Table or chips, chips or table...? (3 Viewers)

You have to do both, but you can only choose one

  • Upgrade your chips

    Votes: 35 74.5%

  • Upgrade your table

    Votes: 12 25.5%
  • Total voters
    47
Wils

Wils

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Okay. The scenario I'm proposing is one I'm in now... I have the funds to upgrade my chips OR my table. Both are good enough to do what they need to do (table is a round 8 seater, felt, not speedcloth. Chips are maybe one or two steps up from dice chips - the eBay-ubiquitous 13.5 gram slugged chips that you can get everywhere.)

I'd like to get a better table, and better chips. Can't do both at once. Which would you do first? It might be months before I have the free cash to get the next item...
 
Chips, nice chips improve the overall experience of the game more for me than a table
 
Glorified dice chips need to be replaced first. ... table is way less important
 
It sounds as you already have a decent table. Get some nice chips. What's your budget?
 
vote for chips first. Then a nice table can be build on a decent budget later on. I think if you're building a holdem table, budget around $300 to build from scratch.. Better yet if you search craigslist in your area for "Pedestal Table" and you might get the legs and play surface for cheap, then felt, build a rail, boom!
 
I just skimmed over the op and was picturing the game being played on a dining room table or something, totally missed that you had a decent one, so I was shocked nobody was saying to get a new table. But now knowing that you have an ok one my vote goes to the chips as well...
 
Patience grasshopper...buy once, cry once.

When you are on a budget, you can strech it by waiting for great deals to come.
The table you can DIY to save on cost, but try to save enough to buy the good stuff so your not investing 2 or 3 times (and paying more then you should).

First chips, then table..imho
 
Something like the table shown below (ripped from a local CL ad). Is selling for $100. The top is a bit scratched, but you simply add volara foam, SSC, and then build a rail. Initially starts out as 48" across, but if you add a rail that extends 2" beyond the edge, it turns into a 52" table, and perfect for 8+ players. Well under $300 total cost, and it already has a claw foot base, WOW! And it looks like a $1400 table when you're done.

00C0C_kGWfDyiJivy_600x450.jpg
 
Trihonda said:
Something like the table shown below (ripped from a local CL ad). Is selling for $100. The top is a bit scratched, but you simply add volara foam, SSC, and then build a rail. Initially starts out as 48" across, but if you add a rail that extends 2" beyond the edge, it turns into a 52" table, and perfect for 8+ players. Well under $300 total cost, and it already has a claw foot base, WOW! And it looks like a $1400 table when you're done.
Click to expand...

You make it sound so easy!
 
Seeing people's faces when they see, handle, and shuffle high-quality chips is a joy. Even the biggest scrub will feel a little like a pro when using them, espeically if it's a casino set. There's stories in casino chips! Don't get me wrong - it's nice to sit down at a good table, but eventually the table fades into the background. When people are playing cards, they're usually looking at the cards, chips, or the other players. Invest in good chips and good cards first, then the table.

Also, don't forget the chairs in all this. If you don't already have a comfortable set of chairs, the rest of the stuff might not even matter. Their eyes see the chips & cards every few seconds, but their ass & back will feel the chair all session long.
 
+1 for chips. If you were playing on a Walmart special folding table I would say upgrade the table, but you already have a decent table. Get rid of the official casino weight chips.
 
Trihonda said:
vote for chips first. Then a nice table can be build on a decent budget later on. I think if you're building a holdem table, budget around $300 to build from scratch.. Better yet if you search craigslist in your area for "Pedestal Table" and you might get the legs and play surface for cheap, then felt, build a rail, boom!
Click to expand...

Hadn't considered building a table. Maybe that's because I don't want my house to burn down, I don't want to staple my cat to the ceiling, and I don't want every person who ever plays poker at my house again to leave it as a crippled, broken, misshapen wreck from sitting for hours at something they have to either hunch down or reach up to play on, depending on what side of the uneven, lurching lump of splintered chipboard they happen to be sitting on.
 
PatTheCat said:
It sounds as you already have a decent table. Get some nice chips. What's your budget?
Click to expand...
It's about $300 and counting. Don't want to get into specifics though as I'm more after a generic "what would you do" response.
 
Building a table is way easier than you think, unless you're doing it up T_Chan style (that's a whole new level of skill). The only thing I would put above chips in importance of quality are cards, and if you balk at a $12 set of cards, poker may be too much gambol for you anyway.

Cards > Chips > Chairs > Table
 
played in a tourney SAT. night. The host as CPS chips for his tourney set and dice chips for his cash game. I had my key wests with me. He declined to use them. Thank god I did well in the tourney and didn't get a chance to play cash.
 
I'm sure to be in the minority here, but my vote would be to focus on the table and chairs. Maximizes the comfort in playing IMHO. I have a really nice table and premium Paulson chips (pnys) and get 100x more comments and compliments on the table vs the chips. We played for a over a year with those suited slugged type chips on the nice table, never got a complaint. Unless you play with chip conosuiers, most will never fully appreciate your premium chips like you do.

My 2pennies worth
 
Irish said:
I'm sure to be in the minority here, but my vote would be to focus on the table and chairs. Maximizes the comfort in playing IMHO. I have a really nice table and premium Paulson chips (pnys) and get 100x more comments and compliments on the table vs the chips. We played for a over a year with those suited slugged type chips on the nice table, never got a complaint. Unless you play with chip conosuiers, most will never fully appreciate your premium chips like you do.

My 2pennies worth
Click to expand...

I agree plenty of people won't notice nice chips over a nice table. I have 3 tables, and the one that gets the most compliments has a soft velveteen surface. It is the worst to play on, but loved the most by players that don't know or appreciate the difference. They only love the soft feel.

I would compare it to food. Some people love canned vegetables. It has the "right" amount of salt added, and they are "nice and soft". They would never complain about being served canned green beans in a restaurant. Someone more knowledgeable in food/nutrition would be appalled by the very same notion.

This forum is full of people that know the difference. Chip-nutritionists if you will. We almost have an obligation to improve the quality of the games being served, especially when asked, like the OP.

As been mentioned, table would move up in the needs list if the OP was still playing on a dining room table. Bouncing nice clay chips off a hard table and onto the floor is worse than slugged chips, but thankfully this is not the case.

Chips win.
x2 because he asked chip connoisseurs.
 
Trihonda said:
Initially starts out as 48" across, but if you add a rail that extends 2" beyond the edge, it turns into a 52" table

00C0C_kGWfDyiJivy_600x450.jpg
Click to expand...

You're splicing standard ply or buying custom stock to get the 52" rail?

I have a 48" round project languishing forever I need to finish (have the base painted and was going to use standard ply...
 
+1 on chips (obviously) but I'd consider re-covering the table with import speed cloth as a stop gap, if the design allows. Shouldn't cost you too much to go that route.
 

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