[ntp]

Hi all! And damn you and this forum, even idling has been too much.

I played quite happily with my metal slug plastics just two months ago, although I had always liked my dozen old casino clays and have shuffled them thousands of times while doing other stuff by my computer. Then I got those free NJ ceramics from PSO, but wasn't that satisfied yet. And today came some ASM clay samples. Clay all the way for me. Now I just need to deside on chip designs and get some money from somewhere. Even playing with those online chip designing softwares is fun.

Here's a link to some of my chip pron for you guys anyways. Even my poker playing friends think I'm nuts already, but atleast you may appreciate these. Nothing special yet, but some decent pictures..

http://www.cs.tut.fi/~pennane2/pokeri/poker.html
A second page:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~pennane2/pokeri/poker2.html


EDIT March 9th:
It's been two months and I've enjoyed my stay here. Here's some new photos of my various chips:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~pennane2/pokeri/index.html
Parts IV and V are new to CT.

[MistaSantos]

Great shots!

[poislb]

Excellent, thanks for sharing...

[jimmygunz]

nice photos

[JHickle]

Great start and welcome to the forum.
Forfeit your wallet now.

[UW85]

Have you got a little program for your computer that run the blinds? Hook that baby up to the mother-of-all CRT monitors! Sweet!

[asam2006]

Very nice shots. Thanks for sharing.

[A-Ro]

Nice shots...

I must say, I've always liked the skulls.

[tmpa2001]

Beautiful shots.
ASMs are so beautiful!

[VARoadstter]

Welcome!

I think the vast majority of the people here either still own a set of slugs or at least started with them (if they were fortunate, they sold off the others), so you're in good company.

A little unsolicited advice:

Don't rush to get chips into production. Since you're new, spend as much time as you need to getting it "just right" before you commit any cayshe (money). You can use the time obsessing over inlays, textures, edgespots, etc. to collect as much cayshe as it takes.

Samples, samples, samples. You won't really know what you like until you can see, hold, smell, and taste these chips (well, maybe you don't need to taste them). Also, some designs work well on one type of chip but not on others. If you have a specifc design in mind, be sure to use the appropriate chip. Sounds like you've already committed to clays, so that part may be already resolved.

Ask for help. There's a lot of talented people here who can assist you in getting it right. You'll learn interesting words like palette, bleed, gradient, and others. Even if you aren't going to design multiple sets you should know what's important to consider when you do commit to a design.

Check out the group buys and MTM (member-to-member) sales. Maybe you don't really have to go to all the trouble creating a set that is completely unique. The protege's are amazing looking (I don't have any in my posession so I can't truly vouch for the real thing), there's always the WSOP look-alikes, and many others. You'll pay less to get in on group buys than you would getting a completely custom set. Now that being said, I personally have a custom set of clays and a custom set of ceramics, so I totally understand the desire to go that route as well. I'm just saying to keep an open mind. Nothing would be worse than creating a set and then thinking, "These look horrible. Why didn't I just buy (something already available)?".

If you have a PokerStars account, check out the General Poker>Contests and Tournaments forum. We play a private tournament every week and we'd love to have you join us.

Looking forward to seeing you get involved here. It's a good group of people.