[bmwguy525]

Faux clays are good for cheap plastics, but are we actually gonna argue that faux clays are better than pretty much any custom clay that you can get.....from anywhere......

[jojobinks]

yes, fauxs are definitely better than some custom clays you could get.

[bmwguy525]

........ok

[Wylecoyo]

Originally Posted by jojobinks

have you sampled blue chip's flame mold?

I have never really thought much of Blue Chips in general and agree that the flame mold is probably the weakest mold in chip history; however, I have to say I have fallen completely in love with my High Roller's sample set. They are much better than any of the other Blue Chips I have ever seen. I would definitely buy these before faux clay or any plastics (except Bud Jones if I could find any for a similar price).

[erikk]

I think the point that Jojobinks is making is that there are chips that fall into the crap category above (there's only 3 categories so a lot is forced into "crap") that beat the worst examples of the other two categories.

I have some ceramics from NJ when they had problems with spinners (I mean MAJOR problems with spinners) that I honestly wouldn't take over dice chips. Having said that, to not put a bad spin on NJ the recent bounty and reload chips I got from them had no noticeable spinners and not even close to the same bad league as dice chips.

Hell I'd take fauxs over those bad NJ spinners I got (I mean you have no idea how bad they were).

Also don't forget that Matsui plastics (which I think are available customized in the home market) and Bud Jones (which aren't) are forced into the "crap" category with that restrictive a category system.

[pokerJDub]

Thank you all for your inputs. I visited the review posts and got a better picture of the whole "chiptalk". Now that I know the combination of sound, feel, and material is a huge factor, I will start requesting samples just to have a better comparison for myself.

Next question is, with all the inlays, moldings, coloration, and edge designs, how do you set the standard for a decent set of chips? For instance, I can't tell the difference between 4 edge patterns from 3, is this just a personal preference or is there some meaning behind it? Same goes for inlays, moldings, etc. Can someone explain to me?

Also, not to sound totally chip-illiterate (trust me I'm getting a little better), what is a "spinner"?

Thanks guys, for dumpin' the geekiness on me

[hachkc]

Spinner = When a chip is warped in some way that it doesn't sit cleanly when stacked with other chips which can cause the stacks to be unstable.

As for spots (number, colors, styles, etc) it really does boil down to personal preference but some folks like a progression of less/simple spots to more/complex spots as you go up denominations ($1 - $100).

[erikk]

Purely a matter of personal preference. A lot of people like sets with edgespot progession (as the chip value goes up the edgespots become more complicated/flashy/etc) while others think sets should have the same edgespot types throughout (not same color but same type of edgespot). And in terms of what the best edgespots are and what progession is best if you ask 10 of us you'll get at least 11 different opinions. There are some things that are fairly standard in terms of color from a casino point of view ($1 blue or white, $5 red, $25 green, $100 black, $500 lavender or purple, $1000 orange or yellow) but even that isn't a hard and fast rule just kind of the norm.

In terms of a spinner I think that Jojo explained it best in his BR Pro vs NJ shootout review (http://www.chiptalk.net/forum/poker-...t=jojo+spinner):

We did find a couple of spinners in our samples, though. There's one of the green chips, in particular, that spins. The interesting thing is that it will spin against one side of another chip, but if we turned that other chip over -- it no longer spins. Kinda like the chips are slightly cupped. So if the cups nest -- no spinners, but flip over one of the cups and you get a spinner. You can't spin just any old two chips against each other. But once you find a combination that spins, flipping one of the chips over makes the spinning go away.


We're seeing the same spinner behavior with the Bounty ( NJ) chips as we observed with the Tikis. Some combination of particular faces of particular chips produces a spinner, but flipping one of those chips over eliminates the spinner. Again, it's like the chips are slightly cupped, and occasionally enough that the right combination of chips and face direction results in a spinner. Our NJ Desert Sands and Skulls samples are very close to the BR Pros, in terms of stacking stability and spinners. The newer NJ chips (Bounty and American Beauties), however, have many more (and worse) spinners, and stacks are much more wobbly than the BR Pros.

EDIT: I see I was beat to the punch

[circlencircle]

Some of what you asked has already been covered but here is another point of view and a little additional info.
Colors and Edge spots:

Color is irrelevant to quality and also will not effect price; it is purely a personal choice what you want your chips to look like but as it was said by someone else there are trends for base colors. As for the edge spots designs, some cost more than others because they are more time consuming to make – remember I told you clay chips are hand made – someone has to put that small piece of clay in there by hand (click here for an illustration of what I mean). There is no standard what so ever for edge spot color though.

Sound is also a personal thing but typically people like a more substantial click. ASM are slightly lighter than TRK and they are harder so it’s a higher pitched click. Ceramic chips basically are the same and it’s a very high pitched click (not at all metallic sounding though).

For over all quality TR King are pretty much the most bomb proof, to hell and back clay chip you can get, but ASM will last you a life time and then some under normal circumstances.

Inlays vs. hot stamps: Hot stamps will eventually wear off (after years and years) but they are cheaper and will take less time to make. 9 times out of 10 people will take an inlayed chip over a Hot stamp but they are more expensive, particularly if you want color printing and they require more time to manufacture. They will however last forever and allow for a more personalized chip.

Ceramic chips will last forever but the graphics printed on them may not. You may have seen some ceramic chips with a white ring around the edge of the face. This is caused by the chips rubbing together and will happen eventually to all ceramic chips. More often they will be designed with this problem in mind and they will just leave a thin white ring around the edge during manufacturing.

You also asked about molds. First of all, only clay chips have a mold – at least in the context we are speaking. Also if you want to choose your mold you absolutely have to go with ASM because TRK only has one mold. There are many molds out there but again, if you want custom then ASM is your only choice when it comes to choosing your mold.

[noelsarchs]

Originally Posted by pokerJDub

Thank you all for your inputs. I visited the review posts and got a better picture of the whole "chiptalk". Now that I know the combination of sound, feel, and material is a huge factor, I will start requesting samples just to have a better comparison for myself.

Next question is, with all the inlays, moldings, coloration, and edge designs, how do you set the standard for a decent set of chips? For instance, I can't tell the difference between 4 edge patterns from 3, is this just a personal preference or is there some meaning behind it? Same goes for inlays, moldings, etc. Can someone explain to me?

Also, not to sound totally chip-illiterate (trust me I'm getting a little better), what is a "spinner"?

Thanks guys, for dumpin' the geekiness on me

PM me for whatever samples you might be looking for as I have about 50 or so from the various manufacturers. The only ones I don't have are faux clay and I still do not know what that is because I've not touched or seen one yet.