[brianprimm]

Bought directly from Jim in person at his warehouse in Novi, MI. Great guy; he put up with the fact that I was drooling over his inventory and wandering aimlessly through the warehouse.

I went there because I had a budget of ~$300 and wanted a tourney set for 10, possibly 20 people. I couldn't afford sample sets of everything, so I emailed Jim and he really helped me out. I think I played with every style chip in the building.

I settled on 1100 Dunes over some casino used Paulson's. I was really impressed with the quality vs. price, and I know down the road I will want customs anyway.

I've found that the best racks for the Dunes chips are actually the "Fat Cat" brand that I bought at a local brick and mortar billiard supply store. Amazon has them, but they are $2 each. They are more narrow at the base, and squeeze the chips beneath them so they stack very sturdy. The ones I bought from Jim have more of a flared base, and even stacking the racks 3-4 high feels dangerous.

First tourney of the new season went off smoothly, with 10 players. My biggest mistake was starting with too many chips. 73(!) (35x5 33x25 5x100 = 1500) in each starting stack. It looked impressive, but even small pots were a mess. I guess I was just excited to use my new chips. Fixed that since and now we have a semi-regular game that fluctuates between 8-14 people.

Pictures are from the day I bought them and the first tourney. Note my homemade table felt. I'm a dork.

[rimmerryan]

Thanks for the post and the pictures !!!
Looks like everyone that played should have had a good time playing and using your new chips...

Good Luck using them again in the future !!!


R.





ps. Who was drinking the Mike's Hard Lemonade ??? No Beer ???

[brianprimm]

That's what happens when you invite women to a poker tourney.

Sigh.

The girl who won beat me, my wife (who is better than me), two guys who proclaim online poker godliness, and players with years of experience. She just kept catching cards all night. She claims it was her first time, but really, do you believe a 25 yr old girl who says it's her first time??

She sure didn't have a problem pushing all in holding Q9. Or taking the money. Or mocking us mercilessly.

[machinelf]

Nice, I love the Dunes Commems... and welcome to CT! You'll find lots of other dorks around here.

Beginner's luck is anoying, but look at it this way--next time she'll want to come back and she'll be the ATM for the rest of you.

[djexacto]

I love the fake bundles! I know they sell something like that at Kardwell, and I've kind of wanted to use bundles instead of plaques for some reason.

Congrats on the chips

[sunderB]

I need more info on your table. It looks like the Dunes Golf Course design is printed on your table? Are my eyes deceiving me or is that what you have there? If it is, would love a bigger pic of just the tabletop

[Scoutens]

Nice chips! Thanks for the pics!

[brianprimm]

Yes, I know the table looks really crappy and homemade; that's because it was.

I took some green fabric (microfibre suede?) from Jo Ann Fabrics and hand painted the logo with acrylics. I thinned the paint with "All Purpose Textile Medium" when using the white, which is what I should have done for the rest of it. (The thinner increases drying time, but keeps it from drying hard and crusty. You can barely feel the Dunes writing, but the sun and grass are hard as a rock. Made it hard to slide the chips.) I made a stencil with paper for the Dunes font, then eyeballed the rest, using chalk lines as a guide. I was pretty happy with it, but next time I'll use the thinner on all of it, or just keep it all white so it still feels like fabric all the way across.

Added two packs of 2mm craft foam, tape side down to muffle the wooden table, and hot glued the fabric on the back of the rails under my kitchen table where the wife wouldn't notice glue residue.

All together, paint, fabric and foamies ran about $35, most of that for the material, which was like $6/yd. It took about three hours of prep and dry time, and you can see I still didn't finish the logo.

Someday when I have my 5,000 full custom Paulson's, and 10 tables with official hole card cams I'll redo it all with dye sublimation on casino cloth.

As for the bundles, my dad has an old fashioned paper cutter that will do 1000 sheets at a time. It's just gray paper. Fun to make change with, since everyone usually brings $20's.

[sunderB]

Until then, you should be proud of what you accomlished here. A great idea and it sure looks good to me.

Originally Posted by brianprimm

Someday when I have my 5,000 full custom Paulson's, and 10 tables with official hole card cams I'll redo it all with dye sublimation on casino cloth.

[brianprimm]

Due to the US Attorney's Office stealing my wife to the Virgin Islands, these are now for sale in the classifieds section. My poker tourneys are over (for now)