[Veritas]

This might get kinda long, but I am new, so I wanted to get everything out there: I have been playing poker for quite a while at low stakes, and I have decided I would begin seriously considering a custom set of chips. I started over at HPT and was referred to this site, where I have been looking around and playing with the chip factory.

I had a few novice questions, some that were answered by searching and others that are left unsolved. Is there a FAQ for customs that I missed, because that might be a useful thread to start. Also, I was wondering if there is a vendor list somewhere that I also missed. I love many of the designs in the customs gallery, however not all of the posts state the company they used.

Anyway, I guess I will provide some useful information about what I am looking for: I am looking to purchase around 300 chips for use in a .25/.50 NLHE cash game and as a supplement to my dice chips that I will use in a T1500 tourney. The game I host has on average 6 players. I am not looking for a total replacement for the dice chips, and I really have no problem playing with both at the same time. These chips will be mainly for showing off when we play at my house, and I love cash games (especially dealers choice).

I envision getting 50 black chips (100 denom), 125 blue (50 denom) and 125 green (25 denom). I wanted to leave the dollar signs off that way the denoms could be used in tourney or cash game play to represent cents/dollars/"T's" or whatever. Then, in the future, I could order an additional 300 chips, getting 25 yellow (500 denom), 125 red and 150 white, with no denominations for the red and white.

I began this adventure wanting full custom ceramics, however, after looking at all the pictures and options, I like the way the clay chips look. They have a more "classic" look to them, and I think that a worn clay chip has character, whereas a worn ceramic chip looks...worn-out. I am wanting what I believe to be a fairly simple design, so I do not forsee any problems putting it on the inlay for the clay. The design is my version of a lion rampant on one side with the name of our "card room", and on the other I was wanting some of that fancy design stuff that you often see on the ace of spades with the denomination. Unfortunately, I think I want something very similiar to the Paulson Noir, and after the recent copyright infringement cases I will ask you guys what is the best route to go in designing my project. I believe I will end up with ASM, as I have not heard about anything bad coming from this company.

Anyway, any opinions or advice would be helpful, but I am already in a lot better shape than I was two weeks ago. Thanks for the informative posts.

[Veritas]

OK, I have been playing with chipfactory and paint on my computer, and I have a rough lay-out of my design. Any ideas, suggestions, etc.? You can't see the text very well, it probably should be bigger, but my paint program sucks and it took me about an hour just to make the inlay you see there.

[jamby]

Welcome to ChipTalk and congratulations for getting into customs earlier than later. Most seem not to go that route and take the long road to custom chips. The roman mold is an excellent choice. You're right though, I can't make out the text, what does it say? A suggestion on colors, you might want to steer clear of re-using colors too much - like grey and black three times, and go for a bit more variety. With the black inlay brighter colors are going to accent it and make it 'pop' more too. As for the dice chips that you're considering hanging onto, I'd wager that your mind will be changed on that very soon.

[jojong]

Welcome to Chiptalk. I could be reading it wrong, but are you planning to use this custom set with your dice chip? I don't know if that would be good idea when people start shuffling the dice and clay together. The clay may not handle that very well.

[Veritas]

Yeah, my theory was to get three hundred customs that I could use for a cash game and also use in conjunction with the dice chips. I didn't think about the wear and tear issue, but the guys that come to my home games don't shuffle their chips. I may just keep them separate until I can get enough for a tourney set. I am basing my logic on the fact that our cash games have half the number as our tournies and the cash game players are much...better.

The issue of re-using the colors on the edge spots is something I was worried about. I will play around with this some more. Do you guys feel that using the same colors adds unity to the set, or is it better to use different colors across the board and make them look very individual? I was trying to use the base color from one chip as the edge spot color on another. Bad idea?

The text is not important because I don't have a name picked out for our card room. That has proven harder to come up with than the custom image...

[jamby]

If you, I'd replace the dice completely with whatever you elect to buy over time. If you want to continue to use the dice as your tourney set, fine, but keep the custom cash set separate then. As for the colors, go with colors you like. That's the point of customs. I'd steer clear of re-using colors three times though if it was my set. Twice OK, but probably not thrice. Too many great colors to choose from to get tied down to only a few. Good luck with whatever you elect to do. Customs are all about personal preference though.