Opinions on chip choices for a Majestic set.. (1 Viewer)

[Mental Nomad]

So I'm debating what chips to get for a cash set. I want this to be my last purchase until I do a full custom set.

I'm ranging from 850 to 1000 chips with a couple variations.

I run games as low as a quarter NL game (half-quarter small blind) to as big as a $1/2 game. I might run a $2/4 limit or even $2/4 NL game, but I don't currently have the players for that game.

First idea is 300 $1, 300 $5, 200 $25 (which will play as quarters as well), and 50 blank orange (which will play as small blinds in small games, but will play as hundos in the big games.) 850, smallest set I'm contemplating. $1850 bank when playing quarters, $6825 when playing a dollar game, $11,800 when playing 1/2 or 2/4 - bank varies based on playing the $25 as a quarter on the low end, and playing the orange as a hundo at the high end.

Next idea is to so 200 25 cent pieces (but not salmon), 300 $1, 300 $5, 100 $25, 40 $100, and 60 blank orange for blinds. 1000 chips. The orange only plays as a frac, so bank in the quarter game is $8,300, and in the 1/2 game and up it's still only $8300 - unless I play the orange as a secondary hundo, in which case we have $14,300.

The games I host can definitely play within those banks. Now, opinions...

Now, my questions... Am I moving denoms around too much with the 850 piece set? Confuse people?

Obviously, the 1000 piece set has less variability... and I still get my orange frac, which I'll use as a bit, or half-quarter, in my quarters game. I currently use an orange 50-cent piece as a bit in my quarters game, and it's working well. So no confusion on colors at all.

And I like the black chip; I miss it in the 850 piece set. I considered doing the black chip blank, but I don't so much like the idea of playing the black as a frac.

I also played with a yellow $20 instead of the green $25, but then I can't play it as a quarter - so I'd definitely need the 25 cent piece.

Oh, and I'm open to other color suggestions for the quarter - but I don't like the salmon.

Thoughts?

Open to suggestions, but I don't want to go over 1000 pieces - and prefer to stay at 850. Each real dollar saved goes towards a future custom set.

 

[Poker Jedi]

I like the 1000 chip option. Gives you more denoms and more more chips. And you're getting such a great price right now. Plus can always sell them later when you order your customs...

 

[stocky]

No 1/16 chip?

I'm a fan of the bottom row line up.

 

[slisk250]

If you are that close to a custom set, why not save the money and make that happen sooner? After you get the customs, these will gather dust I bet.

 

[trever]

If you have to cover stakes from $0.125/$0.25 to 2/4 and need a bank of over $10k you are going to be stretching it to fit in at 850 chips.

I really hate having chips flip denoms between games (.25/25 or 0.125/100), but if you're sticking at under 1,000 chips, I think you have to.

I'm going to suggest row D - which looks just like the second row, except you replace the boring green 25 with the awesome yellow 20.

An 850 chip setup with those might be:
40 orange (blanks)
160 blue
300 white
200 red
100 yellow
50 black
This gives you a total bank of $8,340 with 40 oranges in reserve, but you'll probably feel a bit pinched in the big game with only 200 reds.

A 1000 chip setup might be
40 orange
160 blue
300 white
300 red
150 yellow
50 black

This only adds $1,500 to your bank, but gives you a much more playable setup for a 1/2+ game
With this setup, you can cover 10 $200 buyins for 1/2 - 30 white, 30 red and 1 yellow
$50 buyins for the small game would be 4 oranges, 16 blue, 30 whites, 3 reds (and a 50c tip for the host)

For what it's worth, I'm thinking about an 850 piece set for a .25/50 game and I'm leaning towards
160 pink
300 white
270 red
100 yellow
20 black

 

[Ben]

I'm a fan of the bottom row line up.

I concur. The 20 >>> 25 (mainly because it's a much more awesome-looking chip!) and the black NCV frac/hundo works for me - the black chip is sweet as well, and realistically you are unlikely to ever get it into play as a hundo, so if you want it in play, this is the way to go. Also I doubt you'd have any issues of "confusion" between a $0.125 chip and a $100 chip, if indeed there is ANY overlap of players between these games?

 

[Mental Nomad]

If you are that close to a custom set, why not save the money and make that happen sooner? After you get the customs, these will gather dust I bet.

I hear you - and I've thought about that a lot. I'm not that close to customs at the moment - but by the time these ship, on the other hand - I'm likely to be getting close. I may be wrong, though. And if the 4th quarter rolls around and I'm not close to customs, I'll wish I'd gotten in on these.

If I can get customs, great... and then I can probably sell these at the pre-sale price, no problem - or else I can use this for my micro game, and use the customs for low-stakes games of a dollar and up... I don't think it will gather dust.

But it's not like I have no chips to play right now. I don't need these chips. It would just be better, until I get the customs - which may even be a year away.

 

[Mental Nomad]

I'm going to suggest row D - which looks just like the second row, except you replace the boring green 25 with the awesome yellow 20.

Honestly, I like the green just fine. But I do agree the yellow is pretty awesome.

 

[Mental Nomad]

For what it's worth, I'm thinking about an 850 piece set for a .25/50 game and I'm leaning towards
160 pink

All your lineups propose 160 quarters... that's not even a full barrel per person. Isn't that light for a 10-handed game playing playing .25 / .50? Or even playing bit / quarter? Personally, I'm OK with a minimum of 150 - fifteen per player - but others here really advocate for more pieces, noting that a lot of people play looser and enjoy betting more chips for the same bet.

That's why I'm planning on 300 white and 300 red. While it feels excessive to me, I'm trying to make sure that there are plenty of chips for everyone to be comfortable, and that it's easy to make change on the table. With 300 chips in play for a 10-handed game, when player goes bust and re-buys for higher-value chips, odds are very high that someone at the table has more than two full stacks, and can use one for change while still having a barrel left. (Trying to keep people "in their stacks.") I'm just trying to keep the game fun for everyone.

 

[Mental Nomad]

the black NCV frac/hundo works for me - the black chip is sweet as well, and realistically you are unlikely to ever get it into play as a hundo, so if you want it in play, this is the way to go. Also I doubt you'd have any issues of "confusion" between a $0.125 chip and a $100 chip, if indeed there is ANY overlap of players between these games?

Yeah, it's a pretty black chip. And I may never have a game where it plays as a hundo... but if I do, you're right - the only overlap between that game and the bit/quarter game would be me.

It just feels WEIRD to play black as a frac to me. Is it just me?

Note that if the black is my frac, it will sometimes play as a bit, sometimes a half, and sometimes a hundo. Possibly even as a snapper... but if I need snappers for a $2.50/$5.00 game, I have to have hundos.

Sigh.

Also - anybody have other thoughts about the blue quarter? The blue is boring to me, but it feels "quartery," for some reason - perhaps because my current quarters are grey?

 

[gopherblue]

I say each dollar spent on this set is a dollar that could've gone to a custom set. Skip this set and jump straight into customs. If you can't get the full custom set now, design all the chips but just have the lower denoms made now, then add on the higher denoms at a later date.

 

[Mental Nomad]

I say each dollar spent on this set is a dollar that could've gone to a custom set. Skip this set and jump straight into customs.

This is a compelling argument that both you and slisk250 make, and one I'm weighing heavily. But this set would still be a nice upgrade for micro games - which may never be replaced by customs. It's a little nutty to make customs for micro. (Not that I won't do it. I just know it's a little nutty.)

 

[BGinGA]

A few points of opinion, having just scanned the thread (I didn't thoroughly read each post):

Chips this nice for this cheap don't come along often; missing an opportunity will always cause more angst/regret than getting in on one that you really didn't need/want. You can always resell chips to fund other projects, but you can't always go back in time to buy something that is no longer available (or now costs significantly more).

160 quarters (or smallest frac denomination) is plenty for a single table. There are also strong arguments that 100 quarters is plenty. Personally, I opt for 160, but I understand (and agree with) the logic that 100 chips/table works just fine. 200 is overkill.

Don't put a chip into play that does double-duty at opposite ends of the cash spectrum (or tournament v cash). No matter how trustworthy your crowd, it's just asking for trouble. Given the opportunity to convert 12-1/2 cents into $100 is a mighty fine financial incentive , no matter how honest the person might otherwise be. Not to mention when chips get lost/recovered accidentally, and suddenly the bank is significantly short. If you do it (don't do it!), at least serialize the non-denom chips so that you can track when/what/who the hundos are issued -- at least that way, when somebody tried to cash in a hundo that was not specifically issued for the given game, you'll know that something is up. But seriously, it's just not worth the extra hassle and risk.... don't do it. These chips are cheap enough that you can afford to have dedicated denominations and avoid the complications/risk of double-duty chips.

If you want a chip to do double-duty, then get denominated chips 25c through $100, with the orange chip as no-denom (which can work as either 5c or 12-1/2 cents).

$20 chip >>>> $25 chip, in terms of both function and looks.

 

[Mental Nomad]

So I've been thinking - and also closely reading Puggy's chip breakdown thread...

My current thinking:

- These are a great deal for the quality, a rare opportunity, and I may keep them as a micro set.
- The price difference between 750 or 850 and 1000 pieces is quite small - $60 or $35, respectively. If buying, I'll get 100.
- Since I may not keep them, I should make it as flexible a set as possible - easier to sell, later.

So if I'm a go, I'm actually going to buy 1020 - the last 20 will be spares, 3 of each color (2 of one).

I think I'm settled on this 980 breakdown, but am hung on where to put the last 20 chips. Thoughts?

The bit and the half-dollar will really only be used for small blinds, hence the small counts - and I kinda like the 50/50 mix because it's a single rack, so I don't want to make them 60/60, but I'm not dead set against it. I'm also considering a 40/40/20 rack of frac/frac/hundo, in which case there are 40 chips to allocate elsewhere - possibly the quarters? But I don't mind uneven racks of the other denoms, because each is over one rack. So I'm fine with, say, 160 quarters and 240 singles - there's just one overlap rack between them.



Also, I'm still not settled on the frac colos - for the bit and the quarter, it's up in the air with blue, green, purple, brown, orange and salmon pink available.

I'm not a huge fan of the salmon, but I don't hate it. Moreover, to make this as appealing as possible as a set (in case of resale), I'd like to know if others really like the salmon for the quarter. I'm leaning blue or green for the quarter. Colors are pretty much set for $1 and up. It also sounds like there may be enough demand for yellow $20 chips that it will become a stock denom, and I won't have to manually label those.

If I go green for the quarter, I kinda like the salmon for the frac, because it has green spots.

Again, for both the breakdown and the colors, I'm trying to keep a future owner in mind, as well as myself.

 

[BGinGA]

Without even getting into specifics on your breakdown, keep in mind that you will likely be required to order in 25-chip increments -- which will alter your $100 and 25c quantities (and affect your extra-2-or-3-chips plan, too).

If Josh has indicated otherwise, then never mind...

 

[Forty4]

I'm leaning towards the blue as my $.25 to save money and not have to label every chip, per your response to my post. In there you said you like the purple so why not use that as the $.125 (blank)? I think the purple and blues together would look okay. On the plus side if your game ever did get so big that all $100's were in play the purple could work as a $500 because it's "standard Vegas color" and would be an easy transition.

Also, hoping for the yellow factory $20!

 

[Mental Nomad]

I'm leaning towards the blue as my $.25 to save money and not have to label every chip, per your response to my post. In there you said you like the purple so why not use that as the $.125 (blank)?

Because, for unknown reasons, the purple feels like a 'nickel' color to me, not a 'bit' color. But I'm trying to be flexible.

On the plus side if your game ever did get so big that all $100's were in play the purple could work as a $500 because it's "standard Vegas color" and would be an easy transition.

Good argument. Of course, if my game got that big... I could buy more hundos and some $500. Apache intends to stock these for years to come. That's part of what's driving me towards buying plenty of small chips for the games I currently host, versus covering the high end for "future" games. Whether it's me or someone else owning this set, they can probably still add-on the standard denoms easily enough.

keep in mind that you will likely be required to order in 25-chip increments -- which will alter your $100 and 25c quantities (and affect your extra-2-or-3-chips plan, too).

"Alter" as in "eliminate" the plan for a couple of spares... I suppose I can add a couple of sample sets. I was originally thinking about the purchase increments, and assumed 25's for China clays, but along the way, dropped it.... probably after looking closely at Puggy's breakdowns, which are very much NOT for China clays. Josh hasn't actually said anything about it, though, and the presale page makes no mention.

Assuming it's a 25-increment requirement, that's a easy argument for adding five hundos and 15 quarters, like so:

Or to move a couple of those yellows over to quarters, like so:

Comparing the two, dropping to 75 yellow reduces the bank by about $500. My 1/2 NL game is unlikely to break $5k, so there's no differentiator there... plus, worst case, a little cash can play. no big deal.

I don't play limit games with quarters, so the extra quarters are probably not useful for me; 160 is would already be good. But 175 doesn't hurt.

The second breakdown does have the advantage of putting all the high-denom chips into a single rack, for what that's worth.

What appeals more to other people?

 

[BGinGA]

I like door #2. What's in the box?

 

[Forty4]

You're set on blue quarters? I'm just asking because I might go with the blue quarter and factory $1's to save money. Maybe we can hit the 5,000 limit and save time and money.

 

[Mental Nomad]

Am not set on blue quarters, but if I did pull the trigger, that's likely what I'd get.

I'm in a "cannot commit" situation, and I don't know how many weeks before that changes. I'll probably just have to pay a higher price, if I get them.

 

[Forty4]

Okay, I know it's only a few bucks but want to get them in before the increase. I'll put my order in and maybe Josh will announce numbers and I can change my order slightly to get factory labels.

 

[justsomedude]

Am not set on blue quarters, but if I did pull the trigger, that's likely what I'd get.

Love your bottom row.... I did the same thing except I went with the purple quarters...

200 x $0.25
400 x $1
400 x $5
100 x $20
50 x $100

If I had to stay below 1,000 I'd probably go with...

150 x $0.25
375 x $1
375 x $5
75 x $20
25 x $100

 

[72o]

^^^Nice looking set. Something about that yellow $20 gets me so excited!