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New member from Canada, looking for poker chip and denomination suggestions (1 Viewer)

A

am390

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Hey everyone,
I’m looking to upgrade to a “nicer” poker set and that’s how I stumbled upon this lovely forum. I’ve been using my 500pc dice chips with a group of 5-8 but after feeling some nicer chips at the casino, I realized that I really need an upgrade.
After spending the past two days doing research, I’ve been just overwhelmed and not sure how to proceed. I’m looking for some more specific opinions, and since i’m from canada, I’m looking to buy chips from either Amazon, MRC Poker, StraightPokerSupplies or Alibaba. I understand that suppliers like BRPro of Apache Poker offer higher quality chips, but I just don’t know if I can justify paying 600cad+ for chips as I’m still a university student. I’ve considered SlowPlay Nash chips and Crazy Horse chips from StraightPokerSupplies, but I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews on both. Just to include this for fun, in terms of design I’d say my favourite set that I’ve seen so far is the BR Pro Golden Dragon set.

My priorities: Durability, “a nice shuffle”, ideally minimal flashing
Budget: 350 CAD

I’m also looking for advice in terms of denominations. My group typically plays $0.1/$0.2 blinds with 20$ cash games and I’m looking to get a 500pc set. I heard what I could do is represent $0.1/$0.2 as $1/$2.


Any suggestions will help! Thanks in advance :)
 
Welcome from the left side, eh.

Using $1, $5, $25 denominations and dividing by 10 can work, but your players need to be ejamacated and understand the maffs (dividing my 100 is easier as you can tell the monkeys "pretend the $ sign is actually a cents sign." this is what I do with my set).

You could bump your buy in up to $25, use .25/.25 blinds, and the game won't play much different than .10/.25.

If I was on a tight budget like that, I'd probably go for Tina hybrids or ceramics at around .40 US/chip. Find these from the Broken Arrow vendor @justincarothers and I think you need a reshipper from USA.
 
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Hi and welcome. On my poker table, with 8 friends, I started with dice chips, then upgraded to the Cash Club chips from Straight Poker Supplies. I really liked the feel of those chips, and they were nice looking as well. After I stumbled on this site, it wasn't long before I lusted over the many Chips available...but I didn't want to break the bank, so I opted for the Tina no mold group buy of @justincarothers and am pleased with the chips.
Here is a pic if the Cash Club and Mirage Tribute chips.
The group buy however requires you to have a US address. I'm lucky to live close to the US border, so I get items sent to package depot I'm the adjacent town in the US, and pick them up at my convenience, then come back into Canada.
 

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So if you guys with @justincarothers monthly group buy, for 500 chips you can certainly meet your budget and maybe even go to 600 chips.
Your biggest hurdle is the shipping.
Look at the group buy or possible re-sales from the group buy.
Be sure to buy some samples as well before committing to anything.
Good luck hunting!
 
My suggestion would be to do $0.25/$0.25 blinds and buy in at $25.00 or 100 BB.
I mean, if the guys you play with don't mind the extra $5.
We always use to do $20 buy in, playing $0.10/$0.25 Blinds but it was only 80BB. Having $0.05 chips was no good either.
With my older dice chips, I had them labelled as 1-2-5-25 with 1/2 blinds, $20 buy in, but I didn't like the chips.
I'm happy with the $0.25/$0.25 blinds, and the guys like it as well...easier to count at the end as the $1.00 chips are the workhorse.
 
4SUMERZ said:
My suggestion would be to do $0.25/$0.25 blinds and buy in at $25.00 or 100 BB.
I mean, if the guys you play with don't mind the extra $5.
We always use to do $20 buy in, playing $0.10/$0.25 Blinds but it was only 80BB. Having $0.05 chips was no good either.
With my older dice chips, I had them labelled as 1-2-5-25 with 1/2 blinds, $20 buy in, but I didn't like the chips.
I'm happy with the $0.25/$0.25 blinds, and the guys like it as well...easier to count at the end as the $1.00 chips are the workhorse.
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This is what I found as well. I have a cash set with custom nickels, but they've never seen play as our game moved to 25c/25c shortly after they were purchased. We do use a $20 buy-in still...old habits die hard. We mostly play tournaments, though, and cash games tend to be run by those that bust out of the tournament. Why I have multiple cash sets is beyond me.

If I had my time back, I would have had a non-denom made for that cash set. That way, the non-denom could be either a nickel or $20 depending on the size of the game. The core chips in use in our game are 25c, $1, and $5.
 
CdnBeerLover said:
This is what I found as well. I have a cash set with custom nickels, but they've never seen play as our game moved to 25c/25c shortly after they were purchased. We do use a $20 buy-in still...old habits die hard. We mostly play tournaments, though, and cash games tend to be run by those that bust out of the tournament. Why I have multiple cash sets is beyond me.

If I had my time back, I would have had a non-denom made for that cash set. That way, the non-denom could be either a nickel or $20 depending on the size of the game. The core chips in use in our game are 25c, $1, and $5.
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Thanks for the suggestion! What denominations would you recommend for a 500pc set? I think my group would be okay raising it to 25$ buy ins.
Im planning on solo buying some custom TINA card chips, it’s around 260usd.
 
Here is a wierd line up (don’t recommend) if your insistent on .10/.20

.10- 100
.50- 200
$2.50- 180
$10- 20
 
am390 said:
Thanks for the suggestion! What denominations would you recommend for a 500pc set? I think my group would be okay raising it to 25$ buy ins.
Im planning on solo buying some custom TINA card chips, it’s around 260usd.
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25c, $1, $5. How many rebuys do you normally have, and how much cash is in play? That will determine the breakdown.

Shipping from China direct to Canada is expensive, especially if it is by air. Assume it is equal to the price of the chips. If you purchase direct, once you factor in shipping, duty, taxes, brokerage fees, etc, budget for a direct "Tina" chip to cost around 55c - 60c CDN per chip.
 
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CdnBeerLover said:
25c, $1, $5. How many rebuys do you normally have, and how much cash is in play? That will determine the breakdown.

Shipping from China direct to Canada is expensive, especially if it is by air. Assume it is equal to the price of the chips.
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I got quoted 265usd after shipping from Tina. Im not sure if people typically negotiate this price. We play pretty casual games as we’re relatively new poker. The most someone has rebought is twice (20$ buyins). There’s usually like $180-260 cash in play but we wouldn’t mind increasing buyin either
 
am390 said:
I’ve been using my 500pc dice chips with a group of 5-8 but after feeling some nicer chips at the casino, I realized that I really need an upgrade.
Click to expand...
What style of chips did you use at the casino? Depending on what you used, that may influence what type of chip available from the vendors you mention that may be close (somewhat) to what you used.

Ideally you get a sample (or a loan) of the type of chips you are looking for prior to committing to a full set. Otherwise, you could end up with a set of chips you don't really like.
 
am390 said:
I got quoted 265usd after shipping from Tina.
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Fair enough then. Just remember there will likely be additional fees once they reach Canada that will not be included in that total.

Someone may be able to get you a better breakdown for your stakes. Depends on how many chips you want to have on the table, but with a $25 buy-in, you could have 20x25c and 20x$1 per player and reserve the $5 for the rebuys.

The most straight-forward breakdown would be
200 25c
200 $1
100 $5

If you are going custom, you could add a non-denom to allow for some flexibility such as lower stakes (e.g. a nickel) or higher stakes (e.g. $20).
100 ND
150 25c
150 $1
100 $5

It all depends on what you want to do.
 
If you end up ordering. Please post the total cost including shipping and duties(if any)… and the pictures of chips.
265usd …I’m assuming this isnt for customized chips and is for the chips already in stock.

I’m in canada too and want to order the customized chips one day.
 
Mick said:
I got the Crazy Horse (Milanos) from Straight Poker Supply and relabeled them myself. I made 2 different sets for our 5c/10c $10 max buyin game, and I couldn't be happier with them. MASSIVE step up from cheap chips.

The 2 sets I made:

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/looney-tunes-milano-relabel-100-diy.105795/
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/you-guys-decide.102594/
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I also had a large 2000 chips set of Crazy Horse chips.....ultimately I sold the whole set for a couple of nicer tables. They were nice chips but the commercial availability of them made me nervous using them with guests I didn't know in higher denominations.

I recommend chips that are more difficult to source or custom chips. Your friends will be so impressed that they will let you win for months....Guaranteed

Are you in the GTA? Could show ya a few sets for ideas
 
I'm pretty much in the same situation as you, live in Toronto, if you see a set that you want to split, let me know!
 

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