Genious_Moran
Sitting Out
I would like to have a nicer set of chips for my 10¢/20¢ NLHE/PLO home game. Right now, we're playing with blank dice chips. My goal is to find a set that scores high-enough on the cost vs quality curve, has the denominations I need, and has no potential for dirty stacks. Also, it would be ideal if I actually liked the design of the chips!
My plan is to buy a 600 chip set:
100 x 5¢
200 x 25¢
200 x $1
100 x $5.
(Though, I may wind up getting second racks of 5¢ and $5 chips.)
I've ordered several sample sets and I thought I'd document my thoughts & questions here just in case it helps someone else or some of the more experienced members of the forum have any helpful suggestions.
Tiki Kings
Overall these are pretty nice.
I'm a tiny bit disappointed in the colors. They look a lot more vibrant and saturated in the photos & video reviews I've seen than in person. They're a bit more shaded than I was expecting. Still, pretty nice, just not mind-blowing.
I like the art style. I like how flat they are. They feel good to hold. They are super easy to shuffle. I don't like that they won't stand up on edge.
The edge spots don't do a good job of distinguishing the chips from one another. The focus of the edge spots is a fat yellow diagonal stripe... on every chip! That's probably for cohesion with the yellow tikis on the face of the chip, but maybe a more functional design would have been to use some other color that's unique to that chip as the focus of the edge spot on that chip, and then use yellow as an accent on all of them.
And that leads to my biggest concern with the Tiki Kings: the potential for dirty stacks. Ideally, I'd like to stick as closely as possible to the standard Vegas chip color scheme. I prefer blue to white $1 chips so, with the Tiki Kings I could stick with the stock red $5, put $1 on blue, and then can use white for either 5¢ or 25¢. Then the question becomes: what color do I use for the other frac? I'd really prefer to not use green or black since those colors are standard on chips my friends and I actually see & use in casinos frequently enough. That leaves just orange and purple. My fear is orange is too close to red and purple is too close to both blue and red and we'll get dirty stacks. (The lighting in my poker room isn't the best.)
Am I making a mountain out of a molehill here? Would a single red stand out well enough in a stack of oranges? What about a big stack of blues & purples randomly mixed together? Any color theory experts out there who can answer whether red/orange has higher or lower contrast than blue/purple (and red/purple, for that matter...)
I guess I could just suck it up and go with green for 25¢, no issue with dirty stacks then, but feels bad man...
Pharaoh's
These are totally functional. The design is okay, kind of blah, but I like the classic casino chip style, especially that it has edge spots that are visible on the faces of the chip and aligned on the edges. When I ordered this sample set I was worried the 5¢ & $1 chips would be too close in color and thus would cause dirty stack issues however the edge spots completely eliminate any chance of that being a problem.
These chips feel thin & cheap for some reason, even though I don't think they're actually any thinner than the Tiki Kings or CPC samples I have. Must be the bevels on the edges? Also, these chips get points off for not standing on edge. I have a hard time shuffling these (not a skill I'm very adept at, though.)
Because they're functional, and a huge step up over the dice chips, I would probably just buy a set even knowing I'm likely to replace them relatively soon. Unfortunately, Apache Poker Chips is currently sold out of the 25¢ and $1 denominations.
Monte Carlo
I actually like these better than I thought I would. I thought they would be closer in quality to the dice chips, but they're actually a big step up. That said, they're just a tad too heavy feeling and the design is super gaudy and bad. On the plus side I like that the edge spots line up, and they're very flat, no rocking whatsoever. They also stand up on edge! These are nearly impossible for me to shuffle. Also, I think the pink 5¢ and red $5 will cause major dirty stack issues.
Am not going to buy these.
---
I also have samples of the Rounders CSQs and Key West chips. These are obviously both very nice chips. Love the sound and feel in my hand. (And both stand on edge!)
I love the design of the Rounders chips. The simplicity of the inlay, the CSQ mold, everything... (except for the white $1!) I'm surprised with myself here, I would seriously consider dropping the cash for a set of these if they had a 5¢ chip.
The Key West set does have the fracs I need, I really like the h-mold, and design-wise, I like the edge spot configuration. Unfortunately I just don't like the generic beach resort theme & color combos enough to feel comfortable spending that much cash on a set right now.
For next steps, I've placed orders for sample sets of The Valentino, Golden Dragons, and Dia de los Muertos. Once I get those, I'll see how I like them compared to the Tiki Kings. One potential advantage the Dia de los Muertos may have over the Tiki Kings is, even though I don't like the art style as much, they have many more color options, and the edge spot design appears to be much more functional (very distinct between denoms, and the pattern on the edge matches the pattern on the rim of the face.)
I've also contacted Sun-Fly to see if I can get some samples from them. I really like the design of The Prestige (though I would prefer a 39mm chip to a 43.)
My plan is to buy a 600 chip set:
100 x 5¢
200 x 25¢
200 x $1
100 x $5.
(Though, I may wind up getting second racks of 5¢ and $5 chips.)
I've ordered several sample sets and I thought I'd document my thoughts & questions here just in case it helps someone else or some of the more experienced members of the forum have any helpful suggestions.
Tiki Kings
Overall these are pretty nice.
I'm a tiny bit disappointed in the colors. They look a lot more vibrant and saturated in the photos & video reviews I've seen than in person. They're a bit more shaded than I was expecting. Still, pretty nice, just not mind-blowing.
I like the art style. I like how flat they are. They feel good to hold. They are super easy to shuffle. I don't like that they won't stand up on edge.
The edge spots don't do a good job of distinguishing the chips from one another. The focus of the edge spots is a fat yellow diagonal stripe... on every chip! That's probably for cohesion with the yellow tikis on the face of the chip, but maybe a more functional design would have been to use some other color that's unique to that chip as the focus of the edge spot on that chip, and then use yellow as an accent on all of them.
And that leads to my biggest concern with the Tiki Kings: the potential for dirty stacks. Ideally, I'd like to stick as closely as possible to the standard Vegas chip color scheme. I prefer blue to white $1 chips so, with the Tiki Kings I could stick with the stock red $5, put $1 on blue, and then can use white for either 5¢ or 25¢. Then the question becomes: what color do I use for the other frac? I'd really prefer to not use green or black since those colors are standard on chips my friends and I actually see & use in casinos frequently enough. That leaves just orange and purple. My fear is orange is too close to red and purple is too close to both blue and red and we'll get dirty stacks. (The lighting in my poker room isn't the best.)
Am I making a mountain out of a molehill here? Would a single red stand out well enough in a stack of oranges? What about a big stack of blues & purples randomly mixed together? Any color theory experts out there who can answer whether red/orange has higher or lower contrast than blue/purple (and red/purple, for that matter...)
I guess I could just suck it up and go with green for 25¢, no issue with dirty stacks then, but feels bad man...
Pharaoh's
These are totally functional. The design is okay, kind of blah, but I like the classic casino chip style, especially that it has edge spots that are visible on the faces of the chip and aligned on the edges. When I ordered this sample set I was worried the 5¢ & $1 chips would be too close in color and thus would cause dirty stack issues however the edge spots completely eliminate any chance of that being a problem.
These chips feel thin & cheap for some reason, even though I don't think they're actually any thinner than the Tiki Kings or CPC samples I have. Must be the bevels on the edges? Also, these chips get points off for not standing on edge. I have a hard time shuffling these (not a skill I'm very adept at, though.)
Because they're functional, and a huge step up over the dice chips, I would probably just buy a set even knowing I'm likely to replace them relatively soon. Unfortunately, Apache Poker Chips is currently sold out of the 25¢ and $1 denominations.
Monte Carlo
I actually like these better than I thought I would. I thought they would be closer in quality to the dice chips, but they're actually a big step up. That said, they're just a tad too heavy feeling and the design is super gaudy and bad. On the plus side I like that the edge spots line up, and they're very flat, no rocking whatsoever. They also stand up on edge! These are nearly impossible for me to shuffle. Also, I think the pink 5¢ and red $5 will cause major dirty stack issues.
Am not going to buy these.
---
I also have samples of the Rounders CSQs and Key West chips. These are obviously both very nice chips. Love the sound and feel in my hand. (And both stand on edge!)
I love the design of the Rounders chips. The simplicity of the inlay, the CSQ mold, everything... (except for the white $1!) I'm surprised with myself here, I would seriously consider dropping the cash for a set of these if they had a 5¢ chip.
The Key West set does have the fracs I need, I really like the h-mold, and design-wise, I like the edge spot configuration. Unfortunately I just don't like the generic beach resort theme & color combos enough to feel comfortable spending that much cash on a set right now.
For next steps, I've placed orders for sample sets of The Valentino, Golden Dragons, and Dia de los Muertos. Once I get those, I'll see how I like them compared to the Tiki Kings. One potential advantage the Dia de los Muertos may have over the Tiki Kings is, even though I don't like the art style as much, they have many more color options, and the edge spot design appears to be much more functional (very distinct between denoms, and the pattern on the edge matches the pattern on the rim of the face.)
I've also contacted Sun-Fly to see if I can get some samples from them. I really like the design of The Prestige (though I would prefer a 39mm chip to a 43.)
