The quest for a good quality set for my home game started a long time ago for me...
- Plastic top hat chips that were nicer than the thin, interlocking Bicycle/Hoyle chips
- "Official casino weight" dice chips from Costco
- BCC CDIs that looked nice but weren't meaningful to me
- Custom ASMs and BCCs where I failed to nail each sets' theme.
Along the way I fell in love with Havana, and the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, and had my Casino Nacional set made. Still, I had that itch that I couldn't scratch as it wasn't my "home game" set.
What defines a home game set? It took me a while to figure this out. I already tried "Steve's Card Club" with my first ASM set. This would have been acceptable, although nothing special, if I didn't use the Horsehead mold. My next idea was an homage to my first set of top hats - solids with my initials hot stamped on them. These would work too, but again, nothing special. I wanted something better.
The key piece I was missing was that those ideas were for me, but the game is about getting together with my friends. The game's core players have known each other since elementary and high school. Some of us have played poker together for over 30 years, some over 20, and all of us since our regular poker nights started when the poker boom hit. There are 5 regulars, and a few of our other school friends show up occasionally too. I needed this set's theme to be something the core players could easily connect with.
Three sets that inspired me were:
- The Boulevard. I always lean towards old-school and minimalistic, but this is my favorite CPC set that's the opposite of what I like.
- Lakeshore Inn. The Cali colours are great, but what I really appreciate is the simple, classy inlay with a theme that's on point - golf and cards.
- Finally (and obviously) the Mapes. I've always liked the style of the white font on black with the bright chip colours. "How can I use it?" had been on my mind for 15+ years.
For the design I engaged @Johnny5 who also did my Nacional set. I told him my idea for a classy Club 72 theme along with those inspiring sets and he took me through a number of mocks. In the beginning I immediately wrote off the Mapes style, trying to get out of my minimalistic comfort zone, but it wasn't working and I completely changed direction a month and a half later. I expected that I missed the art cutoff for the current CSQ run, but a couple of days later David said the deadline was "days away." Around the same time I saw the Moonlight Card House chip by @JeepologyOffroad (thank you!) with the black inlays, which prompted me to entertain the Mapes style again. The next day it all came together, and a short two months later (yes you read it right TWO MONTHS!)...
Welcome to Club 72, where the memberslove the seven deuce game share the year seventy two, and have been getting together for poker nights since the early 00s. Timing couldn't have been better as we all hit the half-century mark in 2022!
- Plastic top hat chips that were nicer than the thin, interlocking Bicycle/Hoyle chips
- "Official casino weight" dice chips from Costco
- BCC CDIs that looked nice but weren't meaningful to me
- Custom ASMs and BCCs where I failed to nail each sets' theme.
Along the way I fell in love with Havana, and the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, and had my Casino Nacional set made. Still, I had that itch that I couldn't scratch as it wasn't my "home game" set.
What defines a home game set? It took me a while to figure this out. I already tried "Steve's Card Club" with my first ASM set. This would have been acceptable, although nothing special, if I didn't use the Horsehead mold. My next idea was an homage to my first set of top hats - solids with my initials hot stamped on them. These would work too, but again, nothing special. I wanted something better.
The key piece I was missing was that those ideas were for me, but the game is about getting together with my friends. The game's core players have known each other since elementary and high school. Some of us have played poker together for over 30 years, some over 20, and all of us since our regular poker nights started when the poker boom hit. There are 5 regulars, and a few of our other school friends show up occasionally too. I needed this set's theme to be something the core players could easily connect with.
Three sets that inspired me were:
- The Boulevard. I always lean towards old-school and minimalistic, but this is my favorite CPC set that's the opposite of what I like.
- Lakeshore Inn. The Cali colours are great, but what I really appreciate is the simple, classy inlay with a theme that's on point - golf and cards.
- Finally (and obviously) the Mapes. I've always liked the style of the white font on black with the bright chip colours. "How can I use it?" had been on my mind for 15+ years.
For the design I engaged @Johnny5 who also did my Nacional set. I told him my idea for a classy Club 72 theme along with those inspiring sets and he took me through a number of mocks. In the beginning I immediately wrote off the Mapes style, trying to get out of my minimalistic comfort zone, but it wasn't working and I completely changed direction a month and a half later. I expected that I missed the art cutoff for the current CSQ run, but a couple of days later David said the deadline was "days away." Around the same time I saw the Moonlight Card House chip by @JeepologyOffroad (thank you!) with the black inlays, which prompted me to entertain the Mapes style again. The next day it all came together, and a short two months later (yes you read it right TWO MONTHS!)...
Welcome to Club 72, where the members
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. I actually could have used them with my Nacional's one night as that bank there is only $65/player...
