy)
Artist: Johnny5
Manufacturer: ASM (2012)/CPC (2015)
MD-50 mold

The headlines…

• Beautiful inlay art
• Seamless integration of multiple design elements
• Great underdog backstory
• Phenomenal hotstamp, done by meatboy himself
• Single edgespot works brilliantly
• Lovely application of shaped inlays
• Great use of limited colors

The Suicide Queen (SQ)

I love the SQ set. The concept was born in adversity, a comeback from her creator being denied use of the Suicide King (SK) artwork. Instead of admitting defeat, or making another SK knock-off, meatboy did something unique, original and very special.

Allure, power

When I think of SQs, I think of Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra. Those crazy, powerful women whose passion and drive tilt kings, armies, entire societies, ultimately leading to the undoing of many, including themselves.

She is a metaphor for Lady Luck, driving gamblers to ecstasy and despair in equal turns. She is that "Fuck it!" hero call that pays off; that river two-outter kicking you squarely in the nuts.

Simply beautiful

Glancing at her simple, single edgespot pattern you'd be forgiven for thinking that there's not much to her. But when you factor in all the other elements - the dual foil colors, the clean, beautiful lines of the stamp, the lovely inlay art and how well it complements the shaped inlays - it's clear to see that she is triumph of understatement. You have to look long and hard to see how clever the SQ set is.

She doesn't need to jam it in anyone's face: she is the nuts and she knows it.

Labor of love

How many of us can say that we had a hand in making our own sets? meatboy did: the lovely silver and gold foil hotstamping on the SQ fracs was his own work. He poured his heart into the set, with stunning results.

The hotstamp is out of this world. I had no idea that such detail and clean lines could be achieved. Previously, I didn't give hotstamps much thought. She forced me to pay attention: they are wonderful. And they work beautifully alongside the inlaid chips. meatboy nailed it.

Elegant. Regal. Beautiful.

You wouldn't find these hotstamps in a casino: they're too good.

I love her. I hate her. I love her.

I never liked hotstamps. She not only made me love them but also made me love them alongside inlaid chips.

Her 3916 spots put most more complicated sets to shame. The simple spots are counterpoised beautifully by the variety and complexity of the frac hotstamps and shaped inlays of the larger denoms.

I appreciated shaped inlays but they were never for me. She makes me want to drop the extra money on them in my next set…

meatboy created a stunning set; k9dr perfected it. I wish that she was mine!

Hail to the Queen, baby!

 

[Poker Zombie]

Colony Club (cash) - Puggy
CPC - 2015

Puggy LOVES Art Deco. Especially Miami's Art Deco District area.

With the MD-50 mold getting older, he decided to design and get his custom order in as soon as possible to be able to use that mold. The classicly styled mold was pretty much
the only one he would consider.

Puggy had been considering a custom set for years - all the way back to the ASM days, but the company's quality suffered during the Vegas ownership. When David and Jim brought the company back to Maine, he knew he could not risk waiting - it was time to pull the trigger.

So, with his love for Art Deco, the theme just came by itself. He had always loved the Colony Hotel in Miami's South Beach district. So he wanted to name the set based on that iconic hotel.

The inlay was designed by Johnny 5. It shows the nearly 100 year old hotel, with text and denom written in an art deco font - the predominant style of Miami's South Beach. The colors were clearly inspired by the neon colors that light the district at night. Wavy lines represent the Atlantic Ocean, which the beachfront hotel faces.

Committee members had to discuss whether a set this new should be admitted into the Hall of Fame. The final consensus was that this was a set that would eventually be nominated, and making it wait simply put the members in the position of nominating other sets while knowing that they were passing over a worthy set. In the end, the decision to include the Colony Club received unanimous support from all committee members.

 

[Mr Tree]

The Boulevard
bmichaelthorn
Inlay by Johnny5
Produced by CPC in 2015
Fleur de Lis mold

The Boulevard is an ambitious set that attempts to replicate a 24 hour cycle on the boulevards of LA. The set realizes this beautifully with an art deco font that is coupled with iconic Los Angeles palm trees. Also, the inlay is a spectacular example of both color matching and gradient work that blends the whole chip seamlessly together. The work is particularly amazing when you realize how keeping the chips within the context of the evolution of a day severely limits the colors available for use. From the bright orange sunrise to the dark purples and blacks of night the set still manages to captivate while staying within a difficult theme to express in this medium. This set is instantly recognizable and provides a memorable homage to the city.

 

[Poker Zombie]

Chateau de Noix (tournament) - Bivey
ASM 2013

In designing the set with J5, Bivey's main goal was to create a set that made the players feel classy and distinguished. Having been a long time fan of the original Bellagio poker room chips, he set out to create an inlay with a weathered and antique sort of feel. He also wanted to incorporate his home of Wenatchee into the theme. Agriculture is a huge part of Central Washington with tree fruit and wine being the major players.

What better way to convey classy than with a fancy wine label?

The problem was that the wide reaching appeal and recognition of the budding Wenatchee wine industry was lacking. Using the idea, but with French wine made perfect sense. The FDL mold was an ideal and somewhat fortunate choice as it fit the theme perfectly and allowed for the larger inlay on which to work.

Each chip represents a different wine region of France. The cash set is composed of regions known for the white wines, and the tournament set that was nominated, reds. Bivey attempted to place the names in an official rank of prestige. Because France also has a famous brandy region, Cognac, this was also incorporated.

In choosing colors and spot patterns, he had two goals. First was to make the chips fairly complex with lots of spots, doing this to keep with the theme of luxury. The use of a white spot in almost every chip was an intentional maneuver to keep the chips looking antique – in effect to mute their colors a bit. Few day glow colors were used. Traditional base colors were used.

John Faulhaber aka J5, did the art. Chips were produced by ASM (Vegas).

 

[Mr Tree]

The Iron Bank
Stocky
Inlay by Johnny5
Produced by CPC in 2015
Fleur de Lis mold

Producing anything based on a licensed product is tricky in the best of cases and usually leads to mixed results. Fortunately in the case of The Iron Bank Stocky managed to buck this trend and make a fantastic set. Based on George RR Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series (Or Game of Thrones if you are a TV fan) this set used official house crests and colors from the series. Equally impressive Stocky actually spoke to the series author and received his blessing to produce these (provided Stocky wasn’t making them for profit.)

The chips feature dual sides with one showcasing each house’s sigil prominently and the other showing the sigil as a watermark beneath a chip denomination. The chip colors are official house colors from the source property so figuring out a succession of houses that make an understandable graduation of chip values is no easy feat! Also Stocky included a half pie bounty chip with the Valar Morghulis/Valar Dohaeris line from the books. (All men must die/All men must serve). The duality of this chip captures the feel of the source material nicely.

Ultimately Johnny5 captured the sigils from the books wonderfully and the end result is a combination that takes a well-known property and manages to make it work spectacularly on the medium of poker chips.

 

[bergs]

Contreras Landa
Designed and commissioned by PatoLanda
Inlay designed by J5
Produced by BCC in 2009

Most custom set owners will tell you that it's extremely difficult to design a chip set that means something personally to the owner, while at the same time being coveted by other people. Pato and J5 were able to accomplish both goals with this stunning giant inlay BCC set, while as the same time also making it look like the set was lifted off the tables at a high end South American resort and casino.

Pato chose to leverage some unusual base colors for this set - particularly with the $1 chip. The outstanding color matching, eye-catching inlay design, and giant inlay all work well together. The headstone of any set is the highest denomination chip - it should look a little special and stand out from the rest of the chips. In using the pale green base for the $1 and reserving the white base and flag edgespot colors for the hundo chip, Pato nailed this.

It's also worth noting that he designed this chip nearly 8 years ago, and it was created by BCC who admittedly had some quality control problems at times. When you consider those factors, this set is remarkable not only for it's design and artwork, but also for the execution of the manufacturing.

This was one of the first poker chip sets I saw when I started visiting the Blue Board in 2009. It's the first set that made me realize that having a casino-quality chip set with your own design was possible.

 

[bergs]

Cedar Room
Designed and commissioned by Toad94
Inlay designed by Toad94
Produced by ASM in 2009

Toad created this set to commemorate the completion of his finished basement and poker room in 2009. The room is lined wall-to-wall (and ceilings) with cedar planks to give an old-time look, so it made perfect sense to extend this design to his new custom chips from ASM.

He also wanted to pay homage to some of his favorite chips (something we've all aspired to do) and executed it remarkably well with this set. He used the HHR mold from ASM (which in itself is an old-time mold) but used some vibrant base and edgespot color combinations to make the chips really jump when on the felt or in racks.

His inlays are 2-sided, which is a really nice touch. One side represents the Cedar Room poker venue (his basement), while the other "Huntley Lodge" represents the house his basement resides in (located in Lakewood, Colorado).

It's really two cash game sets in one - Toad did a nice job making this set adaptable for both big bet (NL/PL) games with the $1s, $5s, and $20s, and for limit games with the $3s and $50s. The hundo chips work in both sets equally well. Imagine sitting behind 3 racks of the $3s and a stack of the $50s in a cedar-planked poker room with an old-school feel and an aged whiskey in front of you.

$1 - arc yellow 4A14 blue & light blue - based on the Sands $1
$3 - gray 3A14 imperial blue, DG green, & lavender - based on the MGM $3 drop chip
$5 - mandarin red 3A12 DG peach, lavendar, & DG pink
$20 - light blue 6AT14 red, blue, & green
$50 - orange 6A14 blue & light green - based on the older Bellagio $10 poker chip
$100 black 3U - purple & DG yellow

Later in 2009, Toad added on a perfectly executed complimentary $10 chip that helped with the limit games.

When I designed my custom set, I often referred back to these. It's a great set that is vibrant but not offensive, and has a great theme that just makes you nod and say "Yup, that works".
I wish I had the opportunity to play with these - sitting behind stacks of them would be fantastic.

 

[bergs]

Silver Dust
Designed and commissioned by Toad94
Inlay designed by Toad94
Produced by BCC in 2010

Toad's great grandfather came over the mountains of Colorado in the 1880s gold rush. Toad's family resides in Colorado today, and he designed this set to pay homage to his family's history and the legacy of Colorado mining in the late 19th century.

Earthy tones were employed for the base colors while using some brighter colors on the edgespots to provide contrast. The inlays include a subtle but really well executed reference to equipment commonly used by miners in the late 19th century.

Of all the custom chipsets I've seen, this is one of the largest from a denomination perspective - he has 9 of them to include both cash and tournament games. Usually when someone designs a set this large, it ends up feeling a little like 2 disparate sets - your tournament chips won't usually go well with your cash game chips, for example. Somehow, Toad was able to design a 9 denomination set that flows perfectly - aesthetically it would be perfectly natural to have the $5 chip on the same table as a $5000 chip (however unlikely that might actually be pragmatically for most cash games).

Also note that the $5K chip is a 50mm BCC chip - really nice addition to the set and jumps out on the table as a ultra-high denom chip should. Think WSOP $100K chip when you look at the last picture in the thread and you'll see what I mean.

If a Colorado casino bought this set off Toad94 and spread it on their tables, it'd fit right in. Really well designed by Toad and well executed by BCC.

25 cents: TRK Tan & Almond
$1: Black & BCC Light Blue, Charcoal, BCC Lavender
$5: Chocolate & Arc Yellow, BCC Dark Blue, Adobe
$20: Light Pink & Forest Green, Coral, Plum
$25: W Day Green & TRK Fire, Forest Green
$100: Gray & Charcoal, Peach
$500: Laker Purple & BCC Purple, BCC Gold
$1000: Arc Yellow & Adobe, Mustard, Charcoal
$5000: TRK Light Turquoise & Plum, TRK Day Green, TRK Dark Purple

 

[jbutler]

Casino Antarctica
Designed and commissioned by JM
Inlay designed by JM
Produced by ASM in 2005 (primaries) and 2006 (secondaries)

In the original design thread for these, Jim Blanchard himself weighed in, praising the simplicity and balance of the design, saying that they represented "a perfect example of classic chip artwork." I think getting jimb's endorsement is about all these chips need in the way of compliments, but a set like this has to be seen in context to be truly appreciated.

Not many of us were deeply involved in custom chipping in 2005, but those who were will remember that you were extremely limited. Color combos had to be submitted for approval and you could get any edgespot you liked as long as all you liked was 312. But in 2005, ASM offered the 3D14 as an alternative spot. In 2006, 1/4" spots became available. This set was one of the first to use either of these new spot options. This set was also among the first to take advantage of the 44mm which, at that time, was the only way to get the exotic looking 1/8" spot.

Still, the color palette was very narrow compared to what it would become in the coming couple of years and positively soviet compared to today's options. There was no light blue. There was no Retro Lavender. You did what you could with what was available. And this set excelled in those conditions.

As one of the HoF Committee members said when discussing this set, Ty Cobb wouldn't make the HoF if you looked at his numbers in today's environment, but without Ty Cobb, today's environment wouldn't be what it is. The same can be said of Casino Antarctica's impact on today's custom world. It and other sets like it showed ASM what was possible and what customers would buy. If those options hadn't been sought and immediately taken advantage of, who's to say where we would be today?

 

[jbutler]

The Red Room Casino
Designed and commissioned by whippoker
Inlay designed by whippoker
Produced by T.R. King in 2003

Unfortunately, like many of the sets from the early custom era, not much is known about these chips apart from what is obvious. They were designed and commissioned by Rob/whippoker as his first custom set with the $100 chip being a tribute to Rounders, the $500 chip a tribute to the Deadwoods and the brown $25 designed to complement the overall western theme of the set. Altogether, they are, in my opinion, the most beautiful custom TRKs to ever be produced.

The slogan - Where Hunch and Instinct Prevail - is well-suited to the overall look of the chips. They're simple and straightforward, working within the confines of the spots and colors offered by TRK. Nothing flashy, just some stylized text and classic color combinations. They don't require a lot of thought to appreciate, but the more you look at them, the more you love them.

They were originally sold off into two separate sets by Rob to fund his BCC and ASM sets bearing the same Red Room brand. Fortunately, JM (of Casino Antarctica fame ) brought the twin sets back together and later sold them to @PAZ who now has the joy of putting these into play.

 

[jbutler]

The Lounge Card Room & Club
Designed and commissioned by Albino Dragon
Inlay designed by Albino Dragon
Produced by ASM in 2007

I remember Gil saying once that this set was his tribute to the Rat Pack era and they succeed at capturing that spirit. I could just see Frank Sinatra with rails of those hundos at the craps table, dice in one hand, some chick's ass in the other.

This set is the perfect example of how to work with available options and makes clear why ASM so often produced absolutely gorgeous vintage looking sets. As with the Casino Antarcticas, these were produced at a time of more limited spot and color selections. The quarter pie 5k was one of the first quarter pies we saw from ASM and the charcoal 20 was one of the first charcoal chips produced.

But the theme of the set works perfectly within the parameters of the 1/4" spots. I love how the 25s can work as either a half pie frac or a 414 $25. And the color matching is stellar, the flourishes and denominations on each chip complementing the base and spot colors. This was one of the first designs to make me want to pursue custom chips of my own and I still love it as much now as I did then.

 

[Mr Tree]

C U Next Tuesday
Designed and commissioned by boondocker96
Produced in 2007
Flame Mold

The concept for this set came from a local group that started playing weekly on Tuesdays. The game started after a core group got together after the passing of a close friend. They made an agreement to play every Tuesday night from there on in an effort to keep everyone together.

The set was designed as a joint effort by all of the friends in the group. One member did the inlay design and everyone voted on the colors and edge spot progression. The group wanted to avoid a cliché poker themed name and debated what to call it for several weeks. One night the name C U Next Tuesday popped out of one of the member’s mouth and it stuck.

Unfortunately this set is a casualty of aging links on The Blue Wall and the originator no longer being active in the community. As such we only have two pictures of the set which is a shame.

The inlay is such a classic design reminiscent of classic casino logos and the colors used are terrific. The 100 makes me pine for the three moon punch and the set also packs not one but two terrifically designed plaques.

 

[jbutler]

The Old Orchard Poker Room (cash set)
Designed and commissioned by ontheuptick
Inlay designed by machinelf
Produced by ASM in 2008

As with the rest of the descriptions I've written, these are from an earlier time. They took advantage of two then-new options from ASM: the Hourglass mold and the 3V spots. I believe this set was also one of the first (along with the Van Alstine Card Room) to use the 3A14 spot. But damn do those colors kill. The earth tones fit perfectly with the orchard theme.

Even more impressive than the colors, though, is the inlay. Machinelf did great sets for ontheuptick and all his designs were top notch, but these are on another level in my opinion. The color matching and fading are impeccable, which was not easy with ASM's sometimes volatile dye formulas. The set features one of my all time favorite chocolate chips and, fittingly, the red $5 is a standout in the orchard.

Almost makes me want to visit Kendallville, Indiana. Almost.

 

[jbutler]

And we're off to the races. Good luck to all involved!

 

[derekdd23]

The poll doesn't seem to be open

 

[jbutler]

The poll doesn't seem to be open

I'm seeing that, too. It was open before the thread went live. @Tommy can help us out, I'm sure.

 

[Mr Tree]

I'm seeing that, too. It was open before the thread went live. @Tommy can help us out, I'm sure.

Weird, I'm looking at it and all my settings are in. Help @Tommy!

 

[Tommy]

Its good now.

 

[derekdd23]

This is too difficult for a quick decision, too many top notch sets.

 

[jbutler]

Its good now.

Thanks, Tommy!

This is too difficult for a quick decision, too many top notch sets.

I know how you feel - I've been looking at these sets for weeks and still am not ready to make a final decision. Beauties all around.

 

[UTGPoker]

Seeing all these sets really makes me want to up my chip game!!

 

[BiGGyT]

/awe

Difficult to decide, don't call clock on me.

 

[Puggy]

The decision making days will take ...really hard this is.

 

[Bordizzle]

Good looking sets! Mine hasn't arrived yet

Hopefuppy mine will get a nomination for 2017

 

[jbutler]

The decision making days will take ...really hard this is.

Hey at least you've got one easy choice

 

[manamongkids]

Jesus those cedar room chips (y) :thumbsupy) :thumbsupy) :thumbsupy) :thumbsupy) :thumbsupy) :thumbsup:

 

[Anthony Martino]

Some fantastic sets and difficult choices. Ultimately I had to vote for the four that appealed to my aesthetics the most, which were:

CU Next Tuesday
Contreras Landa
Boulevard
Chateau De Noix

Looking forward to the final results, and to one day being able to build my own custom set for possible inclusion

 

[Puggy]

Good looking sets! Mine hasn't arrived yet
Hopefuppy mine will get a nomination for 2017

With that 1000 chip (your avatar), it will