Custom labeled China Clay Group-Buy
This is a chip review of my group buy China clays. I’m sorry the pics aren’t better, but I’m not much of a photographer. Some of the pictures were better before I compacted them, and sometimes I just didn’t really get a good pic in.
General Comments
I have two different tournament sets. The 1700 piece ceramic set and the 1600 China clay set have slightly different numbers of chips in some categories. The main reason for this was that the China clays required orders in lots of 25, whereas the ceramics could be ordered in onesies. Both sets are designed for 40 players.
I wanted one set that could start with 1 and 5, though I rarely do tournaments where the lowest chip is less than 25. Because of the ability to order onesies, the ceramic set was used for that. With the ceramics, I ordered 5 more chips of each color than the required number so I would have some backups incase a chip broke or was lost.
I primarily run 5 different tournaments. One has T25,000 starting chips with blinds starting at 25/50 and needed 1285 chips. I run a T10,000 tournament with the same starting blinds and needs 1125 chips. I run two different T100,000 tournaments. One starts at 25/50 and needs 1445 chips, the other at 100/200 and needs 1125 chips. Since the T10,000 and T15,000 both fit within the T25,000, I didn’t have to run that separately. Here were the needs for specific chips:
Value Need Pirate NTPG
1 100 105 0
5 100 105 0
25 320 325 325
100 400 405 425
500 120 125 125
1,000 200 125 250
5,000 200 210 250
25,000 160 165 175
100,000 40 45 50
Total 1640 1700 1600
If there were more than 5 extras, it was either because I added a few to have more extras and make the count come out to the number of chips I wants (1700 and 1600), or because I had to order in blocks of 25, or both.
My formula actually shows that I needed 160 of the 500s, however, 2 chips per player were for coloring up. You really only need 1 chip for that purpose because of the presence of 1,000 chips. For every 2 needed for coloring up but two makes for 1,000. The 1,000s are designed to completely color up all values below, so I only needed 1 color up chip per player.
Some people don’t want to be able to color up the lower chips with the next lowest value. I understand that, but you should also look at whether you might use that next chip as the lowest value for another tournament. That’s the reason I do that, except for the 500s.
NTPG – China Clay Tournament Set
This set was part of a group buy ordered about 16 months before they came in. Instead of the group buy labels, I had custom labels put on. This set was designed to be our main tournament chips. They will be used 55-70% of the time (probably closer to 55%).
Each chip has four 2-color edge spots. The edge spots have one color in the middle and a different color on the outside of the edge spot. On the top/bottom of the chip, the outside spots are a triangle from the outer edge to the recessed portion of the chip. On the top and bottom of the chip is a 4-parapet tower with a spear running through the tower from bottom right to top left. The spear and tower design are not necessarily aligned with the edge spots. Nor are they necessarily evenly spaced around the chips. This is a flaw, but not that noticeable.
The edge spots are not perfect as sometimes the outer edges on the top/bottom are not of uniform size. However, overall the chips look very sharp.
The cross-hatching on the chips helps the chips grip each other so they stack really well. The labels I bought from PGI have a linen texture to them.
The customizing I did consists of a custom white label. The lettering around the top and printed denominations on the bottom are red letters outlined in black. A colored state of Texas generally matches the chip’s main color, though in the case of the black chips, I went with a gray color instead of the chip’s black, which added slightly more color to the chip. On each chip, the state is outlined in red. The prominent denominations are in black numbers outlined in white. I used a comma in all chips of 1,000 or over to help avoid confusion over values. Using the comma makes it easier to distinguish the exact value.
I considered both a light blue and gray label for concerns about showing dirt, but liked the cleaner look of white and think since really, these will only be used a few times per year (my chips are used 35-40 times a year, and I do have 2 sets I can alternate), and rarely would I use them all at once. Generally, only half the chips would be used at once, so with rotation, I don’t think they will get that dirty for a long time.
The labels are aligned pretty close to 12:00 on the chips. I didn’t order aligned labels, but am very pleased with the look. PGI aligned them instead of randomly putting them on, and I really do appreciate the way that looks. I like that better than randomly aligned labels. I would have aligned every other one at the 10:30/1:30 position and the rest in the 12:00 position, but the effect here is very nice and I’m not complaining about it. That’s probably my CDO talking. CDO is like OCD, except the letters are in the right order.
Overall, I really like these chips. My comments about specific chips reflect the fact that since this was a group buy, I didn’t get the exact colors I wanted, and since they were made in China, just didn’t have the quality. But for the price, this was a great deal. These are a vast improvement over my other tournament sets I’ve had, with the exception of the ceramic set.
There were three chip colors I didn’t get – almond, red, and blue. I didn’t order any almond chips because neither the color nor the edge spots appealed to me. I didn’t order the red because I think of reds as being low-value chips. I realize you can customize and make it what you want, and I did like the light blue and white edge spots on the reds. I thought of ordering some to make them bounty chips, but generally don’t use bounty chips. I thought of ordering some for seating chips, but I already have 4 sets of seating chips and just couldn’t see getting another set for that purpose. Even when I use two sets of seating chips in a tournament, one for the main tournament and a different set for final table seating, I still have two sets in reserve. I might have liked the reds better for my 100,000 then the yellows. I didn’t order the blues, and in retrospect, I think I would have liked them for the 100,000 chips. I did think of them as bounty and seating chips, but covered that already. I think of blue chips as versatile and could be used for a lot of values. But generally, I’m traditional in that I prefer red=5, greed=25, black=100, lavender/purple=500, and yellow/orange=1,000. After that, I like gray or pink for 5,000, and after that, it’s whatever I think looks good with the set. I’ve had sets with 25,000 as blue, dark green, and orange, and liked them all with those sets. For 100,000, I’ve had yellow and a hot pink, but I’d also like blue and dark green with the right sets.
Stacking, Handling, and Sound
I can’t compare the stacking, handling, and sound to chips like Paulson, ASM,
BCC, TR King, or Bud Jones either because I’ve never handled those chips, or I’ve not handled them enough to compare them. Therefore, I won’t try. I can compare them to ceramics and numerous plastic chips.
I like the way these chips stack and handle. They are not slick at all, and stack better than any set of poker chips I’ve ever had.
Compared to plastics, these are light years ahead of plastics in all but one respect. It is easier to get plastics of uniform size. While plastics can have almost any color, these were not customs so I couldn’t choose the colors. I see no reason that these colors couldn’t be comparable to plastics.
Even the best plastic chips are slicker than these. I have a set of China clay 8V chips for cash, and these sound better and stack better. These stack much higher than plastics, and are not nearly as slick to hold. Grabbing chips out of a rack or box is way less likely to result in the chips going everywhere with these.
The sound is definitely different. They have a nice “click” sound, whereas the ceramics have more of a clack sound. They don’t go chink or clunk like a slugged plastic chip. Even non-slugged chips don’t sound the same, though they sound more like these than slugged chips do.
Light Green – 25 – 325 chips
The outer edge spots are dark green. The inner edge spot is yellow. I like this color scheme a lot.
What I would have done different: I would have used a brighter yellow, and maybe black on the outer edge spots.
Black – 100 -425 chips
The outer edge spots are approximately a royal blue. The inner edge spot is dark blue. I like this color scheme a lot, but primarily because of the white label. With a darker label, I think some of the colors would wash out. The nice thing about black is that most colors go well with it.
What I would have done different: I like the royal blue, but would have used a much more contrasting color on the inner edge spot, probably a light, bright color. However, I would have gone with a different color scheme entirely on this chip, even though I like the black and royal blue together. For this edge spot, I would have used either white on the outside and scarlet in the middle, or scarlet on the outside and white in the middle. I would have done that to match our poker group’s official color scheme. This chip would be used in every tournament we have, so it would be the one to use our group colors on since I wouldn’t have used either red or white chips to fully implement the club colors.
Lavender – 500 – 125 chips
The outer edge spots are black. The inner edge spot is gray. I like this color scheme a lot; it’s one of my favorites in this set.
What I would have done different: I would have used a bright yellow for the middle edge spot, or possibly a white, instead of the gray, because the next chip in sequence has the exact same edge spot.
Orange – 1,000 – 250 chips
The outer edge spots are black. The inner edge spot is gray. This chip is my favorite overall color scheme with these chips. The reason I chose this as my 1,000 chip instead of the yellow is because I liked this color scheme so much better than the yellow, and I wanted to go with either yellow or orange for 1,000. I generally prefer yellow, but it does depend on the chip.
One issue I have, and it’s not a big one, is that the 500 and 1,000 edge spots are identical. However, the chip colors are very different and I don’t think it’s a problem at all. But in a perfect world, I wouldn’t have two chips right next to each other with identical edge spots. As far as that goes, on a completely custom set, I wouldn’t have even had the edge spots be the same design, and certainly wouldn’t have used the same colors. But in this set, both are great looking chips.
What I would have done different: I’d have liked an even brighter orange, though I’m not disappointed in this orange at all.
For edge spots, I would have considered white for the inner edge spot, and might considered a brighter yellow inner spot or a bright green, though I probably would have done white or gray. I probably wouldn’t have thought of gray for the inner spot, but having actually seen it, I’m not really sure I would have done anything different.
Pink – 5,000 – 250 chips
The outer edge spots are light green. The inner edge spot is dark green. I like this color scheme. This is a very sharp looking chip. I’m not overly fond of pink chips, but in the absence of a gray chip, I like it for a 5,000 chip.
The orange 1,000 and pink 5,000 are in the same color range, but the chips are easily distinguished looking at the top/bottom of the chip. However, in stacks, they are harder to tell apart. That might lead to more dirty stacks. That problem could be eliminated by a yellow 1,000 or a gray 5,000. However, I do not think this will be a big problem.
What I would have done different: I really like the dark green center spot, and if I stuck with that, I would have used a brighter yellow, or maybe white, on the outer edge spots. I would also have looked at dark green or black outer spots with yellow, white, or bright green middle spots.
Dark Green – 25,000 – 175 chips
The outer edge spots are medium-dark blue. The inner edge spot is orange. I like this color scheme, especially the orange inner edge spot. This is one of my favorite color chips, and might be my favorite or close to my favorite if I liked the outer edge spot better.
What I would have done different: I’m not fond of the darkish blue as an outer edge spot on a dark green chip, and that is the worst feature of this otherwise great chip. Simply reversing the edge spots to me would have been a great improvement. In the absence of reversing them, I would have used white or bright yellow for the outer edge spots.
Yellow – 100,000 – 50 chips
The outer edge spots are medium rust red. The inner edge spot is a light rust red, that I think mostly fades out, though it is distinguishable on the chips. This is my least favorite chip and my least favorite color scheme in this set.
I considered using the light blue chip for my 100,000, and maybe would have liked that better. However, without a doubt, the yellow contrasts more with the dark green 25,000 than the blue would have, though the light blue could easily be distinguished from the dark green. I prefer generally to have dark and light chips next to each other. I also like to have yellow chips in the set if possible. I’m just disappointed in the edge spots on these chips. I like the chips other than the edge spots.
What I would have done different: I would have used a brighter yellow chip. For edge spots, I think a lot of colors might have worked well. For outer edge spots, I would have gone with black, dark green, or dark blue. For inner spots, white or gray would have worked well, but so would several other colors with the dark outside edge spots.
Work by others
Each of these chip sets were done by PGI. My artwork on all the sets was done by Ken Scott at the Poker Chip Artist (
info@pokerchipartist.com). I’ve used Ken several times. He’s quick and I love the work.