Nex
Flush
If you have followed my previous postings, you know this is a first for me - I actually am revealing an unfinished set!
The designs of the denominated chips were already locked, but I have been undecided on the bounty/special chips at the time of posting.
Yes yes, I know, I did just put in an order for that Cali colors cash set. This one here was already on my wish list and budget plan for 2018 since August last year, the only open question was when exactly this year.
I have been talking with David about the upcoming production schedule, and things are going to work out perfectly. I will be able to put in the order for this set here just in time to be made in the same production run with the Cali set. The next FDL run is almost certainly starting early to mid August, and I'll be on board with two sets!
Okay - actually I already did reveal an earlier design iteration of this set a while ago. I have been working on it slowly but steadily meanwhile, not just refining the designs but also chip counts. The just-ordered Cali cash set replaces the cash set in aforementioned post, which only leaves the need (need... *cough*) for a tournament set.
Alright, first the mockup, then more details!
The T100 is a nonstandard spot style (the mockup is photoshopped - you actually cannot mock it up in the current version of the design tool) that will make my wallet cry, but it's still the next best thing to Paulson's 4TSA18 spot style which CPC sadly can't offer. In previous design iterations, I used 6TA18.
Yes, the duplicated scallop inlay shape does trigger my OCD a bit. However, note on which denominations they are. The T5 will never be used in any tournament that uses the T5,000 and vice-versa, so it does work out.
I will also order two bounty chips - one primary, the other a second level additional bounty:
I've been in a dilemma here at first, having two candidates:
The canary one obviously fit the rest of the lineup much better (less confusion potential, more diversity) but the charcoal one looked too good to simply dump it. For the latter, I'd also have preferred to have the spots rotated a bit so that DG Tiger and DG Arc Yellow were on bottom left/right and DG Green top center, but rotating the inlay shape makes the content look awkward with way too little spacing in some places and then way too much spacing in others. For the canary one, I wasn't sure if having the spots rotated 90° looked better or not.
I have been considering using the canary ones as bounty but keeping a small amount of the charcoal ones in addition and make them some special, less-used chip, and been collecing ideas over here; my favorite/best fit was a second level bounty chip.
Was hoping to get some more inspiration for a secondary bounty chip, and have been brainstorming a bunch of ideas in this thread myself.
After being skeptical first, and now after being able to bump the set to the final target 30 players right ahead instead of in a later add-on, I also added a seating chip.
Since CPC either won't do separate inlays for every single seating chip at all or only at an insane premium, I'll resort to Gear Labels here (complete inlay replacement). This has the additional advantage that I'll be more flexible with replacement chips: The chips cost a lot, labels are relatively cheap, so instead of having two or more chips of every single seat made to have 1+ replacement(s), I can order a smaller amount of extra chips that will just get their inlay replaced ad hoc with just the right labels (of which I can order one or even two extra sets without spending too much extra).
Motivation
I really love the design of the Horseshoe Cleveland/Cincinnati chips, spots as well as inlays. Same goes for the chips of the JACK casinos as they are named now, which obviously hired the same designer.
However:
- I'm not too fond of buying used chips to play with, even if they're Paulsons.
- The train for most of them has already departed, availability has gone down and prices are beyond good and evil for those higher denom chips.
- I don't like oversized chips, especially I don't like different sized chips mixed in a set. OCD triggered hard.
- I don't like all of the spots, and I like the Cleveland inlay style much more than the Cincinnati one. I do like the spots of two Cincinnati chips much more than their Cleveland counterparts though, so with the real deal, I'd end up with different inlay styles in the same set. OCD triggered hard again.
So I was thinking... why not have some custom lookalikes made?
Of course they're not Paulsons, and it's a real shame you can't get this awesome looking 4TSA18 spot with the extremely desaturated colors on the primary Cleveland $100, but this way I can pick exactly the spots I want (with that one exception, although 6HADS18 comes fairly close) while still having an uniform design, uniform chip size, brand new chips, and I can actually get a decent amount of high denoms to put together a tournament set without having to be a millionaire.
Some people are going to be put off by this. Just keep in mind that the reference chips are no longer "live", and this is intended for personal use in a private circle. No abuse potential. Also I've seen multiple people that went and relabelled Paulsons to lookalikes of the Horseshoe chips, so...
Design
Reference chips:
- T5: Cleveland $5
- T25: Cleveland $25 primary
- T100: Cleveland $100 primary
- T500: Cleveland $500 secondary
- T1,000: Cincinnati $1,000 primary
- T5,000: Cincinnati $5,000 primary
- T25,000: Cleveland $25,000 primary
- Pink Bounty: Cleveland $2.50 (8D18)
- Seating: Cleveland $1
I've picked up samples of the originals for reference a while ago to ensure the closest match possible that still looks good overall with CPC colors.
On my inlays, the Paulson micro-dot security feature is replaced with a very tiny version of my monogram.
I've also meddled with some of the tiny icons on the mirror side of the micro-dot, for example replacing the Paulson Tophat&Cane on the reference T5,000 with a Fleur de Lys to mimic the original's connection between inlay icon and mold, and giving the T1,000 a generic new one.
I have tried to drop these two features altogether, given that they serve no real purpose, but the inlay just looks a bit too bland/empty without.
The inlay shape of the T500 has also been altered to avoid another shape duplication in the set.
The canary bounty chip has no reference; any similarities are coincidental.
Size
The original plan was to have a set big enough to cover a 20-player T30,000 tournament with rebuys/add-ons. Also wanted to include enough T5s to be able to run a fun little 10-player T1,500-T3,000-T5,000 tournament. This has no real logical reason, I just like the T5's design.
Refined it a bit as I realized I had unneccessarily many T500s; in turn increased the number of T25s and T100s in the starting stacks. New tournament format targets are T25k with one rebuy or add-on, or T50k without. Want to be able to copy the current WSOP structure.
And then, the day after sending the payment, I got a big unexpected tax refund. I was already strongly considering ordering an add-on to bump the number of supported players from 20 to 30 sometime early next year, but now... I'll just get it this year instead! I did jump for the white seating chips as well, and also bumped the T5s up to cover all 30 players.
- T5 x 300 (300 Stacks)
- T25 x 240 (240 Stacks)
- T100 x 300 (240 Stacks + 60 Colorup)
- T500 x 120 (60 Stacks + 60 Colorup)
- T1,000 x 300 (210 Stacks + 90 Colorup)
- T5,000 x 300 (240 Stacks/RB/AO + 60 Colorup)
- T25,000 x 40 (40 RB/AO/Colorup)
- Bounty x 60 (1 Buy-in + 1 Rebuy per player max)
- Super Bounty x 30 (1 Buy-in per player max)
- Seating x 30
Samples
Sample orders are were open until August 1st, 2018 and are closed now.
A 7 chip (T5-T25,000) sample set is €21.50, shipping not included.
Please note samples were only available of the denominated chips. Bounty chips were not available.
If you have already ordered samples of my Paradise Los Angeles set: these chips are going to be pressed in the same run and hence will also be delivered to me at the same time, so I can combine shipping of both sample sets without any additional shipping costs. The postage you already paid has enough headroom (500 g).
For everyone else: Shipping is €3.70 international untracked plus €0.50 for the bubblewrap envelope. Add €2.50 if you want tracking. Fellow German chippers: national shipping is €1.45 untracked; optionally +€2.15 for tracking.
=> Germany tracked: €25.60 / untracked: €23.45
=> Rest of world tracked: €28.20 / untracked: €25.70
Orders:
- @Forty4 | paid
- @ilovegravy | 2 sets | paid
- @DonkeyKing | paid
- @ThinkingFold | paid
- @Invenis | paid
- @Steamtrain | paid
- @pedrofisk | paid
- @ChipNup | 2 sets | paid
- @zqar21 | paid
- @Outkicked | 1 set + half barrel of T1ks for his original HS tournament set | paid
- @Lucks7Shadow | paid
- @kk405 | Half-barrel of T5ks for his community CPC sample rack | paid
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