Clay Poker Chips vs Ceramic Poker Chips (2 Viewers)

[dannyboy]

Which set of poker chips do you think is better?

 

[RichMahogany]

clay. no question.

 

[dennis63]

I'm a traditionalist, so clay for me, too.

When they're done right, ceramics can be nice. But for me, a "casino chip" means a clay chip.

 

[RichMahogany]

I'm a traditionalist, so clay for me, too.

When they're done right, ceramics can be nice. But for me, a "casino chip" means a clay chip.

Definitely this^^^^

Those Yak casino chips have me wanting a few more ceramics though...

 

[CdnBeerLover]

I'm still in the 'getting samples' stage, but having never played with "casino" chips, I can only compare the samples against each other and my 11.5g slugged ABS chips. I now have both Yak samples and some Paulson TH&C hot stamps, a four chip ASM custom sample, and a pile o'china clay samples. I'm sure this is sacrilege, but I'm not head-over-heels in love with the sound/feel of the Paulsons, and the ASM's feel light. The Yaks look great, but I'm still warming up to them. Right now, a 10g chip is my sweet spot when shuffling chips (and I'm a habitual shuffler).

At this point, I'm trying to understand why these carry such a premium over the china clays. What am I missing?

Dave

 

[BUBBLE]

I really like ceramics I have 2 cash sets and a tourney set
That said I like the feel of used clays

 

[dannyboy]

I like both sets of chips but if i had to pick one, i would most likely go with clay chips. I just feel more comfortable playing with those particular chips compared to any other chips.

 

[RichMahogany]

I'm trying to understand why these carry such a premium over the china clays. What am I missing?

Maybe you aren't missing anything and all of us clay chip freaks are the ones who are missing out.

Of course it's extremely objective but for me the tactile sense I get is much more pleasurable(insert jokes here) with true compression molded chips. That and the fact that they are hand crafted AND can have such rich, vibrant colors makes them rate higher in my book. YMMV.

That being said, ceramics, china clays, and ABS chips all have their place in the chipping world.

 

[Milo013]

Clays leave a more tactile impression with players than a ceramic chip, even the China Clays. As for why a "true" clay chip costs more, it is simply down to manufacturing costs. Further, each clay chip is slightly different from it's neighbour, those these differences are miniscule to the naked eye. Ceramics have a "flatter" sound, imo, whereas clays have a richer note when being messed with. I started with ceramics, but doubt I will ever go back. Ceramics only advantage is in the almost limitless customization that is possible for fairly little added expense.

 

[MrWitti]

I started with ceramics then invested in custom ceramics. After some Bud Jones CiC I felt more and more in love with Clays. Now clays are a clear winner to me.

 

[CdnBeerLover]

Well, I'm probably going to kIck myself. There's a set of BCC GCR chips for sale that I could get, but once I figure out shipping and duties, it would be well over my budget. As much as I'd like to get them, I think I'll just stick to looking at china clays...

 

[RichMahogany]

Well, I'm probably going to kIck myself. There's a set of BCC GCR chips for sale that I could get, but once I figure out shipping and duties, it would be well over my budget. As much as I'd like to get them, I think I'll just stick to looking at china clays...

Yeah I was eyeballing those too but I'm trying to build a Terrible's tourney set and already have a BCC hot stamped tournament set.

Plus I want to maybe(probably!) expand my Grand Vic set and still need to resurface and label around 1300 chips

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Dave you bought them! Congrats. Expect to see some pron soon

 

[CdnBeerLover]

The flesh, it is weak. I love the look of the GCR solids too much to stay away.

I couldn't handle the full set, but the half set works for the majority of the games I have (10 or less players), and I still have the slugged set for larger games. This mold is apparently one of the heavier BCC molds (closer to 10g), and the colours look to be distinct enough to address the main complaints with the current set I have (small denoms and close colours). I'm still a bit short on the 5000 denom (grey), but I'll work around that.

As for pr0n, that will have to wait, as I'm having them sent to a US address. I'll pick them up during my next visit to the US. Might as well take advantage of the exemption. But there will be pr0n...all I need is patience.

 

[RichMahogany]

No hurry for the pron. What's your breakdown like? Did you and pug just split them in half?

 

[CdnBeerLover]

Yup, split them in half. He gets the right-hand side of each chip, and I get the left.

On a more serious note, the breakdown is
145 x T25
175 x T100
120 x T500
80 x T1000
30 x T5000

So, 550 chips each.

We play a 12k game (12/12/5/3/1 using rebuys of 2xT1000 and 2xT5000). That should give me 12 buy-ins and 9 rebuys. Since I rarely get more than 9 players per game, it should be fine. If not, I'll put them up for sale and if they go, I'll get Milanos. Or maybe Yaks.

Back to the topic at hand...

We'll see how these go. So far, I've had a leaning towards clay / china clay chips. The Yak ceramic samples I have are very nice, though, and I can see the appeal. I don't think there's a bad choice, here.

 

[caniwinaflip]

i like classic clays

 

[CdnBeerLover]

The Yak ceramic samples I have are very nice, though, and I can see the appeal.

Apparently, I did indeed. I ended up not buying the GCRs, and jumped on the July 4th Royal Yak sale over at CT (600-chip tourney set). Since I have a 1000-chip case, that hole had to be filled. A few cash items showed up in the classifieds, so I ended up expanding the set a bit.



The tourney chips are waiting for me to pick them up...just timing it with a US trip to take advantage of the tax exemption. All told, I'll have 1210 Royal Yaks. I have too many $0.25, though (I have 300 total), so there will be a rack for sale at some point. I'm also thinking about asking for a custom NCV (maybe the yellow chip without the denomination) for use as a nickel or 10k, depending on if it's a cash game or tourney.

The current breakdown
$0.25 x 305
$1.00 x 205
$5.00 x 100
$25.00 x 150
$100.00 x 150
$500 x 125
$1000 x 100
$5000 x 75

As for a clay set, I'm hoping another GCR setup an/or GB will come up. At some point, I'm going to get a solid set with the colours I like. Even if they don't, I really like these chips.

Dave

 

[KingZilla]

An old thread but I was reading a few comments on this topic. I wonder which chip people prefer more, ceramics or clays. I have owned ceramics and clays. My personal opinion is REAL clay is the best type of chip that I have played with as far as feel, stacking and handling. Among the ceramics, Chipco chips were the best handling and stacking. The rest, I didn't care for as much, they didn't have much grip for stacking. I was an EARLY proponent of China clays and sang the praises of them on CT years ago. I have owned many. And while I still think they are the best "bang for your buck" chip, they still don't handle and stack like REAL clays. All of the China clays I have owned started out FANTASTIC. They stacked so well and handled beautifully. But after use they got slicker and slicker. Perhaps with a little cleaning and de-greasing they may have regained their original feel. I never kept them around long enough to go through that process and find out. The Bud Jones or Matsui type injection molded chips, I have never owned. Early on in my chipology I had a set of what some people call "faux" bud jones. They were injection molded chips with no slug. They were pretty good as I remember but had limited edgespots (all white and the same pattern on each chip). Then there was the "faux" clay stage... aka "casino dice" chips. They were plastic injection molded chips and if I can't remember if they had crosshatching or not. I do remember they stacked well and couldn't be labelled due to no recess in the middle. I had thousands of them. All sold now. I must digress.... My short answer to the question posed here is : CLAYS

 

[Mr. Cheese]

This is the first time for me seeing this thread. I wish I could say one way or the other but I'm rather torn. I started out with China Clays and sold them before I even played a game with them. Then I bought ceramic chips and had a custom denomination done (Royal Yaks) for my cash game. Then I bought clay chips (Paulson's) followed by several thousand more Paulson clay chips.

Now I've got almost 2k ceramic chips (Yaks) and only about 1500 Clay (Paulson) chips. I think I prefer the clay chips better but for what I needed them for I couldn't beat the price and quality of the ceramic Yaks. There was no possible way I could have swung having nearly 2k custom clay Paulsons made whereas the ceramic chips were much more affordable.

Long story short... Get some of both like I did . Diversity can be a good thing

 

[KingZilla]

This is the first time for me seeing this thread. I wish I could say one way or the other but I'm rather torn. I started out with China Clays and sold them before I even played a game with them. Then I bought ceramic chips and had a custom denomination done (Royal Yaks) for my cash game. Then I bought clay chips (Paulson's) followed by several thousand more Paulson clay chips.

Now I've got almost 2k ceramic chips (Yaks) and only about 1500 Clay (Paulson) chips. I think I prefer the clay chips better but for what I needed them for I couldn't beat the price and quality of the ceramic Yaks. There was no possible way I could have swung having nearly 2k custom clay Paulsons made whereas the ceramic chips were much more affordable.

Long story short... Get some of both like I did . Diversity can be a good thing

Since you CURRENTLY own both, I'll ask a question albeit a subjective one: Which do you prefer when it comes to stacking, handling, general feel of the chips? For example, when I pick up a stack of 35 clay chips and hold then horizontally and shake them, none fall out. I can't do that with the ceramics I've owned.... chipco's came close though. I think the Yaks ARE chipcos?

 

[Mr. Cheese]

I think for a general feel, stacking, and handling I like Paulson clays the best. I have a much harder time shuffling the Yaks then I do shuffling any clay chip too. The Yaks do stack very nicely though and they seem to have the perfect amount of texture to them so they aren't slippery or anything.

Yep the Yaks are Chipco/PGI.

 

[maxim_666666]

certainly clay....

 

[kerami]

Got 6 ceramic sets that I am very fond of, but my favorite sets are clay

 

[spikeithard]

'Clays' Hands down

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The flesh, it is weak. I love the look of the GCR solids too much to stay away.

I couldn't handle the full set, but the half set works for the majority of the games I have (10 or less players), and I still have the slugged set for larger games. This mold is apparently one of the heavier BCC molds (closer to 10g), and the colours look to be distinct enough to address the main complaints with the current set I have (small denoms and close colours). I'm still a bit short on the 5000 denom (grey), but I'll work around that.

As for pr0n, that will have to wait, as I'm having them sent to a US address. I'll pick them up during my next visit to the US. Might as well take advantage of the exemption. But there will be pr0n...all I need is patience.

would these happen to be the GCR chips that are now sitting in my living room as well as puggys? hehe

 

[CdnBeerLover]

Yup, they were.

That said, I ended up with 1200 Yak chips, which fits my needs better. Some days I wish I got the BCC's, but one major factor in that decision was the inability to expand the set.

Do I regret the decision? Not for 1/2 the set. If I had my time back, I would have bought the whole lot. C'est la vie.

 

[spikeithard]

thanks for passing that up! glad you got what you needed. I needed just a nice tourney set. I only host a tournament every once in a while so I need more cash sets than tourney sets so this was a great one to get.

 

[BigSlick4523]

CLAY hands down

 

[detroitdad]

clay. no question.

This.......

 

[pokerpig]

just keep buying both. I started with ceramics (after slugged) and now also have started with clay chips. I can't stop buying either...

 

[stocky]

Leaded Clay Paulsons>Paulsons>CPC/ASM>Ceramics>China Clays